Brandon Fortier, former standout player for Eastside lacrosse club and Whittier College and current HS coach, writes the popular Weekly HS Beat for Boys HS lacrosse during the season.

Lacrosse Overdue

Does anyone else feel like we are a bit behind? Shouldn�t lacrosse have started by now?

The last day of February has come and gone and not a single word of the upcoming season? Why the late start?  Who knows.  My guess is we needed an extra week to sift through all the off-season changes taking place here in Washington.  Here is what I do know�

1)      Lacrosse starts March 3^rd  !

2)      Continued growth means more teams, more players, more excitement!

3)      Seahawk Stadium?  That�s right�Seahawk Stadium, May 17, 2003

As we roll into spring, we are primed for another incredible boy�s lacrosse season here in Washington.  Just like 2002, 3 champions will be crowned May 17^th, but under a slightly different format.  It was decided that after the 2003 season each program will only be allowed to field one varsity program to compete in Division I or Division II here in Washington.  Hence, the creation of a new �virtual varsity� league which will be known as the Cascade Legaue.  Let�s take a look�.

League Alignments:

Division I shows the least amount of change as 7 of the 8 teams are back for another title run and the playoff format is still the same (top 4 teams will qualify).  The newcomer to the group is last year�s Division II champions, the Panthers Lacrosse Club.  After only two years of existence, the boys from Seattle Prep are ready to make some noise in Division I.  After two straight down years, Overlake drops down to Division II as they look to rebuild with youth.

Division II is all new and improved!  Last year�s Division II and Division III have combined to form a division double the size of Division I.   With 15 teams, the old format of playing every team twice was obviously impossible.  So, Division II has regionalized and split into 3 conferences.  Within this format, 8 playoff spots are up for grabs.  The top 2 teams from each conference, plus two wild cards should make for an exciting post season.  Each team in Division II will play 10 Division II games.  A team will play each team in their conference twice (home/away) as well as 2 additional cross conference games.

The Olympic conference will include 2002 Division III champ,Curtis, two new teams in North Kitsap and Klahowya, as well as Kitsap and Vashon.

The Metro conference includes 2002 Division II runner-up Bainbridge (this is the last year Bainbridge will field varsity teams in both Div I and Div II), as well as inner city clubs Franklin, Garfield, Roughriders LC and Mt. Rainier.

The Inland-North conference lines up with 2002 Division III runner up, Issaquah, a new team in Mukilteo, Division I defector Overlake, as well as Eastside and Snohomish.

The Cascade League was created as a �virtual varsity� league for those programs that are in fact thriving to the point of just too many players for one team, but too much talent for the JV level.  The programs that will field �B� teams to compete for the Cascade Cup include Mercer Island, Port Angeles, Bellevue, Nathan Hale, Curtis, Maple Valley and the Panthers LC.

The league will run much like Division I as every team will play each other twice with the top 4 teams qualifying for the playoffs.

The Future:

When you add in 10 JV teams, 40 boy�s high school teams will take the field here in Washington in 2003.  Expansion has even hit east of the mountains!  A Spokane area team based at Gonzaga Prep has formed and will compete across the border in Idaho for now. 

And look at the schedule�.games against teams from British Coumbia, Oregon, Idaho�.tournaments in California and New Mexico�.lacrosse is spreading!

Lacrosse is going to spread whether we want it to or not.  So why not jump on board, spread the word, volunteer to help a local team in any way you can

We�d like your help in continuing to promote this great game and acknowledging the efforts of the young men in this league.  We will continue to award recognition to outstanding teams and performers throughout the year.  If you would like to help by submitting any information, stories or anecdotes to be included in the weekly beat please send contributions to [email protected].

Pictures would also be greatly appreciated so we can include a �Picture of the Week�.

Spring is here�lacrosse is overdue�stay tuned for an exciting season�hope to see you all some time during the season.  If not, let�s all get together May 17^th, Seahawk Stadium, for the biggest day of lacrosse in Washington to date! 

NEXT WEEK:

Division I and Cascade League �Team Previews