January 2025 Update
We wanted to reach out and give an update after our meetings with the CUSD District Leadership about starting High School Lacrosse teams.
After our initial meeting with the district in October, we were presented with the option of starting ASB Club Teams at each high school. We put the boys to work filling out applications, rallying signatures, and finding suitable on campus advisors as well as learning about running an ASB Sports Team through FCMAT ASB Manual. Prior to the Christmas Break we had our follow up meeting with the district to submit these ASB applications, however, the district said that after meeting with both sites admin teams there were concerns about moving forward with the ASB Club Team route.
As a result, they presented us the opportunity to be part of the “Spring Student Survey", where students vote on what sports they may want in the coming year. IF lacrosse gets the most votes, then adding Lacrosse as a CIF sport would go to the school board for a vote, and in a best case scenario we would see CIF Lacrosse at each school by Spring 2026.
What does this mean moving forward? In April (they will not give us a hard date) is when the schools will administer this survey to the students, and we need to get students to VOTE FOR LACROSSE. This student survey path is how many schools have adopted CIF Lacrosse programs AND will prove successful if we can rally the student bodies and then the board and community as a whole to support Lacrosse.
Please talk to anyone you know who attends Chico High School & Pleasant Valley High School and make them aware of this survey coming in April and encourage them to vote for lacrosse!
Friends of Chico Lacrosse will be working on a campaign to make the student body aware of the survey and that Lacrosse will be an option. A campaign of this nature will cost money and we encourage everyone with a vested interest in seeing Lacrosse in the high schools to donate what you can to Friends of Chico Lacrosses Go Fund Me. All donated money will be used for marketing materials for students, signs/posters, and paid advertising to get the vote on the April Survey we need to move forward. As we enter the 2025 tax year we will be looking at how we will be raising money for the start of each HS team to show the board there will be financial support that will be donated to offset start up costs of the program in 2026.
We are excited about this path forward but can only make this happen with the support of everyone!
If you have any questions, ideas, or desire to help please reach out.
Campaign 2024-25
Friends and Supporters –
We are excited to begin our CAMPAIGN 2024-25 to bring Boys and Girls CIF Lacrosse to Chico and Pleasant Valley High Schools.
Last year we chose to first work with both schools' administrations and the Chico Unified School District directly, not yet involving or rallying our community in support. While sharing our mission with both boosters’ clubs, local businesses, and community members, we were welcomed with a huge degree of support. When trying to work with School Administrations and the School District we met with minimal support or willingness to work with us.
We have learned that adding any new sport must start at the district level. Therefore, the key to starting CIF Lacrosse programs at CHS and PVHS has to start at the district level. Because of the district’s lack of willingness to develop a path forward, we have chosen to activate our community to pressure the school district to begin a collaborative and constructive process forward to bringing CIF Lacrosse to CHS and PVHS.
If you have questions about our plan, please check out our website and deck that outlines our plans for Chico High School but will be applied at both high schools.
A few key points to keep in mind…
We have procured and will continue to procure all funding for each program. We will not ask for any money from the district, schools, or booster clubs.
We have secured coaching, a facilities plan (currently this plan is only an idea...we would love to work with each school to make this a reality), and entrance into the SJCIF and a league there.
We have secured the support of all major athletic financial donors in the district as well as many local business and community members.
HERE IS WHAT WE ARE ASKING FROM YOU…
PLEASE have your child/neighbor/friend/relatives/yourself/anyone you may know who supports lacrosse, to use the form letters linked below via Google Docs to email daily/ weekly/monthly/as often as you want to the list of emails below.
Click on the links below of the letter that pertains to you, cut and paste the text into your email, fill in the pertinent information, then copy and paste the entire list of district & school admin emails into the TO: section on the email before sending.
LETTER FOR COMMUNITY MEMBERS, BUSINESS, ETC.
ESherida@chicousd.net
JAlvistur@chicousd.org
BKessler@chicousd.org
jimg@unitedbuildingcontractors.com
kjklick@yahoo.com
jgallaty@chicousd.org
dwhittaker@chicousd.org
pjackson@chicousd.org
president@pvsportsboosters.com
pcaldera@chicousd.org
caitlin.dalby@chicousd.org
rebecca.konkin@chicousd.org
tlando@chicousd.org
erobinson@chicousd.org
matt.tennis@chicousd.org
jshepherd@chicousd.org
kstaley@chicousd.org
WE ALSO NEED...
*We need to organize all students who are interested and supportive of having lacrosse at their school to organize a day that they will go into their school's respective administration and formally request a plan to move forward. They can do this together, individually, or in small groups. We will appoint a student leader at each school to organize these events and they will be in touch with students at their specific school.
*We have purchased 100 t-shirts and 400 bracelets that say “I want lacrosse at my high school” for kids and school staff to wear around campus. These will be distributed via current lacrosse players. Make sure your kids (whether they play lacrosse or not) get one… if we run out, we will pay for more. We also will be running a contest on social media to win gift cards and such that involve these shirts and bracelets, so make sure you and your kids are following FRIENDS OF CHICO LACROSSE on Instagram.
