What the Shot Clock Means for Public High School Lacrosse in New York

The Wappingers girls’ lacrosse team made history last spring as the first Dutchess County, N.Y., team to reach the Section 1 championship.

The Titans came close to more history when they lost 7-6 to Suffern in the title game. Their defeat was sealed after Suffern chose to hold the ball for over 10 minutes to end the game after losing their top player to two yellow cards.

“Ultimately, what they did was within the rules of the game,” Wappingers coach Sean Rowan said. “And to be honest, we had done it to opponents as well. So, it was just always part of the game when you had a lead — you slow it down and limit possessions.”

That scenario won’t happen to the same degree next season after the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) approved a New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) request to experiment with a shot clock for boys’ and girls’ lacrosse in 2025.

“This is an experiment. We are analyzing data. We are looking at the effectiveness of the shot clock to make sure it’s going to add and benefit the game rather than be a detriment,” Dr. Robert Zayas, executive director of NYSPHSAA said. “One of the things that we’re most excited about is to give our student-athletes the opportunity to really lead the way nationally for the use of the possession shot clock.”

Zayas says that every section of New York will use the shot clock. New York is the first sanctioned state playing under NFHS rules to adopt the shot clock for public high school lacrosse. New York was also among the first eight states to adopt a shot clock for basketball when it did so in 1987-88.

NCAA women’s lacrosse introduced a 90-second shot clock in 2017. NCAA men’s lacrosse followed in 2019 when it put an 80-second shot clock in place (the possessing team must cross midfield within 20 seconds). The college men added a 60-second reset in 2021-22 if the offensive team regains possession after a shot.

The Premier Lacrosse League has a 52-second shot clock that last year was reduced to 32 seconds on faceoff wins and on offensive resets after the attack retains possession. The National Lacrosse League has a 30-second shot clock.

In June, World Lacrosse proposed an 80-second clock for both men and women. Final details are being sorted out, but if it passes, it will go into effect January 2026 for men and January 2027 for women.

“It really legitimizes the sport at the high school level,” Highland Park (Texas) boys’ coach Mike Pressler said. “This is something these guys are going to play with in college anyway and can start it up now.”

Pressler has coached at every level. Currently the New York Atlas coach in the PLL, the former Duke and Bryant head coach has spent the last two springs coaching Highland Park.

“The speed of the game, the speed of practice, the speed of coaching, it changes everything,” Pressler said. “It’s been great in my two years here in Texas being a high school coach. I couldn’t imagine not playing with it.”

Texas, which is working to get lacrosse sanctioned statewide, uses slightly modified NCAA rules. The Lone Star State has been playing with a shot clock on the boys’ side for three seasons.

“We’ve had no glitches,” said Troy Walker, commissioner of the Texas High School Lacrosse League. “As far as the league is concerned, there have been no protests on shot clock scoring. We’ve had no issues whatsoever.”

Texas’ governing body meets in September each year to vote on any modified or changed NCAA rules that they want to adopt. Texas uses the 80-second shot clock used by NCAA men’s lacrosse but without the 60-second reset.

“Typically, we adopt all the rules, unless it’s just going to be a nightmare,” Walker said. “Like video replay would be an absolute nightmare for us. So, we don’t do that.”

Texas chose not to use the 60-second reset because teams often have parent volunteers operating shot clocks and want to keep it as simple as possible. Last spring, for the first time, to eliminate any potential bias, they used state officials to run the shot clock in all playoff games. The Texas Girls High School Lacrosse League (TGHSLL) has not adopted the shot clock but expects to explore its addition for 2026.

“We’re going to use it at the sixes level, but my traditional lacrosse teams want it to come in, too,” Kristi Cancelmo, president of the TGHSLL, said. “I think everybody is expecting it to come in, and I think they want it. We kind of thought it would happen last year.”

Private high schools have employed the shot clock already in several areas of the country. The girls’ Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland (IAAM) adopted it in 2022 in its A and B Conferences, while the boys’ Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) introduced the shot clock in 2019.

“It makes the game better in every aspect,” Bryan Kelly, Calvert Hall (Md.) head coach, said. “It really allows the team that’s playing the best to win. You can’t stall, you can’t slow the game down, you have a certain timeframe to make something happen. And if you don’t, the ball’s going the other way, and it could be two minutes left in the game and you’re down by two, you still have a chance to win.”

Kelly won’t play games that don’t use the shot clock anymore because the game changes so drastically for his players. It’s like going back to a flip phone after having a smartphone.

“If you’re not running a shot clock, you’re not preparing these kids for college,” Kelly said. “So, they go in and they’re at a massive disadvantage, in my opinion.”

The Philadelphia-area Inter-Ac girls’ league played with a shot clock in 2024 for the first time. The Inter-Ac boys adopted one in 2020, a year after the NCAA. The Washington, D.C., area Interstate Athletic Conference boys started in 2019. The New England West 1 teams added shot clock in 2022.

“I think it was only a matter of time, just with how much women’s lacrosse has developed,” Rowan said. “Ultimately, I think that it’s going to take probably a year for people to get used to it. But like anything else, as rules change, you’ve got to adjust and adapt and kind of embrace all the changes.”

Getting more state’s public leagues on board could take time. Inquiries to officials for two of the larger lacrosse states in emerging areas, Florida and Southern California, went unanswered. Other states in more traditional lacrosse areas have recognized New York’s experiment but aren’t there yet. Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association executive director Andy Warner said his state “inquired into the process and rationale for New York piloting a shot clock in lacrosse” but hasn’t had any significant details discussions at this time.

