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Originally posted by stevesmith
as a first year lacrosse official, trying to apply what's written in the rule book to what happens on the field is as difficult an undertaking as any sport I've ever done!
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Steven,
I will be MORE than happy to agree with the above comment. Lacrosse is exceptionally difficult to officiate, at first. I never played either, but had officiating experience in basketball, which helped me immensely. Flag/no flag? Whistle/play on? Shot/pass? Offside/not offside? Way too much going on too fast for any first year official to think about.
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lacrosse is not an easy game to learn for the common uneducated spectator. [snip] there are some concessions that could be made to improve the popularity of Lacrosse without having to change the integrity of the game.
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As far as uneducated spectators go, they will never understand the rules enough to comment on them intelligently. With your own officiating experience, you probably already know that by now. Fans (in any sport) don't really care about what the rule is, they only care that you enforce them in their team's favor.
As far as increasing its popularity, all you have to do is figure out a way to make it easier to watch on TV. I mean that sincerely. If ESPN would show 20 college lax games a year (2 games/week, Tues night and Sat night, plus the current Final Four coverage), and do it in a way that it was easy to watch, with close ups on the guys who are making the plays, lax would be the fastest growing sport in the country. Maybe it is already, I don't know.
Chuck