Format. Most of our games will be 7 on 7. This was decided by the league since the
league has a bunch of teams that wouldn’t have enough athletes at our age group
for a standard 10 v 10 format. Since we have 19 players, this will mean that
there will be a lot of kids on the bench at a time. That’s one of the reasons I
scheduled this Saturday’s game as a split squad game so that we will have a 10
player team and a 9 player team which means very little bench time compared to
most of our other games.
Referees. The league decided that we'd have coaches/parents ref. If you know the rules of lacrosse and would like to volunteer, please let me know, otherwise the coaches will be officiating.
Positions. In 7 v 7,
we will play a goalie, two defense, two middies and two attack. We are doing
our best to make sure everyone gets to play all the positions and no one will
sit out more than anyone else (over the course of the season). Most boys seem
to want to play Middie most of the time but since there are only 2 middie
positions at any given time, that is an issue. I also understand that goalie is
not a desired position for most but it is a position we need and to be fair to
everyone, it will be a position that everyone will play, though if there are
serious issues with anyone playing it, it will be considered or minimized. I’ve
actually changed my mind on the goalie thing a few times now so I’m sorry about
mixed messages but once it came down to breaking down the roster and making
things equitable there is just not another way to do it. I’m intending to make
it so that the benefit of being a goalie for a game is that you will not have
to be benched during that game. We’ll see how that works out.
Field. The league decided it would be a good idea to use shortened fields since the boys are 'so small'. I don't personally agree with this one but it is what it is. Goals will be moved up to the restraining lines and we'll have to use makeshift lines and crease.
Field. The league decided it would be a good idea to use shortened fields since the boys are 'so small'. I don't personally agree with this one but it is what it is. Goals will be moved up to the restraining lines and we'll have to use makeshift lines and crease.
Extra Zeeland Specific lingo for parents:
As noted above, there are 4 major positions (goal, defense,
Midfield, Attack). In lacrosse, those positions can be further broken down and
these are the terms you will hear as it pertains to our team.
Middie - Middies
are usually the only ones who can go the whole field. For 7v7 there will be two
middies: center and wing. We’ll tend to call the center the Face-Off Middie. Sometimes you’ll hear us call the center a
FOGO which in lacrosse slang means (Face Off/ Get Off) but that really doesn’t
apply to our age group since we don’t have boys that only specialize in
Face-offs then get off the field once possession is declared…. which is what
FOGO technically means. When Middies are
playing defense, they will be playing man defense.
X Attack – Our X
has the job to spend the majority of the time behind the net to stay open for
feeds from the other offensive players and so that we are highly likely to get
the ball if a shot on goal goes wide and out of bounds. In lacrosse if a shot goes out of
bounds, the closest team to the ball when it goes out, gets the ball. We don’t
want X to be behind the goal until the ball is on our offensive side of the
field.
Y Attack – we had
to give the second attackman a designation and we resigned ourselves to call it
Y. His job is to simply get open and get as close to the goal as possible for
shots.
Center D – After a
bit of experimentation we realized at this age that a standard man defense or a
standard zone defense wasn’t going to be executed very well so we created a
Center D position. His job is to stand a
few steps in front of the crease (crease is the circle around the goal) and
always stay between the ball and the goal and be the last line of defense
between an offensive player getting too close to the goal. Basically we are
trying to avoid an opposing player having no one at all between him and the
goalie.
On Ball D – As noted
above we are trying to come up with the simplest defensive scheme that doesn’t
leave the goalie all alone. The On Ball Defenseman will always be going after
the offensive player with the ball. Since midfielders are playing man defense,
if the midfielder is already ‘on-ball’ then the On Ball D will be the backup.
We realize this has the potential to leave opposing players more open but this
is about simplicity and the general idea that at this level a lot of passes
aren’t getting completed too often… so cover the guy who has it.
Offsides- So… an offsides
penalty is when you don’t have 3 players on your side of the field (usually goalie
and two defense) and two players on your offensive side (two attack). In 10 v
10, you add one player per side. Unlike soccer, offsides has nothing to do with
where the ball is and simply how many players are on each side of the midfield
line. Technically, the position of the player doesn’t matter and defense can go
to the offensive side of the field if
a middie stays on the defensive side to compensate (usually called Middie Back)
but this seems like a hard concept to grasp at the moment so we are telling our
players that offense stays on their side, defense stays on their side and
middies go where the ball is.
Lacrosse Vocabulary Link:
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