Lacrosse series delayed at least 1 year

Updated: March 23, 2011 9:50AM

The first IHSA-sanctioned state lacrosse tournaments won't happen this year after all.

The IHSA announced on Monday that the first boys and girls lacrosse tournaments have been delayed until at least 2012 because not enough schools have committed to field teams for a state series this spring.

Lacrosse state series were approved in October, 2009 for this year as long as 65 boys teams and 40 girls teams had signed up to compete. The IHSA said there are enough schools registered on the Emerging Sports list – 68 with boys squads, 42 with girls squads – but only 47 and 33, respectively, had signed up for a 2011 state series.

"The IHSA has received confirmations from 14 schools on the Emerging Sports list who would not be able to enter into the state series this season, making the team benchmarks impossible to reach," the organization said in a written statement.

IHSA executive director Marty Hickman said in the statement that financial constraints prevented some schools from starting programs as planned.

"This decision won't come as a surprise to most of our membership," Hickman said in the statement. "We had a thin margin of error to reach the benchmark of 65 (boys) teams and we had been preparing folks behind the scenes that this result was likely."

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