Eighth Grader Colette Voll watched her brother play lacrosse when she was little and sometimes would use his lacrosse stick. In doing that, she noticed that playing with her brother’s lacrosse stick is a lot different than playing with her own. 

   “With the long stick, it’s really hard to do anything but (play defense) because (the defense lacrosse stick) is so disproportionately large,” Voll said.

   Stick size is not the only difference. The ball girls use is yellow, while the boys’ is white. According to the website Lacrosse Monkey, the yellow color helps the ball stand out, which some players have mixed feelings about. 

   “It’s probably easier to see (the ball) being yellow… (but) I don’t know how big a difference it makes,” varsity lacrosse player Nikolas Polsinelli said.

   In most sports including basketball, the differences between the men’s and women’s version of the sport are mainly just ball size, ball color or field size. In basketball, the women’s ball is smaller than the men’s to account for women on average having smaller hands then men. When it comes to game time, men play two 20-minute halves, while the women play four 10-minute quarters. 

   Such  differences between men’s and women’s basketball are more understandable than the differences between men’s and women’s lacrosse or men’s and women’s volleyball.

   Assistant Athletic Director Rita Kienle helps her daughter coach girls varsity lacrosse in her free time and watched her son and her daughters play lacrosse throughout their high school years. She too has noticed a difference between the protective equipment that her kids wore. 

   “The girls is a non-contact sport so they require less equipment … on the boy’s side, they wear full body protection almost like a hockey player,” Kienle said.

   Senior Riya Chandra plays on the girls varsity lacrosse team and many of her close friends play on the boys varsity lacrosse team. At the end of the season the varsity girls and boys teams compete against each other, using the sticks and rules of the opposite gender. Typically while playing the game where they switch sticks and rules, the boys find the difference stark. 

   “I think that (the stick pocket being deeper on the men’s stick) helps ball movement to be smoother and it kind of evens out the playing field because it would be very hard with our defense level” varsity lacrosse player Britt Voll said. 

   Kienle feels that the only thing similar about men’s lacrosse and women’s lacrosse is the fact that they have the same name. 

   “So people think (boys and girls lacrosse) are similar because of the name, but honestly the only thing is the name and the fact that the goalies wear the same equipment,” Kienle said. “But other than that the rules are completely different.”

   In volleyball, the net height is lower for women, due in large part to the average lower height of women. However, the difference in uniforms seems less about anatomical differences. Women’s volleyball uniforms require spandex shorts, while boys wear athletic shorts. In addition to net size and uniforms, men typically don’t wear knee pads while playing when women do. 

   “The rules for men’s and women’s volleyball in total are mostly the same, (but) uniforms are much different for the boys,” said Physical education teacher and varsity volleyball coach Tycee Bates, who has coached both men’s and women’s volleyball. “Most of them don’t wear knee pads. Girls usually do wear knee pads.”

   Regardless of differences, every coach, of every sport, no matter the gender or skill level the player has, tries to ensure that each of their players feels valued and respected on and off the field and the court.  

   “As an assistant athletic director … talking to coaches, I think that our goal is always to make kids feel … loved and respected,” Kienle said.