NCAA Lacrosse: A Winter Sport

Lacrosse is typically supposed to be played in warmer weather, outside, and during the springtime. Youth programs don’t start practice until around March while middle school teams and clubs may start in early March and some in late February. Nearly every high school will start official practice in February as they are typically your first very serious and competitive teams. Then, in college, nearly every team starts practice in January and even as early as January 2nd. The only exception to this is the Ivy League which has a special rule where they are not permitted to have practice until February 1st. For most of these college teams, the reality is, their university does not have a dome or a bubble in which they can practice while it snows and is freezing outside. The result is practice outside in the frigid January days in full sweatpants and anything else to keep you warm.

One might assume that as you go up the ladder of the sport, that the professional league would start maybe even earlier in December, but this is not the case. The outdoor professional leagues don’t start until June, taking advantage of the beautiful weather. What is left is the collegiate players being forced to play in conditions which are less than ideal for up to 3 months. What you will also find during this time is teams losing or winning games due to aspects outside of their control like freezing rain for a full game after a 12-hour bus ride. Many coaches and players alike believe that the weather in the early months of the season can greatly sway the success of a team or season. The question still remains, why start so early when many teams’ seasons will end in mid to late April when the weather still is not great? Why not adapt to the NCAA Baseball method where they start later and have games into late June or even sometimes July?

Hofstra vs. Princeton During a Snowstorm

The National Championship for NCAA Men’s lacrosse is always on Memorial Day which, although is a historic tradition for the game and a great way to cap off a season, does not help any of the other 71 teams that did not have the chance to compete. For many years, coaches have deliberated and argued about moving back the start of the season to help with the cold weather and the negative effects it has on a lacrosse season. Another option is to simply extend the season into June and add more games so that the games that happened in the early months may have less of an impact than they previously did. Whatever the answer may be, one thing is for sure and that is as a college lacrosse player myself, anything to help aid with having to play a game in shorts in January will benefit the sport tremendously.