W.Va. Lacrosse Exploring New Regional System
Nick Henthorn Trending
WHEELING - The sport of lacrosse in West Virginia could take a different shape in the not-too-distant future, with the northern panhandle at the forefront of the change.
Lacrosse, under the purview of the West Virginia Scholastic Lacrosse Association (WVSLA) in the Mountain State, is exploring introducing a regional system to the sport, separated into northern, southern, central and eastern regions.
The potential switch-up has Linsly head coach Tucker Wilkinson among its chief architects, and takes a page out of the WVSSAC's book.
"As everybody knows, when it comes to WVSSAC sports, when playoff times comes around they go into sections, then regionals, and then in basketball for example, down to a state tournament," Wilkinson explained. "So we had discussions the past fall, asking each other 'Hey, why aren't we doing this for lacrosse? Why don't we start moving towards a region system?'
"Basically, we want to put more of a focus within each of our geographical areas, and within that we want to increase the significance of the rivalries of the schools within those areas. For us, it's the northern panhandle- John Marshall, Park, Central and of course Linsly. We're doing this to try to amplify, to get more eyes on the sport. And to increase the importance of these competitions, the significance of the games they're playing."
The shift to four regions would be a departure from the current landscape of the sport.
"Right now we operate in a two-division system in the WVSLA," Wilkinson said. "It's looking like four teams per region is how it could shake out. Some will have more."
Wilkinson said the current vision is to have the South region center around Charleston, the Central around Morgantown, and the East across the eastern panhandle.
The proposed system could give the sport more structure as some like Wilkinson are also seeking to introduce a fall lacrosse league in an Olympic-style mold.
"Lacrosse just made it to the Olympics," Wilkinson explained. "In the 2028 Olympics, there will be lacrosse in Los Angeles. The format will be something different than what we usually play, what's called field lacrosse.
"This format is called sixes. You can kind of think of it as pickup basketball- shot goes into the goal, goalie gets it out, kicks it to a guy, and you're going the other way. We're trying to push the sixes model in the fall just to get more sticks in hands earlier in the school year, to get more kids interested."
This possible new fall league would factor in a regional system for an end-of-season tournament.
"We're going to try and get it so that each region will have one representative team," Wilkinson said. "We're all going to culminate at a chosen location and we'll have a big tournament.
"It's going to be awesome, we recently partnered with a really big lacrosse brand to go ahead and project it out on socials. The brand is called Adrenaline, they're featured on one of our jerseys. They're great people and they're going to help us grow this even further."
Adrenaline,
These innovations come from the desire to continue to grow a sport which Wilkinson sees as having much untapped potential.
"I've worked in the school system for almost 10 years," Wilkinson said. "Every year you see it- September, October, you have a bunch of kids excited to try lacrosse, and then as the year progresses they find different avenues to spend their time, different things develop, or maybe they just lose interest. The idea is that if you're interested, you don't have to wait until the spring, come out and give it a try. Give it a try and see if you like it, play with a team and see what it's all about."
"As a state, there was a lot of growth, and then it just kind of got stagnant. I emailed a bunch of AD's last year, trying to spark some interest- the opportunity that this sport grants to kids is unlike any other. It's the fastest-growing sport at the collegiate level, and it's endless opportunity for those who want to pursue collegiate athletics. Give it a try and get onboard with us as we continue to implement new things and move forward."
The implementation of the four-region system could be coming as soon as the coming fall of 2024.
"Hopefully as more eyes get on it, more schools say 'Hey, this is a pretty cool sport,'" Wilkinson said. "Because it really is a wonderful sport."