*If you have a local business that supports the cause please reach out and we will provide you with a sign to display in your place of business stating you support CIF Lacrosse in Chico High Schools as well as adding said business to our list of supporters.
FUNDING
We are a well funded and organized group. That said, our fundraising and donations have been for the purpose of creating Lacrosse programs at each high school without the district or schools incurring any cost. We did not anticipate having to run such an extensive Public Relations and Marketing Campaign to “show” or “pressure” the school district into working with us. Between T-shirts, bracelets, websites hosting, commercial email programs, posters, hand bills, employees, legal consultations…you name it, it all costs money. While we are funded and set for the long run, every dollar we spend on this type of thing is a dollar that does not go to creating more athletic opportunities for our kids in the form of Lacrosse Programs. This being said, if you feel so obligated to donate to the cause and the work we are doing to keep what funds we have for our kids here is a Go Fund Me page to do so.
END OF SCHOOL YEAR UPDATE
7 JUNE 2024
End of the school year update…
As we have moved through the spring lacrosse season it may seem that we have gone silent. We want to reach out as we approach the end of the school year and inform everyone that that is not the case.
We have been working on establishing a path forward where the Chico Unified School District, Pleasant Valley High School, and Chico High School have not provided ANY….
If you wish to learn more read below. If you want the quick pitch – we have a plan to move forward and will be rallying the community around that plan starting in August. Please look for emails and social posts then.
What we have been doing…
- We have presented and met with both Pleasant Valley and Chico High Boosters Clubs and found both to be incredibly supportive of our cause.
- We have talked with the Asst. Commissioner of the Sac Juaquin CIF Section and been offered a spot for both PVHS and CHS in SJCIF in a league.
- We have talked with the Commissioner of the North Section CIF about our plan and got his verbal approval of playing in the SJCIF and discussed how to model it after Girls Field Hockey.
- We double checked our plan to meet all title 9 requirements at both schools with the SJCIF and NSCIF as well as Title 9 attorneys locally. Title 9 is a large concern of the districts, and our plan meets all requirements of Title 9.
- We researched By Law 502 in the State CIF by laws that we thought may allow a neighboring high school to start a lacrosse program and bring CHS and PVHS students into the program. This turned out to be a dead end and only built for much smaller and financially strapped schools.
- Chico Rebels complete their spring season with a High School roster of 25 players, winning over 75% of their games this season. Chico Rebels is moving nearly 10 of those players into summer programs.
MOST IMPORTANTLY
- We have formulated a plan to move forward next spring in conjunction with Chico Rebels to grow Lacrosse at each high school and hopefully take steps towards CIF Lacrosse.
- Word on the street is there is some turnover at the CUSD head offices and various Admin positions at CHS and PVHS – turnover means hopefully new, willing ears, and open eyes to what we are proposing.
Updates 15 Feb 2024
Chico Friends of Lacrosse met with Brian Bowen (Owner) and Ryan Sutton (General Manager) of Chico Nissan recently and they have given their formal support of Chico Friends of Lacrosse and its mission to bring CIF High School Lacrosse to Chico High Schools!
Chico Nissan is one of the largest donors and supporters of High School athletics in Chico each year via the Almond Bowl Car Raffle. Through the efforts of all high school athletes at both Pleasant Valley and Chico High Schools, money is raised for PV and CHS Boosters to fund sports at both schools. Brian and Ryan see the benefit of providing more athletic opportunities for all students, and see Lacrosse programs as a way to make that happen.
THANK YOU to the whole Chico Nissan Family for believing in our mission.
Chico Friends of Lacrosse had a meeting with Chico Unified School District this last month to discuss the upcoming student survey. The district explained that due to the release of the first State Budget they would not be able to fund any new sports. While Lacrosse at both schools would be fully funded through Chico Friends of Lacrosse, Chico Rebels, and both organizations efforts, IF lacrosse did not win out on the survey, the district would not have the money to fund the sport that did. We understand this, as anything less would be unfair to the students of each high school. So we are continuing to push for this survey and wait for the Governors May Revise of the budget to hopefully be better news for Chico Unified. In the mean time, we are working to establish club teams at each high school for the spring of 2025 if fully fledged CIF teams do not come to fruition via the survey path.
We remain on good terms with all entities and are hopefull that through a collaborative process our kids will be wearing their schools name across their chest next spring, and we will have a path forward for fully fledged CIF Teams soon.
Practice for all Rebels Teams started this week. There are 12U, 14U, and High School teams for this spring and all teams have 10-14 games . Everybody had gear and a stick in their hand, they were engaged and excited and even parents were asking questions about the game, getting excited themselves. It was pretty awesome to see. We even had two new registrations today alone (HS and U14) and a U12 yesterday. Each team plays between 10-15 games this season which I think has to be an all time high since COVID. And the teams that can't make it to us this year are already planning a Chico trip for their team next year.