BRODHEAD — The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) announced in its December 2, 2022 meeting that it would be adding boys and girls lacrosse as a sanctioned sport in 2024, and Brodhead will be part of the upcoming inaugural season.
Brodhead will co-op with Oregon in boys and girls lacrosse. Other members of the co-op include Stoughton, McFarland and Evansville. For the 2024 spring season, Brodhead athletic director Brian Kammerer reported one male participant.
Like its boys hockey co-op, Brodhead’s partnership with Oregon for lacrosse is self-funded by the student athletes and their families. Brodhead offers boys and girls cross country, football, volleyball, boys and girls basketball, wrestling, baseball, boys and girls track and field, boys golf and softball, and the athletic department is unable to financially support more sports.
The draw, then, to Oregon is that their athletic department does not issue a sports fee. Athletes can participate in Panther athletics for free. The Oregon School District provides transportation to athletes from Oregon to its away contests; Brodhead athletes are responsible for transportation to Oregon.
Oregon lacrosse girls head coach Josh Klein said the co-op with Brodhead, Evansville, McFarland and Stoughton was approved in a school board meeting in 2023. Member schools are largely based on participation in the Oregon club and youth lacrosse programs.
“We want to get the word out,” Klein said. “This is an option for student athletes that they might not know about if they didn’t grow up in the youth program.”
Those interested in participating in the Oregon lacrosse co-ops should contact athletic director Brittany Spencer Grant at bsg@oregonsd.net.
Lacrosse is the first new WIAA-sanctioned sport offered to both boys and girls since soccer in the 1982-83 season.
In the inaugural season, all teams are limited to 18 regular-season games, including the conference tournament. The WIAA tournament series is not included in this count.
On Dec. 1, 2023, the WIAA announced that the first three years of the state championship would be held at the Bank of Sun Prairie Stadium. The location has a capacity of 4,100 with two concession stands, four ticket windows, three full-sized locker rooms, an officials’ locker room, an athletic training room and nine booths in its press box.
Divisions for playoffs will be determined by combined enrollment of the participant schools. Each division will have four sections, and seeding will be determined by a coaches meeting. There will be two regional games followed by two sectional games before the state tournament. The higher seed will host through the sectional semifinals, and sectional finals will be at a neutral site determined by the WIAA. The four sectional winners will play in the state tournament on Saturday, June 8. Seeding will be determined by participating coaches.
More information regarding rules and regulations and tournament procedures can be found on the WIAA website under the lacrosse tab.