“The biggest hurdles with significant rule changes is the education and training of officials, consistent application of the new playing rules, training of workers to properly operate the shot clock, how the shot clock affects play, does it create a safer or inherently create a greater risk of injury, and financial considerations for local educational agencies to purchase, install and perform maintenance on working shot clocks that can be viewed on both ends of the field,” Warner said.

Michael Cherenson, spokesman for the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, noted that New Jersey — like Maryland — plays by NFHS rules that do not support the shot clock, and New York is on an experimental program.

“New Jersey’s not part of that pilot,” Cherenson said. “And there are no talks right now.”

The Garden State isn’t alone.

“We’ve had conversations about it off and on for the past few years in boys’ lacrosse, but this is the first full experiment request,” Dr. James Weaver, director of performing arts and sports at the NFHS, said.

New York is also the first known state from the girls’ side of a sanctioned state.

“I have not had any requests for girls’ lacrosse to experiment with the shot clock since I have been working with the sport,” said NFHS director of sports Lindsey Atkinson, who has worked in girls’ lacrosse since 2019.

New York could have changed the shot clock rules on its own without the permission of the NFHS, but the state took a big-picture approach.

“It’s a lot more beneficial with the support of our national governing body,” Zayas said. “And I also think that by going through the NFHS, it helps other state associations who may be examining this as a potential implementation in their own states.”

Jim Amen, chair of the New York Boys Lacrosse Committee, said the state began talking about a potential shot clock almost two years ago. Pace of play was a key part of talks.

“Lacrosse is supposed to be the fastest game on two feet,” Amen said. “It certainly at the high school level is not.”

Safety was a big consideration for New York. Administrators looked at curbing some of the other unintended consequences of teams playing keep away in the closing minutes.

“What happens then is a team is confined to that narrow area,” Walt Munze said. “And we found that there’s all kinds of penalties that occur, a lot of slashing penalties, because the team’s not trying to go to the goal.”

Munze, New York’s Boys Lacrosse Committee State Rules Interpreter and New York representative to the NFHS boys’ lacrosse committee as well as past president of both the Central New York and the New York State Lacrosse Officials Associations, was one of the main people who wrote the specifics of the new shot clock rules.

The boys’ game maintained the 20-second clearing rule, and then attacking teams have 10 seconds to get the ball into the offensive box, when the 60-second shot clock will begin. Officials will manage the clearing and 10-second count as they do currently, and the over and back rule will be applied once the offensive team enters the box.

The girls’ game has a 90-second shot clock once a team gains possession, just like in college. In both sports, the clock will be fully reset on a valid shot that is saved or hits a pipe or crossbar.

“My goal was to get a shot clock in but not change the game,” Munze said. “I was just trying to get some setup where we had some sort of a governing time limit, but not to change our game.”

The shot clock will change things. Everyone who has moved to it has had to adjust.

“It changes the way you really focus on the subbing game,” Kelly said. “You’ve got to be better at it. You can’t be slow. You gotta be efficient. You have to focus on your early offense. You have to get guys on and off the field.”

“It’s going to force coaches to put a much greater emphasis on developing their goalies and developing their draw operations,” Rowan said. “Inevitably, your goalie is going to see a lot more shots, and then you’re going to have to take a lot more draws.”

Coaches like the way the shot clock mirrors the college game and prepares players for the next level.

“Having to clear it in 20, you have to be more efficient,” Episcopal School of Dallas coach Jay Sothoron said. “I was a college guy, and I actually think my biggest complaint when kids would come from high school, one area they were really bad at was understanding how to clear the ball and do it in the timely manner.”

While it could hurt teams that want to play longer possessions, it also can help teams make up for other areas of weakness.

“It also helps neutralize the faceoff a little bit,” Kelly said. “If the team dominates the faceoff, you still have a shot to win the game.”

The shot clock affects personnel as well.

“Having two-way middies is a must,” Pressler said. “The days of the O-middie in high school are over, in my opinion. The true D-middies and the two-way guys play the entire game. And the O-middies, you just don’t have time to get them on the field, much less time to get them off the field. That part for me changed immediately.”

Criticisms of adding shot clock range from a belief they are not necessary to speed up play to the increased financial strains. While some are counting on using football play clocks, others could have to purchase clocks. But New York is not mandating a visible shot clock. Their shot clock can be kept at midfield by an operator who communicates with officials on the field, according to Zayas, who acknowledges that paying the clock operator is a new cost.

“We really feel like the added cost is going to be worth the benefit to the student-athletes,” he said. “I really look at this as a kid-focused role or student-athlete-focused change in that we’re listening to our student-athletes, we’re listening to our coaches, that they feel like this is going to improve the game, and I think it then becomes our responsibility as state association leaders to find a way to help them improve the game to the level that they see most appropriate.”

The shot clock changes the game for on-field officials, too. Bob Novak has been officiating for almost 30 years, both with NFHS rules and recently with Texas’ new shot clock.

“Obviously, the issue now is the communication with the shot clock person,” he said. “We have varying degrees of success with them where they reset it when they shouldn’t or they’re not resetting it when they should.”

While that adds something to deal with, officials no longer need to worry about initiating stalling warnings.

“The shot clock actually takes that subjectivity out of it now,” Novak said. “It puts it back in the hands of the team to get the ball on goal.”

One of the conditions required for the NFHS’ approval is that New York submit data on its 2025 season. The state has been working with the NFHS to determine what data would be most important.

New York will compare a relatively small sample size from championship-level games it charted in 2024 of times it took teams to shoot after crossing midfield. New York will assess next spring’s games by taking feedback from coaches and administrators and would have to apply for another year with the shot clock in 2026.

“A lot of states are curious as to how it’s going to go for us because other states have had similar discussions,” Zayas said. “We just happen to be the one that’s out in front on it. We’re excited to lead the way.”