Today: Mar 28, 2024

Allow contact in women’s lacrosse

Hunter O. LyleSports Editor

After watching women’s lacrosse for the past two years, there seems to be a lack of excitement on campus surrounding this particular Owls team.

Certainly one could attribute this to the lack of winning the program has faced, which looks to be changing with the culture second-year head coach Kevin Seidlecki is bringing, but as the Owls tack on more wins, hopefully more fans will come.

Bringing fans to a Southern sporting event has always seemed to be difficult in my tenure following them, as the student body is largely comprised of commuters, but I believe there are things that could draw in more eyes to this particular spring sport. One specific factor could be increasing the amount of contact allowed.

Now, as a reporter covering lacrosse for the first time last season, watching the first game surprised me to some extent. While I am not an avid watcher or follower of lacrosse by any means, when thinking about the sport, I thought of the big hits and highlights from the men’s side. Watching players deck each other and get physical throughout a game has always piqued my interest, whether it be football, hockey or lacrosse, and I think a good portion of sports fans would agree.

With that said, women’s lacrosse should bring that physical aspect to their game, on all levels of play.

Other women’s sports, like women’s rugby for instance, are allow hitting, as it is in the men’s counterpart, so adding this to lacrosse would not be some out-ofleft-field addition. If it’s women-versus-women, why should they not be allowed to take out some aggression on the field?

Not only would the added highlights from big hits impress the fans, as my earlier point implies, it would benefit the players, as they could work this into their game to help on defense. Besides the literal stopping of offensive runs with a knock down, it would potentially add to the mental landscape since getting hit would be on the back of player’s minds.

With this addition there would be health risks, but no more so than football, which Southern completely endorses. Adding hitting would make the sport a more enjoyable game for the fans while also adding to the game for the players. Sports are supposed to be physical for the most part, so I do not see any issue with letting players be physical.

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