So after our discussion in class I will be working on why lacrosse has grown so suddenly in the state of Georgia. I understand that people wan to play the sport, but the sudden expansion of it in Georgia is what I will mainly focus on.
Some questions I want to ask are:
- Is lacrosse pulling kids away from other sports, if so what other sports? Why is lacrosse pulling these kids away from these sports?
- How much more prone to head injuries is someone who plays lacrosse versus football?
- When did the growth begin? And why have high schools decided to suddenly making it a varsity sport? Were there club teams before high schools decided to make lacrosse a varsity spot?
- Where is lacrosse expanding to in Georgia? How does it get beyond the “country club” notion many perceive it to have? Has it gotten beyond that?
- What draws kids to lacrosse versus football or baseball or track (because both are springtime running sports).
- Has the growth peaked or plateaued and how many schools will have lacrosse by 2020?
- Where are the schools getting funds to support lacrosse programs? Are they allocating resources or are the lacrosse programs mostly self-funded?
If you think of any more questions please feel free to share them with me.
I am planning on using the GHSA for much of my research because they are the only organization I can think of that would have records to document the growth of lacrosse. Apart form them I play on contacting several coaches to find out their thoughts about the growth and what they have seen in the past decade.
Because this trend hasn’t been documented a whole lot I am still searching for a starting point. I think the increase in the number of varsity programs is a good one, but I am struggling thinking of who I could contact after that to answer some of my other questions because it seems like many of these haven’t been documented. Calling coaches seems like the only way I might find the answers to some of theses questions, especially the first one.
I think a cool basic graphic could be just showing the increase in high school lacrosse programs in Georgia over the last ten years. Another one, depending on what information I find, could show the head injuries in lacrosse versus football and if that may be a contributor to the rise in youth lacrosse numbers.
Another interactive graphic would be to show where lacrosse has popped up in Georgia and the timely manner in which it has done so. This is mainly to see the expansion in Georgia over a certain time.
As far as sidebars are concerned, anyone of these questions could lead into sidebars. I think my questions are spread over a wide range of topics dealing with lacrosse which may not all make it into the main story. I think the last question I posed would make an interesting sidebar piece. I know the high schools have to support a lacrosse program, but how much money do the boosters of those programs dump into them and does it have any correlation with the team’s success.
So look also at nfs.org; they have state-by-state, sport-by-sport participation numbers going back awhile. That should allow you to get Georgia data to see if there’s really a substitution effect (lax drawing from other sports) or a growth effect (lax drawing new athletes). I would think about building that graphic and then talking to as many coaches and hopefully parents as you can. It may also have to do with families migrating from other parts of the country. I think the key decision is prioritizing the story. That is, is growth the key story? Is it the desirability of lacrosse? Something else?