At its meeting of Thursday, October 5, 2006, the PIAA Board of Directors voted, by an overwhelming majority, to assume jurisdiction over boys’ lacrosse, effective July 1, 2008. This means that beginning with the 2009 spring sports’ season all schools sponsoring boys’ lacrosse and their players must comply with all PIAA eligibility standards.

PIAA will begin the process of placing boys’ lacrosse along side the other sports under its jurisdiction. This will include the recruitment, registration, and training of boys’ lacrosse officials; and the scheduling of mandatory annual rules interpretation meetings for boys’ lacrosse coaches and officials.

Boys’ lacrosse will become the nineteenth sport to be governed by PIAA. That governance requires that PIAA-member schools sponsoring boys’ lacrosse must adhere to a PIAA Board of Directors-established first Regular Season Practice date, first Inter-School Practice or Scrimmage date, first Regular Season Contest date, last Regular Season Contest date, and maximum number of Regular Season Contests.

Presently, there are no plans for PIAA to sponsor a statewide championship in boys’ lacrosse. However, the growth of boys’ lacrosse will be closely monitored by the Board of Directors; and future consideration may be given to establishing a statewide championship. PIAA will continue to provide updated information and announcements regarding boys’ lacrosse on its Web site at www.piaa.org.