WIAA to recognize lacrosse in Washington state

Over 1,000 students, parents and educators from communities throughout Washington state have signed a petition urging leaders of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) to recognize lacrosse as a sport in Washington state high schools.

The online petition Sanction High School #Lacrosse in Washington State!, organized by the Washington state chapter of US Lacrosse, gathered its 1,000th signature just over one week after formally launching a campaign intended as an education tool to provide the WIAA Representative Assembly with facts about the sport with Native American origins and one of North America’s oldest.

Comprised of principals, athletic directors and coaches from the state’s public and private middle schools and high schools, the WIAA Representative Assembly is empowered to pass legislation and to direct the WIAA Executive Board to carry out its policies. Among its responsibilities is the power
to vote on amendments to WIAA bylaws including rule changes and the addition of activities that it chooses for students in all public and private high schools in Washington state.

“Lacrosse is grabbing the attention of kids and families today in the same way that soccer captivated the attention of our entire state as an emerging sport in the 1970s and 1980s,” said Dave Low, President of the Washington State Chapter of US Lacrosse.

Low is among a number of prominent backers of the petition that includes Steve Stenersen, President and CEO of US Lacrosse, the national governing body for the sport of lacrosse in the United States, along with leaders from the Washington High School Boys Lacrosse Association, Washington Schoolgirls Lacrosse Association, youth lacrosse leagues throughout the state, Washington State Chapter of US Lacrosse, parent leaders and others representing high schools and school sports teams in Eastern and Western Washington.

“We hope the immediate interest in this petition encourages educators in Washington state to consider popular activities like lacrosse as new participation opportunities for girls and boys that are not already involved in spring sports,” Low said.

Lacrosse, recognized as one of the fastest growing sports across the country, is sanctioned by state activities associations like the WIAA in nearly half of all U.S. states and is the fastest growing men’s and women’s sport among NCAA schools.

In the state, with organized high school play now in its fourth decade, Washington is the only U.S. state with a US Lacrosse chapter of 10,000 or more members where its scholastic sports state activities association does not recognize lacrosse as a school sport.

“US Lacrosse wants our state’s publicly funded educators and administrators to know that voting to sanction lacrosse in state high schools does not obligate a school or district to take on or fund the sport,” Low said. “Sanctioning lacrosse only acknowledges that students already playing for schools or in districts that recognize lacrosse or that choose to take on the sport are not denied a participation opportunity.”

Over 4,000 student-athletes attending some 200 WIAA member schools in Washington state play high school lacrosse, placing the sport just behind softball and golf and ahead of dance/drill, gymnastics and bowling, well within viable participation numbers of the 15 recognized high school sports categories in the state.

As a growth opportunity for stagnating state high school sports participation, lacrosse has become an uncrowded path to higher education for state student-athletes. With the state now heavily recruited by NCAA lacrosse coaches, 53 graduates of Washington state high schools in 2013 went on to play lacrosse at the NCAA and NAIA level this year. So far this spring, 25 Washington state high school seniors have committed to play lacrosse at the NCAA level following graduation.

To learn more about the potential of lacrosse as a high school sport Washington state visit: http://www.washingtonhslax.com/lacrosse-and-wiaa/