A holder of seven Section III Class C championships, the Skaneateles High School boys lacrosse team will not add an eighth title – not in Class C, anyway.
During its Central Committee meeting last week at Turning Stone Resort in Verona, the New York State Public High School Athletic Association approved the addition of a fourth class to boys lacrosse, where Skaneateles will compete, starting with the 2017 season.
New BEDS numbers released by NYSPHSAA define Class A as any enrollment 1,050 or higher. Class B covers enrollment of 750 to 1,049, Class C from 425 to 749 and Class D is anyone 425 or lower.
Thanks to those numbers, Skaneateles, whose enrollment in grades 9-12 is under 425, is now part of the newly created Class D. Joining them are 15 other schools once part of Class C, including noted lacrosse programs at Cazenovia, LaFayette, Christian Brothers Academy and Westhill.
The new Class C lineup includes 11 teams, including Jamesville-DeWitt, who won last spring’s state Class B title, and Marcellus, who remains in Class C. Meanwhile, just six schools remain in Class B, while Class A is relatively unchanged.
What this also does is alter the structure of the state tournament. Previously, state semifinals for West (Section III, IV, V and VI) and East regions were all held in a single venue, with three games in one day.
Now those semifinals will go to two venues, with two games held at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium and the other two at St. John Fisher College near Rochester, also the venue for the state title games for the next three years.
Up until 1986, there was just one state champion for boys lacrosse. Class B was added that year, with Class C introduced in 2000. Cazenovia won state Class C titles in 2011 and 2013 and lost in the state finals in 2014 and 2015.
