Competitive tryouts will take place in January for the new Tomahawks Girls Lacrosse Club, whose season will stretch from mid-February to mid-May.

While most of the graduating middle school girls’ lacrosse players in PAUSD look forward to expand their field experience with Gunn High school’s six-year-old program, girls planning to attend Palo Alto High School struggle finding an alternative sport; playing at a local club is an option only for boys. Lacrosse fans again failed to add girls’ lacrosse to Paly’s sports program in the spring 2007, however, they were able to open a local club’s training for potential school-representing players.

"I have been able to secure a commitment from the Tomahawks Lacrosse Club to start a girls’ high school program effective with the upcoming season," said Sherry Bijan, a mother of two girls’ lacrosse players, who has been trying to start a Paly team for a solid year.

Tomahawks girls’ lacrosse team would be comprised of mostly Paly students and will be competing against recently formed club teams in the San Francisco peninsula, According to Bijan. The team will practice two to three times a week on the small upper field on the Paly campus, and might have scrimmages against other schools, Bijan said.

According to Bijan, the indication of interest is very high.

"50 kids [majority are Paly students] indicated interest," Bijan said. "Since it is ideal to have 18 kids on a team, Tomahawks will have both varsity and junior varsity teams."

Bijan is confident about Tomahawks’ training quality.

"Tomahawks has a good history and training," Bijan said. "Although the coaching staff has not been finalized, I have been working with many experienced coaches at Gunn and Woodside. Many former lacrosse players at Stanford also have shown interest in coaching [the girls’ team]."

Bijan and Paly students hope the team will be turned over to Paly next year as a school team.

"It is not what I had hoped for," Bijan said. "But it serves the purpose in providing the girls an avenue through which they can acquire the experience and skills necessary to form a school team moving forward."

Already ex-lacrosse players are getting excited for the new team.

"I am definitely optimistic about it [starting the team at Tomahawks]," said sophomore Helene Zahoudanis, who will be joining the team after having to quit playing lacrosse since middle school graduation. "By joining the team, Paly students will be able to show their interest for having a school team."

Title IX rules, which require schools to provide equal support for both boys and girls athletics, is one of the reasons why Paly should have a girls lacrosse team, according to Bijan. As Paly has been short one girls sport for the past several years, girls lacrosse is the most obvious choice to fix the problem, because other schools’ have teams, Bijan said. Currently, Gunn, Leland, Menlo Atherton, Menlo, Woodside, Monta Vista, Castilleja, and many other schools have a lacrosse team.

Paly Athletic department, however, is unsure if they can move forward with a lacrosse program.

"Now that we have girls’ golf [for the upcoming spring season], Paly’s sports program is full," said athletic director Earl Hansen. "If we were to add another sport, it would be girls’ lacrosse, but I don’t know [If Paly would have the team by spring 2008]. We are not making any progress."

Lacrosse is comparatively a low cost program as all of the equipment used is personal, according to Bijan. Other than the fact that Paly has facilities, the main problem to be solved is PAUSD "equity" between schools, Bijan said.

"Gunn has had a lacrosse program for more than six years," Bijan said. "The school district and the community make sure all schools are supported with equal programs, but where is the ‘equity’ in that [no Paly team]?"

As a result of the district’s strict "equity" policies, Tomahawks failed to donate $100,000 for Paly’s upper field renovation because the school district wanted Gunn to receive the same amount of money for the same use. Tomahawks either had to pay a double amount of that money or their donation had to be split exactly in half. Since the girls will be practicing at Paly, the club did not want to use their money for Gunn. Bijan thinks the district should be consistent with their equity rules.

Lastly, many Paly students want to have a school team.

"I don’t see any reason why we can’t have a school team," Zahoudanis said. "There are so many people who are interested."

The registration for Tomahawks Lacrosse Club team is now officially open and runs to Dec. 1, which is a drop deadline since the team has to be registered to Northern California Junior Lacrosse Association, according to Bijan. Students can register online at http://www.sportability.com/SPX/Leagues/Client.asp?ClientID=359 with a refundable $450 fee.

For more information, contact Sherry Bijan at [email protected]