WA Girl's Weighing WIAA Decision

The Washington Schoolgirls Lacrosse Association (WSLA) has been, for a number of years now, considering petitioning for WIAA Status. The current plan would be to submit application for WIAA status in 2008 but it is not as easy as just submitting a petition to go WIAA. 

The WIAA discussions go back to 1999 when they first weighed the pro's and con's of going WIAA.  Not all coaches were in agreement, so petitioning did not happen that year.  In 2001 the subject was revisited but again there was a resistance, although only from a couple of groups.  At that point there were more than 2 club programs but the coaches were recognizing that for the growth of girls lax and for the benefit of the girls pursuing WIAA was the only way to go.  However, during a time where their petition was actually considered by WIAA, the application requested WIAA status during the Spring season.  However, the WIAA board looked to accept Women's Lacrosse as a Fall WIAA sport.  Another example that Washington was not ready for WIAA Lacrosse, even if the Women are ready.  Here are some of the considerations taken into account in weighing the positive growth of the game over time, and the short term impact of becoming a Varsity sport in Washington.

Some of the short term impacts could be extremely detrimental to the growth of the game in Washington.  First and foremost, the WSLA ceases to be the governing body of Washington Schoolgirls Lacrosse.  In this case, that also relinquishes any ability for WSLA to govern the selection of All-state teams, and most importantly, the dynamic of team classification.  In fact, several important factors take shape here under team classification.  Private schools and public schools have different requirements for team classification, and each Athletic Director also has to make the determination of whether or not the sport should be school sanctioned.  In this process, not only does the AD have to decide the sport should be school-sanctioned, but also has to find staff to coach.  In most cases, this would be an employee of the school district.  This is easier at the private school level than the public school level based on the requirement of teaching qualifications at public schools.

Additionally, public schools and private schools alike may not have the funding to support a team in a recently adopted sport.  This means that students that attend a school that doesn't have a team, may not be able to play the sport if their school doesn't sanction the sport and run a team.  At the very least, this means that clubs currently comprised of several schools in a district, may cease to exist if all their players are scattered to the schools they attend to play.

In cases where the school doesn't sanction the sport, and the club team stays intact, club teams cannot compete against the WIAA sanctioned teams.  This will also denigrate the caliber of play at the High School level, and potentially cause serious ramifications in travel requirements for club teams to play each other.

Lastly, WIAA also has a host of considerations for eligibility, and rigor built into the process for assuring there is no missteps by a particular school.  this includes: exchange students, transfer students, a required grade point average for eligibility, impacted play as a result of missing school, and certainly the interleaving of school misconduct preventing athletic play.

Not all aspects of going WIAA are negative.  The longer term benefits are absolutely clear.  Girls can take part in pep rallies, get school sponsorship for equipment, hire qualified coaches through the school district, letter as a Varsity sport, and win a true WIAA State Championship- a true validation of the legitimacy of Lacrosse in Washington.  This may also allow growth of Lacrosse sanctioned by associated middle schools that feed the high school, and encourage more youth involvement in the sport.

Five years later on and it looks like the girls will once again begin work on petitioning for WIAA status, although at this point it is not certain that petitioning will go ahead or not.  For those that have ever looked into this process it isn't as simple as filling out a couple of sheets of paper and getting a tick in a box. Petitioning puts the application up for acceptance to a board of WIAA representatives to vote on.  The curent hope by the WSLA board is that this will be submitted to the WIAA on December 1st, just 2 weeks from now. 

The girls have set themselves in good stead though.  Sue Haviland will be heading up the push for WIAA on behalf of the WSLA board. Sue is working on the petition currently and the decision to submit the petition won't be decided for a couple of weeks.  One of the concerns may be that the sport is too young to suffer factionalism in the small amount of teams playing, while others may argue that the sport must go WIAA to continue to grow based on the resources currently available.  Whatever the outcome, it looks to add to the continuing saga of Washington Lacrosse and the "Should we, or should we not go WIAA?" that both the boys and girls have been weighing over the last few years.