Feb. 9, 2022 — About that beginning date ….

So, I assumed that NCAA Division I ladies’s lacrosse could be beginning regular-season video games this Saturday, which is a bit later than prior to now; I keep in mind a few years when there have been January regular-season video games in Division I.

However, what to my questioning eyes have appeared? 13 video games beginning tomorrow in Division I.

I’ve by no means been a fan of February lacrosse, particularly as local weather change has led to extra extreme climate than within the latest previous. We’re solely every week faraway from a chilly snap that resulted in a few of the coldest temperatures ever recorded in New England. Nice for hockey (particularly rinks cooled by the ambient temperature of the surface), however not so good for lacrosse.

What actually soured me, nonetheless, was the well being and security of the student-athletes. Again in 2013, a bus ran off an icy stretch of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, killing the bus driver, the pinnacle ladies’s lacrosse coach of Seton Hill, and her unborn toddler.

Sure, there are millions of NCAA sporting occasions held in winter climates which don’t end in loss of life or harm. One way or the other, basketball groups and their followers are in a position to get to varied locations with out a downside each single yr.

However I fret concerning the begin of lacrosse season, and the ever-present risk of arctic chilly, snow, and ice.

At the least, a lot of colleges, reminiscent of Michigan, Maryland, Northwestern, Boston School, and Notre Dame, have indoor amenities they will faucet into if inclement climate. It doesn’t do a lot for followers who wish to come out to see video games, nevertheless it does no less than enable video games to go on if want be.

However I’m of the persuasion that Division I lacrosse season ought to begin in March, and groups must be obligated to have two video games every week. Given the non-contact nature of the ladies’s recreation, I’m completely amazed that extra groups don’t attempt to compact their schedules in order that they will end the common season in about eight weeks, then have a convention schedule in a single week, then lower all the way down to a Last 4 in two weeks, then the nationwide championship on Memorial Day Weekend.

Is there one thing I’m lacking?