Faceoff Evolution and Specialization

I was talking to Mike, the dad of one of my son's teammates this weekend. Mike was a pretty good college player back in the day. His older son is a senior in high school and younger son is a middie on my son's team. Both boys take a decent number of faceoffs so I asked Mike whether he took faceoffs too.

Mike said he was a faceoff guy as well but that the techniques had changed completely over the years. He reminded me that years ago the ref used to place the ball in between the heads of the two sticks. Now of course the ref puts the ball on the line and the players place their sticks down themselves. It turns out that the rule change completely changed the techniques that the faceoff guys use so he can't even give his sons any useful tips.

Mike also thought that the faceoff guys (aka FOGO for Face Off, Get Off) are so important to the game that the specialization is hurting the sport. He noted that a good FOGO is so hugely important that it affects the game too much. (And this is a former faceoff guy and dad to a couple younger ones talking!) He wondered whether the sport might be better off going to a standing start more like what the women use. We also could just have a ref bounce or roll the ball in for that matter.

I happen to like the specialization of lacrosse. I like that people like defensive middies, goalies and FOGOs have such an impact on the game that it takes a lot of players to make a good team. If some kid can get himself a little extra playing time in high school or college money because he is a great faceoff guy or LSM or whatever, I'm OK with that.