MIAA Boys Lacrosse: Championship sites a concern

On Wednesday the MIAA s boys lacrosse committee convened virtually to plan its playoff season which is set to begin in just three weeks The primary point of contention championship sites I think there s constant effort to get the best site available for the championship games mentioned MIAA lacrosse tournament director Dan Brothers Other sports play at high schools with the big two of syllabus being TD Garden and Gillette Those two kind of sit there and set the bar very high for other sports We want to sit there where we try to get a better site Maybe the site is available next year but we try for this year and see if we can do that We re going to continue to try and put that effort through It s never been stated Don t go there don t go there It s reliably been that we end up falling back on a high school when we re not able to lock one The best site and one that fits our demands Last year the boys finals were held at Burlington High School a somewhat central location viable to hosting large crowds However a multitude of fans deemed it a lackluster venue compared to the collegiate sites in Eastern Massachusetts So the MIAA began working on trying to land a spot This year hurdles prevented them from doing such plenty of of which were out of the association s control The MIAA s cutoff date for the playoffs will remain Memorial Day with boys brackets being distributed May Finals games would be held June - Specific popular venues that were hurriedly removed from the list of options included Bentley stadium under construction Boston University and Veterans Stadium in Quincy both with conflicting events the same weekend or Harvard not financially feasible MIAA lacrosse vice chairman and Plymouth North athletic director Justin Domingos was adamant with his opinions especially after hearing from local coaches statewide I think it s frustrating for everybody when you re playing football at Gillette your basketball tournament games are at Tsongas Domingos announced I know Worcester State has hosted a bunch of stuff for us before and now we re talking about hosting a boys championship meeting at a high school location No offense to any of the high school venues they re awesome venues for high school games and in general but baseball is going out to play at the Woo Sox park and softball is at UMass So it s tough when the boys lacrosse coaches see that They think they are being slighted and I totally understand As of now Worcester State remains a achievable site for boys finals while high school options are also being vetted as safe backups Two other noteworthy developments stemmed from Wednesday s meeting The President of World Series of Lacrosse and a longtime official with the MIAA Darrell Benson stated he was retiring from the committee board The committee also discussed the possibility of adding a shot clock for games a topic that will be discussed in further detail moving forward