The growth of lacrosse has sometimes been likened to a "Wild West" scenario. With a national governing body in place for only eight years, it’s only natural that differing decisions were made by local groups around the country. But has the time come for a push for standardized national youth lacrosse rules? Yes, according to the feedback coming into US Lacrosse.

The rules are already in place — they’re printed each year in the US Lacrosse Rule Book for girls and in the NFHS Rule Book for boys (you can reference the boys’ rules on our Web site here and the girls’ rules here) — now it’s a matter of youth leagues around the country adopting them. There are obvious logistical reasons that would make the move beneficial, and issues of player safety and quality of experience are also better served by national rules.

"Most youth coaches don’t have risk management and sports science and safety issues as a point of focus," said US Lacrosse Executive Director Steve Stenersen. "They love the game and helping kids, but they barely have enough time to coach. It’s important for a national governing body to establish standards that make it easier for those volunteers to volunteer."

Among the standards established by the US Lacrosse Youth Council, working with the US Lacrosse Men’s and Women’s Division Officials Councils, is a sportsmanship card initiative that creates a sideline manager position for all games to allow game officials to focus on the action on the field.

"Rules and rules mechanics go hand in hand," said Stenersen. "The Youth Council decided to push for a brand new mechanic with the sportsmanship card initiative."

The initiative features the creation of a sideline manager for all youth games. The sideline manager helps to maintain a positive environment by issuing a sportsmanship card as a warning to an individual coach, athlete, fan or group of fans that are behaving inappropriately.

"Officiating lacrosse is a difficult challenge," said Stenersen. "Somebody needs to be in charge from an external perspective. With this program, the official has an ally outside the lines. This is a step to assure a quality experience for the kids."

Assuring a quality experience for the kids is the primary reason for standardized youth rules.

"In many cases, different areas adopt different rules based on the emotions of adults, rather than taking an objective look as to what is best for the participants," said Stenersen. "Our Youth Council has people from all over the country that have been involved with youth lacrosse for a number of years. This group is making decisions based on what is best for the kids and for their safety."

   - by Brian Logue, US Lacrosse Director of Communications (Dec. 2006)