JENSEN BEACH — More than 300 lacrosse supporters, some waving sticks and some wearing jerseys, attended Tuesday’s Martin County School Board meeting to ask the School Board to consider adding lacrosse into the school district.

Even though a rule change, which would broaden the number of sports that could become athletic clubs in the county’s high school including lacrosse, was removed from the agenda that didn’t stop hundreds of lacrosse supporters from coming out to the meeting at Jensen Beach High.

“Let these kids play. Let them play lacrosse in the county high schools,” said Chris Anderson, president of the Martin County Pioneer Lacrosse youth league.

The league, which formed in 2005, is for children ages 6-14 and has grown to include more than 300 players on 11 teams.

School Board Chairwoman Lorie Shekailo had asked to remove the rule change from Tuesday’s agenda because she said more discussion was needed.

“Even if the board were to approve the policy change tonight, it would have no impact whatsoever on whether or not you would be able to play lacrosse or to have lacrosse teams,” Shekailo said at the beginning of the meeting.

The rule change in question would make sports that are recognized by the Florida High School Athletic Association eligible for club status. Currently, only sanctioned sports are eligible.

Martin County Commissioner Ed Ciampi, whose three children play lacrosse, offered to help the board make lacrosse a reality by being a liaison between elected officials and lacrosse families.

“I know there is no better feeling than to tell our constituents ’Yes,’” said Ciampi, a Palm City resident. “This will be an opportunity … a wonderful, fantastic success.”

After hearing more than a dozen people speak in favor of lacrosse, School Board members said they thought lacrosse would one day be played in schools.

“If it was based on numbers, we would be idiots to turn you down,” longtime board member David “Doc” Anderson said. “It’s obvious that the interest is there. You’ll have your lacrosse.”

By Kelly Tyko

Tags: beach, chairwoman, children, club, commissioners, Florida, kids, Schools

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 at 9:24 am and is filed under Martin County, Schools, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.