By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Adding lacrosse to the list of sports sanctioned by the Kentucky High School Athletic Association is one of the topics on the agenda for the Board of Control meeting on Friday at Aloft on the Levee in Newport.
This is the first meeting of the 2021-22 school year for the Board of Control with a work session starting at 11 a.m. and the full meeting scheduled for 1:30 p.m. The entire agenda is posted on the khsaa.org website and the meeting will be streamed live via the KHSAA YouTube channel.
There are 37 girls and 35 boys varsity lacrosse teams at Kentucky high schools, according to statistics compiled by the KHSAA. They currently compete as club teams and have no affiliation with the KHSAA, which organizes statewide post-season playoffs for most high school sports.
Dixie Heights and Ryle have both boys and girls lacrosse teams. Notre Dame and St. Henry are the other local high schools with girls teams while Covington Catholic and Walton-Verona have boys teams.
Last May, Notre Dame’s girls team was a region runner-up that qualified for the eight-team state tournament in the Kentucky Scholastic Lacrosse League playoffs.
The KHSAA has conducted surveys to see how member schools feel about adding lacrosse as a sanctioned sport and more than 50 voted in favor of it in 2019. That’s given lacrosse teams another reason to see a promising future ahead.
“Our information is that Friday’s Board of Control meeting is critical to whether lacrosse is sanctioned in 2022,” read a recent Twitter post by Kentucky Lacrosse News.
Lacrosse is an officially sanctioned high school sport for both boys and girls in 22 states, according to the USA Lacrosse website. Ohio joined that list in 2017, followed by Illinois in 2018 and Utah in 2021.
