The NCAA has reclassified men’s and women’s lacrosse as sports with intermediate risk for COVID-19 transmission in its return-to-play guidelines, encouraging news especially as US Lacrosse lobbies the NFHS, state and local authorities to do the same for boys’ lacrosse.
In a 29-page document titled “Resocialization of Collegiate Sport: Developing Standards for Practice and Competition,” the NCAA Sport Science Institute updated its recommendations for COVID-19 testing and transmission risk classification for each sport. The NCAA released the new guidelines Friday.
The NCAA originally had classified lacrosse among sports with a high risk of COVID-19 transmission when it published the first edition of this document in July.
Field hockey, rowing, soccer and volleyball (with face masks) were also reclassified as posing intermediate risk — leaving basketball, football, ice hockey, volleyball (without face masks), water polo and wrestling as the only sports in the high-risk category.
The NFHS has classified girls' lacrosse as a moderate-risk sport, but has labeled boys' lacrosse as a high-risk sport, a designation that US Lacrosse has asked the national high school sports association to reconsider.
In addition to direct outreach to the NFHS leadership, US Lacrosse has written letters to state government officials in states who list lacrosse classification as high-risk. US Lacrosse also is participating in a multi-sport survey examining COVID-19 risk and leading grassroots efforts to organize lacrosse league and program leaders’ outreach to their local public officials about the importance of changing risk classification.
US Lacrosse hopes these groups will come to the same conclusion as the NCAA. The sport’s national governing body shared its position paper on the subject with the NCAA in advance of its reclassification of lacrosse.
“The US Lacrosse Sports Science and Safety Committee supports boys’ and girls’ lacrosse being grouped together in the moderate-risk category,” said Dr. Gene Hong, chair of the committee and co-chair of the US Lacrosse Return to Play medical advisory group.