Faceoff Rule Change

In the sport of lacrosse, the faceoff is often a highly debated topic. For those that are unaware of what a faceoff is, they occur after every time someone scores a goal or after every quarter of play. Two players of opposing teams will put the back of their sticks up next to a ball on opposing sides and then scrap, fight, and rake at the ball until someone picks it up. As time went on, companies began to come out with heads that were specific to faceoffs that were able to wrap and bend around the ball to give the player an advantage. From here, the “FOGO”, which stands for FaceOff Get Off, is a lacrosse player who’s only job is to take faceoffs. We are now at a point in the sport where the faceoff is a crucial aspect to the game. If you have a superior faceoff man, your team is going to get the ball more often which will lead to more offensive opportunities and then hopefully, in turn, more goals.

As of late though, there has been much argument around the faceoff as many people wish to take it out of the game or decrease its significance greatly. This is mostly thanks to the extremely dominant faceoff men like Trevor Baptiste of the PLL Atlas LC or TD Ierlan who plays for the Yale Bulldogs. These players are so dominant at faceoff’s that the games can become boring, dry, and extremely one sided. A proposed idea that could help fix the importance of having a dominant faceoff man could be not allowing the same player to take a faceoff more than once in a row, which many believe is a good idea. For the PLL All-Star game though, there are going to be some much more significant changes than simply not allowing the same player to faceoff twice in a row.

The PLL announced that they would be experimenting with two new rules changing during the second and third quarters of the inaugural All-Star game. In the second quarter, after a goal, the goalie will take the ball out of the net and clear from there. The example that the PLL gave to this idea is like the NBA. After a basket is scored the team simply inbounds the ball from under the hoop and play continues. In the third quarter, instead of a faceoff, teams will compete for possession through a ball drop. The example for this rule change is the NHL, where players face each other and wait to start play until the puck hits the ice when it is dropped from a few feet above. As a result of this news, many faceoff men made their disappointments known.

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Greg Gurenlian, a Team USA and PLL Redwoods LC faceoff man explained that not only will this affect faceoff men, it also has a ripple effect. To paraphrase, Gurenlian explained that although some offensive players complain about the faceoff being in the game, with these new rules there is no time to celebrate a goal you just scored because you will have to defend the goalie who will picking the ball right up to try and throw to a teammate. When you think about the new rules this way, they may not seem as appealing as once thought. Although there are still massive amounts of arguing about how the faceoff should be used in the game of lacrosse, one thing is for sure. There will always be someone who is unhappy about the rules and will be forced to deal with whatever direction the sport has decided to go in.