Is the local womens club scene going to survive in Seattle?

Between Victoria / Cowichan, Seattle and PDX, there are 7 active post-collegiate teams in total. Imagine if the mens new "C" team had to immediately start playing the top team from the "A" league. Do you think that team would be discouraged? That's what happened to Blackfin. The college teams have mandates from the WDIA to play each other, so playing novice club teams was no longer an option - they had to play Seattle Womens, PDX, etc.

Most of the women in the 3 seattle teams are also umpiring, coaching youth, high school or collegiate, and serving in lacrosse governence. They are building the groundwork for the next generation of lacrosse. I've seen a lot of burnout in recent years. They just don't have any extra energy to help grow the adult league.

The league has two formal meetings each year, they are aware of the issue, but the energy expended just to keep the current process up and running is tremendous.

I think the Victoria-area teams may have a better business model: have a city league to introduce women to the sport, and recruit "traveling teams" from the committed few, to play as Vic Women and/or Cowichan Women.

Maybe this is something Walax could work on over the summer, creating a beginners city league for the fall & winter for adult women. With 2 seasons of play, the committed few could get dispursed among the current 3 Seattle area womens club teams.

For a few years now there has been talk of a draft to create some parity in the league. Maybe draft the newly graduated college players and graduates of a city league?

Once the 3 existing Seattle teams get too big, they can consider adding a 4th team. Right now I just don't see the teams with 12 subs on the sidelines, so it might be a few years away.

Creating a new team of pure novices didn't work well for Blackfin - they got killed in game play against teams with varsity college experience. Joining existing teams through a draft system would mean they don't have to assume all the team leadership positions their first year, so they can simply concentrate on learning to play.

I think the college women know the club teams are out there. It's up to the club teams to maintain current websites and respond in a timely manner to inquiries.

The basic things, like having a set place to practice, consistent coaching every single week, and internal team culture to train for fitness and skills, commit to play every game, etc -- the players have to enforce that within the team.

I think the clubs will survive, but what they really need is for no one club to have a "monopoly" on players. It really isn't fun for the winning club or the losing clubs to rehash the same battle over and over. Perhaps a rep from each club should get together and talk about restructuring the league. I do like the idea of putting on adult player clinics. We do that for the middle and high school leagues, why not the womens club too? Another thought is to recruit from the local colleges and let them know their options for playing after college. Also, I don't think it is fair to bash the "lack of response" when you have many club players who are moms, coaches, etc. and are lucky to have the opportunity to get out and play, let alone have any time to read and respond to a forum.

I think the lack of response to this forum speaks loudly. I would hate to see the women's game disappear from the area. I think some passionate leadership from someone who loves the game AND who can organize this effort is called for. Anyone have any ideas who might fit that bill? I don't. Then we could use an off season recruiting and advertising campaign (to attract seperately both experienced and new players). Mostly I think we could use some kind of summer evening clinics series or 'camps' to teach the newbees the game in a more rewarding and structured fashion rather than just saying 'show up to practice and you'll catch on.' Lots of folks I've spoken with gave it a try but didn't feel they could get the instruction they needed to really play the game with some degree of pride and success. They would have been willing to pay for 'lessons' just like signing up for soccer clinic or tennis lessons. But, They got frustrated and bored and found better ways to spend their time.