Summer High School Lacrosse in Idaho – Why Not?
Posted by blakeob on June 5, 2009
This next spring will be my sixth as a coach in the Treasure Valley Lacrosse League. The experience has been incredibly rewarding but I’ve always felt like the TVLL could offer more. Last night I figured out what that “more” could be.
The following picture was taken on June 5, 2009.
Centennial 48 - Caldwell 10
The woman in the white shirt standing just to the right of the white square is my wife Dana. She is the head coach of the JV women’s basketball team at Centennial High School. It is not basketball season, yet she is coaching her girls in a game against Caldwell High School. How is this possible?
In the summer the Idaho High Schools Activities Association moves out of the way and allows its member high schools to operate on their own schedule. Aside from participation in summer league, Dana will be taking her team to a number of tournaments and team camps over the next two months. All the IHSAA asks is that participation in said tournaments and summer camps is not made mandatory for girls looking to play next winter.
So why isn’t this happening in the Treasure Valley Lacrosse League? To alleviate this, I have two proposals that I will be bringing to the next TVLL meeting:
1) TVLL teams should be allowed to participate in as many team camps and tournaments as they like from June 1st until August 1st, so long as participation is not made mandatory for individuals who want to join the team the following season. Every sport in the IHSAA, Oregon Scools Activities Association, and Washigton Interscholastic Activities Association is allowed to operate as an independent organization in the summer, and lacrosse should be no different.
2) The Treasure Valley Lacrosse League should sponsor a high school summer league organization. Teams should be allowed to enter as independent organizations (i.e. a Bishop Kelly team, a Boise team, a Borah team, etc), with each organization given the freedom to determine their own rosters and practice schedules. If a program chooses not to participate, the players in said program should have the option of joining a “Rogue Team” sponsored by the league.
Conflicts:
These two proposals will be met with opposition. The most vocal argument I have heard thus far is that summer programs favor teams with money. Example: “Team A has the money to travel in the summer, so they would be receiving an unfair advantage over other teams who do not have an equal amount of money.” However, the TVLL currently allow teams to travel to an unlimited number of pre-season tournaments starting in February. Compare the following scenarios:
- Team A travels to two different pre-season tournaments, one in February and one in March.
- Team B travels to a summer tournament in June, and one pre-season tournament in March.
Does Team B hold an advantage over Team A? Does Team A hold an advantage over Team B? Hard to say. However, I know that the area is gray enough that Team B should not be kept from pursuing a tournament in June if Team A is given free reign to travel as much as they want in February and March.
Thoughts?
