Give Florida Girls Another Opportunity to Play — Bring Lacrosse Sixes to FHSAA
Florida has made tremendous progress in creating athletic opportunities for female student-athletes. However, simply counting the number of boys' and girls' sports offered does not tell the entire story. Athletic opportunity is also about when students are able to play, access to facilities, the availability of coaches and officials, and whether athletes are given meaningful opportunities to develop outside of their traditional championship season.

When we look at Florida's high school sports calendar, there is an issue worth examining. A significant number of girls' sports compete for athletes, facilities, coaches, officials, transportation, and school resources during the same part of the year. In the spring, girls lacrosse competes alongside girls flag football, softball, track and field, beach volleyball, tennis, water polo, and other activities.

This creates a particularly difficult situation at public schools with limited athletic facilities and budgets. Multiple teams may need the same fields at the same time. Schools are competing for officials, transportation, athletic trainers, coaches, and funding. Most importantly, girls who are talented multi-sport athletes may be forced to choose between sports because their opportunities occur during the same season.

At the same time, Florida has already demonstrated that a sport's traditional season does not necessarily have to be its only developmental opportunity. Football is traditionally played in the fall, yet FHSAA rules provide football programs with an opportunity to conduct spring practices during the final weeks of the school year.

There is nothing wrong with providing football players that opportunity. In fact, we believe it demonstrates exactly why developmental opportunities outside a sport's traditional season can be valuable. Those additional practices allow programs to develop younger athletes, introduce new players, evaluate talent, build their programs, and prepare for the next season.

Our question is simple: Why can't we create another meaningful developmental opportunity for girls?

We believe Girls Lacrosse Sixes provides Florida with that opportunity.

Sixes is a smaller and faster version of lacrosse played with fewer athletes on the field. Instead of simply asking FHSAA to create another traditional girls lacrosse season, we are asking Florida to consider something innovative: establish a Girls Lacrosse Sixes Development Season outside of the traditional spring lacrosse season.

This could provide an entirely different entry point into girls lacrosse. Imagine a freshman who has never picked up a lacrosse stick. Instead of asking her to immediately compete for a position on a traditional varsity or junior varsity team during an already crowded spring sports season, Sixes could provide an opportunity for her to learn the game, develop her skills, compete, and discover whether lacrosse is a sport she loves.

For experienced lacrosse players, Sixes would provide additional development and competition. For beginners, it could provide an introduction to the sport. For schools struggling to establish girls lacrosse programs, it could provide a pathway toward eventually fielding a traditional team. For multi-sport athletes, moving this opportunity outside the traditional spring season could allow girls to participate in another school sport without having to choose between two sports they love.

This proposal is not about taking opportunities away from boys. We support football, baseball, and every other high school sport. This is about recognizing successful opportunities that already exist and asking how Florida can use that same creativity to expand opportunities for female student-athletes.

We respectfully ask the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA), its Board of Directors, Girls Lacrosse Advisory Committee, member schools, athletic directors, coaches, parents, and student-athletes to explore the creation of an FHSAA Girls Lacrosse Sixes Development Season or pilot program outside of the traditional spring girls lacrosse season.

A pilot program could begin with interested schools and be evaluated based on student participation, recruitment of new athletes, participation by multi-sport athletes, facility availability, cost, availability of officials, player development, and its impact on existing girls' sports. Florida would have the opportunity to gather real data before determining whether the program should expand statewide.

This is bigger than lacrosse. It is about examining whether the structure of our high school athletic calendar gives girls the greatest possible opportunity to participate in sports.

A girl should not have fewer opportunities simply because so many of the sports available to her are competing for the same athletes, facilities, resources, and weeks of the school year.

We have an opportunity to change that.

Give girls another season to develop. Give new athletes another way to discover a sport. Give multi-sport athletes another opportunity to compete. Give Florida Girls Lacrosse Sixes a chance.