The Florida High School Athletic Association voted over the weekend to split lacrosse schools in Florida into classifications. This will create both 1A and 2A classifications for both boys and girls beginning in the 2019-2020 school year.
The decision was announced in the Agenda Item notes from the FHSAA Board of Directors Meeting taking place on April 29 and 30.
While the decision had been rumored to be in the works for some time now, the announcement was met with both excitement and caution. Online, some praised the move, noting that it moves the sport forward and opens the competition up to smaller, lesser known schools. Others were reluctant to join in and instead cautioned against not only the implementation taking place at all, but the finer points of how it will be implemented.
“I anticipate only positive results from this change” said Joe Ferraro, varsity girls coach for Tampa Catholic. “I believe that district and regional races will be more competitive. Smaller programs will feel as if they have a legitimate chance to advance beyond district playoff games. It will encourage the creation of new lacrosse programs in counties with smaller schools and feeder programs.”
He continues, “A district made up of smaller private schools and smaller public high schools will be more competitive and equitable for those involved.”
One point of mention that should be noted is that two classifications of schools competing in different classes, each type of school will now most likely be required to travel farther to compete in the required number of district matches as districts themselves may increase in geographic area.
With the 220+ schools now split evenly, the announced changes also have a direct impact on not only district playoffs, but the state series as well. The wording in the document is confusing at best.
“In the sports of flag football, boys volleyball, lacrosse and water polo, the top four seeds only shall be placed on the tournament bracket. A single-elimination, standard progression bracket shall be used. The No. 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 12, 13 and 16 seeds shall be placed in the upper half of the bracket and the No. 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14 and 15 seeds shall be placed in the lower half of the bracket.”
If only the top four seeds are placed on the bracket, that means we end up with a 4-team bracket. That can’t be right.
If they meant “top four seeds from each district”, then it’s impossible to have a 16-team bracket – unless there are only 4 districts. Even so, how are 16 seeds determined?
One rumor floating around right now is that the state is considering using a ranking system (MaxPreps?) to split the classifications based not on large and small, but ‘upper’ and ‘lower’, then utilizing the resulting hierarchy to create the 1-16 seeds for each state tournament. Tampa Lax Report cannot stress enough how much of a mistake that would be, so we’re hoping the rumor is unfounded.
That still leaves the question of state playoffs in doubt. We are working to gain clarification and will update our readers when we have it.
