IV. STATE OF THE SPORT
EARLY RECRUITING. YOU MENTION THOSE TWO WORDS AND IT WILL ELICIT A VARIETY OF IMPASSIONED RESPONSES FROM ANYONE IN THE LACROSSE COMMUNITY. THERE’S A REAL TRICKLE-DOWN EFFECT TO THAT IN THE YOUTH LANDSCAPE. WHAT DO YOU SEE?
It’s ruining the culture of youth sport. It is a scourge. It is causing families and kids to choose club programs at a younger age, to sport specialize at a younger and inappropriate age, and to invest more dollars into the youth lacrosse experience than are necessary, which makes the sport less accessible. It’s driving kids away from the sport at the youth level. Thankfully, the two college coaching associations, the IMLCA and the IWLCA have put forth legislation which recommends that there be no contact with a prospective student-athlete in any way before Sept. 1 of their junior year, that has passed a couple of hurdles at the NCAA level. The NCAA needs to take a leadership role here. I’ve written letters to various committees at the NCAA trying to express how damaging this is to our sport’s culture and the nature of youth lacrosse, and that this is exactly what I think that the NCAA was established to do — to pass legislation that protects us from ourselves.
IN MAY, YOU SERVED ON A CONGRESSIONAL PANEL EXAMINING CONCUSSIONS IN YOUTH SPORTS. YOU WERE ASKED WHAT’S HOLDING LACROSSE BACK FROM ADOPTING STANDARDS. THE WORDS YOU USED WERE “CULTURE AND TRADITION.” CAN YOU EXPAND ON THAT? There are people within our sport and every
sport who don’t want to evolve, and who believe that their experience is the experience that should continue forever. There’s growing bodies of research and a whole lot of anecdotal information that suggests that concussion, specifically, but also repetitive sub-concussive blows are not good for a developing brain. We need to do what we can to balance the integrity of lacrosse with the safety of players.
laxmagazine.com
I’ve heard people at the college level lament that we’ve ruined the sport because violent collision has been essentially banned, who have complained about it and said the sport has taken steps backward as a result — not as fun to play, not as dynamic to watch. I disagree. I think it’s better to watch. Lacrosse was never intended to be football with sticks. I also think that body contact below a certain age should be banned. I don’t think you can adequately teach the sport and the technical skills, and build the confidence of children to build those skills, if you’re introducing the fear of collision. Fold in the safety issue as well, and the sub-concussive blows or the concussive blows on developing brains, and it is, no pun intended, a no-brainer. We should eliminate body contact in youth lacrosse. On the women’s side, the athletes are bigger, stronger, faster, especially at the highest level. That game has evolved to be much more contact than ever before. We’ve learned that, unlike the men’s game, in which collision is the primary mechanism of a concussive event, in the girls’ game, it’s stick-to-head. And they’re swinging sticks.
If we don’t evolve our sport — men’s game,
HENCE, USL DEVELOPED A HEADGEAR STANDARD FOR THE WOMEN’S GAME.
Very controversial. While no existing protective equipment can prevent concussion, we believe we’ve introduced a standard that mitigates the impact force of stick-to-head and that will make play safer. We’re not mandating that standard. We’re simply replacing the unspecified standard in our rules — soft headgear — with headgear that meets a certain standard.
women’s game — and evolve education, rules and equipment as interventions, the games will suffer.
TWENTY YEARS FROM NOW, IF US LACROSSE IS SUCCEEDING IN ITS MISSION, WHAT DOES THE SPORT LOOK LIKE?
Participation increases significantly. We’ve seen an alarming flattening of participation in our sport. We used to celebrate that our sport was one of, if not the fastest-growing sport in the country. And it was for a decade or more. Now we’re seeing that growth plane flatten substantially. Why? We believe because early recruiting and sport specialization and many of the other things that are eroding the culture and accessibility of youth lacrosse are contributing to a decline in participation. We’ve got to change that. We’ve got to focus on how we can get more kids playing and how we can retain kids to play not necessarily at the highest level, but at their level — and to have fun at their level. That’s what Athlete Development Model is all about. We’re still a relatively small sport — 750,000-ish players at all levels, men’s and women’s. We have tons of upside.
September/october 2016 » LACROSSE MAGAZINE 39
©BRIAN SCHNEIDER
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