MORGANTOWN — “Just let ‘em play!”
It wasn’t all that long ago — 1971, to be exact — that women’s and girls’ basketball rules were much different from the game played by men and boys. The game was 6-on-6, and three on each team were not permitted — presumably to limit the amount of physical exertion required — to cross over midcourt.
Basketball now has nearly identical rules for everyone, and the game’s popularity among all players and fans of high school, college and in the professional ranks has never been greater.
In lacrosse today, the disparity in the rules between the men’s and the women’s game is, while not quite as wide as hoops used to be, still striking. The men wear full upper body protective gear, including helmets, shoulder pads and gloves, and full contact is permitted. It’s a power game, with a premium on strength, speed, skill, stamina and athleticism.
While speed and skill are major assets of the successful girl lacrosse player as well, the game itself is very different. Almost no body contact is permitted, and nearly any time a foul is committed, play stops immediately, and officials must direct players stand in the places they were at the time of the foul. Only when the players are stationary in those spots will play resume.
It’s referred to by many lacrosse aficionados as “the freeze-tag rules,” and several years of informal polling among high school girls lacrosse players has revealed that an overwhelming majority want their game to more resemble the boys.
This season, perhaps as a first step in the movement toward modernizing the high school girls rules, fouled players are permitted to “self-start” the play, as long as they are close to the original point of the foul and the offending players are clear and stationary. This change (aligning more closely with girls college lacrosse) has been universally perceived as a positive step by the area coaches, although not without some growing pains.
“I love the fact that it has brought more flow to the game,” said Morgantown’s Rich Farber, and his thoughts are echoed by University coach Kevin Armstrong, who said that “the girls have to retrain themselves to take advantage of it, but things have gone more smoothly as the season has progressed, and I suspect that next year we’ll be pretty much up to speed.”
But what about the physicality, the body contact, the ability to take advantage of superior strength and body position? While every coach thought that full contact was neither imminent nor warranted, the idea of allowing “body contact” as opposed to “body checking” — as implemented in women ice hockey to great success – was an idea that is rapidly gaining traction.
Armstrong, Farber, Preston coach Chris Gank and Jon Cain, longtime Fairmont Senior head coach, all know for certain that their players would welcome the chance to wear pads and especially helmets, and to use their bodies to gain the upper hand on the field.
“But it needs to be done with safety first,” insisted Armstrong. “I think it’s the way the game ought to be heading, because it would bring more girls out, and make for a more exciting, more athletic game. These girls can handle it — as long as the rules are enforced correctly and consistently.”
So the players would like it, and most coaches, too, but what about the officials?
Brian Shepherd, lead official in the Morgantown-Fairmont Senior state semifinal game this past weekend, agrees that any rules shift must be accompanied by a culture shift — and that takes time.
“We’ve seen things take a while to get going with the self-start rule, but I think next year will be just fine, and everyone much prefers the added flow it brings to the game,” he said. “And the officials can only call the games as the rules allow, and our job is to keep players safe and the game fair. But we are certainly curious to see what the next round of rule changes will bring to the girls game. Whatever those changes are, our job as officials will remain the same.”
About the only dissenting voice to a more physical brand of girls lacrosse comes, perhaps not surprisingly, from Cain, the dean of local girls lax coaches.
“I’m a traditionalist. I admit it,” he smiled. “I know the girls want to be able to play a rougher style. But in my mind, the girls game is more pure than the boys. Too much smash mouth lacrosse takes away some of the finesse and beauty of the game. I’m afraid that putting the pads on will take that part of lacrosse away forever, and I’d be sad to see it go.”
