Just as with their male counterparts, girls lacrosse teams that are part of the New York State Public High School Athletic Association will, starting with the 2017 season, compete in four classes.
From a local perspective, the difference between the boys and girls sports will come from the fact that Marcellus will join Westhill, Jordan-Elbridge and Bishop Ludden-Bishop Grimes in making a move to the newly-established Class D, while West Genesee stays in Class A – but faces a different field than in seasons past.
In establishing the four classes, NYSPHSAA, for girls lacrosse, decided to divide the schools into four equal parts. Thus, Class A, C and D each featured 78 teams, while Class B, slightly smaller, has 77 teams.
The BEDS numbers – in other words, enrollment in grades nine through 12 for the 2016-17 school year – were 1,075 or higher for Class A, 790 to 1,074 for Class B, 475 to 789 for Class C and 474 or below for Class D.
These numbers were a slight alteration from those used to determine the four classes for boys lacrosse, which allowed Marcellus to stay in Class C. since it fell just above the 425 cutoff for Class C, but below the 475 ceiling used for girls lacrosse.
As a result, Marcellus, plus Westhill, J-E (who are also Class D for boys) and Ludden-Grimes joins Cazenovia, Skaneateles, Chittenango, Vernon-Verona-Sherrill, South Jefferson, Watertown IHC, Thousand Islands, Tully, LaFayette and Onondaga in the move to Class D – in all, 15 teams.
West Genesee didn’t move from Class A, which still has eight teams present since reigning state champion Christian Brothers Academy is likely to stay put. But since it fell below the 1,075 enrollment cutoff, Fayetteville-Manlius moves to Class B, where just five other teams (Auburn, Central Square, Fulton, Oswego and Watertown) are present.
Also, the Wildcats will face a string of new coaches inside and outside the CNY Counties League. Megan Collins replaced Doug Rowe at Baldwinsville, while Rowe took the job at Rome Free Academy and F-M tabbed Kelly and Kristen Taylor to share coaching duties.
