After months of study and discussion, The Section Five Lacrosse Committee has announced that the end of year tournaments will be open for all thirty-six teams in the Section. Concerns over costs and questions over lop-sided early round games prompted the Committee to study the possibility of returning to a closed tournament after more than a dozen years that allowed everyone to play.

On a parallel course, the Section Five Executive Committee, responsible for all sports teams in the Section, recently received the results of a section-wide survey of the interests and concerns of school administrators. It is expected that the Executive Committee will take some time to see if there are issues (like tournaments) that should be addressed at the Section level, rather than just at the sports level. Lacrosse Chairman Mike Simon, who also serves on the Executive Committee, said, "It makes sense for the Executive Committee to take some time to study the reports," [to see if the data from administrators might help to determine the best direction.]

With financial problems throughout the State, the Lacrosse Committee felt that athletic leadership needs to help in any way possible. At the same time, Assistant Chairman, Paul Wilson noted, "we are seeing huge blow-outs in the early rounds of our tournaments. That can't be good for lacrosse or fun for the players on either end of the field and it's no way for seniors to end their high school career." On the other hand, some Head Coaches felt that with the cut-back by the State from eighteen to sixteen regular season games, keeping even one more game was valuable.

Given the multitude of issues, the Lacrosse Committee decided to recommend continuing the 2010 system in 2011 but expects to bring the issue up again next summer.

There are nine Class A teams, eleven Class B and sixteen Class C teams in Section Five this year.

The 2011 tournaments will start on with out bracket games on Saturday, May 21st. The quarter final rounds will be held on Tuesday, May 24th, the Semi finals on Friday May 27th and the Championships will be held (at St. John Fisher College) on Tuesday, May 31st.

For more information on times and brackets, see the Tournament Page.