From left, Kelsi Burth, Stephanie Kilbourne-Hill and Tyler Burth urge the Saranac Lake school board to create a girls modified lacrosse team during Wednesday night’s meeting. (Enterprise photo — Griffin Kelly)

SARANAC LAKE — Though spring sports start this month, the Saranac Lake Central School District might add a girls modified lacrosse team to its roster of athletic programs.

At the March 18 Board of Education meeting, the board will decide whether to move forward with the team.

The modified sports season starts March 23. Junior varsity and varsity teams begin practicing this Monday, March 9. If a team is approved, it would be handicapped in terms of preparation.

“It’s a tight schedule, but it’s not impossible,” SLCSD Athletic Director Eric Bennett said in a phone interview Friday. “It’s a great opportunity for our kids, and it’s important to have feeder programs for our varsity.”

At Wednesday night’s board meeting, multiple supporters showed up to say why the school should have a girls modified lacrosse team.

John Burth, who coaches the Tri-Lakes Youth Lacrosse girls team, said he had a list of 18 seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grade girls who would like to play on a modified team. He said those girls might get on the varsity team but likely wouldn’t play too often. He recognized that it’s cutting it close to get a new team formed, but he still thinks it would be worthwhile.

“If we can’t have a full 12-game season — if it ends up being eight or nine games, I think there is still more benefit to having a modified team, having the girls have that opportunity than to having over 30 girls on one (varsity) team,” he said.

Burth also spoke to the Lake Placid school board on Feb. 18 about adding a girls modified lacrosse team.

His twin daughters, Tyler and Kelsi, and Stephanie Kilbourne-Hill, who played on the Tri-Lakes Youth Lacrosse team, also spoke that night.

“I’m in sixth grade, and I’ve been playing lacrosse since first grade,” Kilbourne-Hill said. “I think it would be a lot more fun for me to play on a modified team rather than playing on varsity.”

Tyler said she’s scared of possibly having to try out for a varsity team.

“What if I wasn’t big enough, or strong enough?” she said. “Even if I did, what if I just end up sitting on the bench? Honestly, even the possibility of not being able to play my sport is terrifying.

“Me and the other young women on my team love the sport of lacrosse, and all we want is the opportunity to better ourselves at the sport we love.”

In the past, some of the obstacles for not having a modified girls team were practice space, busing and interest.

Many sports such as baseball, softball and lacrosse practice inside for a good part of the season because of snow, cold weather and mud. Finding space for a new lacrosse team would add to that congestion in the school gyms. However, Bennett said he should be able to find space at the middle school for the modified girls to practice.

Bennett said if a team is created, it would most likely be a Saranac Lake team with some Lake Placid students on it, not a combined Saranac Lake Placid team like how the two districts do with boys and girls varsity lacrosse and hockey teams. The Lake Placid students would have to find their own way to practice, similar to how the Saranac Lake modified boys team operates.

In terms of getting the modified team to games, Bennett said it should be as simple as having the girls travel on the same bus as the varsity team.

“Lake Placid is managing the SLP girls varsity this year,” he said, “and when I spoke to (Lake Placid Athletic Director) John Burdick, he said he doesn’t anticipate it being a problem.”

In an interview Thursday, school Superintendent Diane Fox said it would cost about $7,000 to manage the team.

Bennett said he believes there is an interest among students for the team this year. He said there were a few modified-age girls on the varsity team last year, and he expects some this year.

“We’re having daily announcements and sign-up sheets,” he said. “The message is if you’re ready and willing to commit to a girls modified team, please sign up. We’ll have that (participation) info by Monday.”

Hiring a new coach can be a lengthy process. If the person hasn’t worked with the district before, the person needs to get fingerprinted and go through first-aid training. Bennett said he’s looking for a coach but hasn’t received any interest yet.

“We put out a notice, and the deadline is March 13,” he said. “If we still don’t have a candidate, we’ll start putting our feelers out for who else in the lacrosse community here or in Lake Placid could step into that role.”

If the school board approves the team, Bennett said his job will be to reach out to Section X schools to see if they have the desire and the budget to compete with Saranac Lake on a modified level.

“It would be getting a coach up to speed, organizing the outdoor practice space,” he said. “It’s going to be basically making sure the team feels supported.”