I saw a story this week in the Boston Globe where a lack of turnout for teams at Wellesley (Mass.) and Lincoln-Sudbury (Mass.) for girls’ lacrosse was shown as an indication of a participation crisis in the sport in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
The overall numbers do not lie: in 2022, 7,757 athletes were participating in the sport — at varsity and subvarsity levels. Last year, that number dropped to 7,261.
It is befuddling that girls’ lacrosse in Massachusetts is suffering. That’s because the commonwealth is hallowed ground in the women’s game. The inaugural NCAA national championship, in 1982, was taken by the University of Massachusetts. In 1990, Harvard won the championship, becoming one of the few teams to have ever beaten the University of Maryland in a title game.
We’ve noticed a number of great players who have called Massachusetts home. Kelly Amonte-Hiller, head coach at Northwestern, attended Braintree Thayer Academy (Mass.). She, in turn, has recruited well from Massachusetts schools including the likes of Westwood (Mass.), Cohasset (Mass.) and Medfield (Mass.). And, at one time, the leading point-scorer in the history of the National Federation was from Harvard Bromfield School (Mass.).
The Boston Globe story went through a number of reasons for the lack of participation in girls’ high school lacrosse in MIAA institutions. There’s the rise in club sports, particularly soccer and ice hockey, which have kept some lacrosse players off the field in the spring. The story cites an exodus of players moving to New England private school teams (where the season ends a full month before the public schools do), and the fact that middle-schoolers who went through the COVID-19 pandemic have ultimately dropped the sport.
But I think there’s a different reason. You are now seeing a number of activities which are starting to attract the attention of female athletes in many locales.
You’re seeing “stunt,” a form of competitive cheerleading, becoming an NCAA championship sport starting in the spring of 2027. There’s also sports like rugby and flag football, which are going to be part of the 2028 Summer Olympics program, albeit in their reduced-side versions.
While girls’ high-school athletics are not a zero-sum proposition, I think it is going to be harder for some sports to compete against other choices in a school or school district unless they either have a long-time tradition, or if the community has the kind of support system (booster clubs, feeder programs, etc.) that are the hallmark of successful teams.