1. 2017 GELL Coaches Meeting

2. Agenda Welcome to the GELL Rule changes and points of emphasis
How things work
Questions

3. Who is the GELL Boys youth lacrosse on the eastside. 3rd – 8th grade.
Playing divisions are 3rd/4th, 5th/6th, 7th/8th “B” and 7th/8th “A”
Boundaries generally follow school district lines. Primary districts are: Bellevue, Issaquah, Lake Washington, Mercer Island and Northshore. In addition we welcome private schools within those boundaries.

4. Key 2017 USL Rule Changes and POE’s
KEY POINT: This meeting does not eliminate YOUR responsibility as a coach to know the rules. Go to USLax.org and see YOUTH (and most are NFHS)
Key 2017 USL Rule Changes and POE’s
Changes
If a player or team commits a foul before any faceoff, the ball will be awarded to the offended team in its offensive side of the field at the
Paint, a single wrap of tape, or other material of contrasting color to the head may now be used on the handle of the crosse for any player taking a faceoff.
No defensive player, other than a properly equipped goalkeeper, can enter his own crease with the perceived intent on blocking a shot or acting as a goalie. Penalty: Conduct foul on the defensive player. A second violation by the player will be enforced as releasable unsportsmanlike conduct.
Failure to wear the required mouthpiece (unless it comes out during play) is now a technical foul.

5. Key 2017 USL Rule Changes and POE’s
Coaches and Team Area
Defenseless Hits
Blindside Hits
Mouthpieces
Reminder of Crosse Change in 2018

6. 2017 GELL Rule Changes
New 34 layout to be discussed at the end.

7. How things work in the GELL
The league’s role is to provide rules, a schedule and referees.
Each one of your programs has one voting board member and that person is your conduit to the league.
The league’s rules are published on our website at You are responsible for knowing our rules and abiding by them. Ignorance is not an excuse.
Later in this meeting will cover changes to our rules and points of emphasis for this season

8. Schedules
We will publish a game schedule on our website. That is THE SCHEDULE. If you want to change something, you need to follow this procedure or you will not have refs:
Coach contact info is on our website. Browse to the opposing team’s page and you’ll see it there.
Contact the opposing coach and work out a new date, time & location for the game. They are not required to accommodate the change, but 99% of the time we work together to make the game happen
AFTER everyone has agreed to the new arrangements, send an to our league scheduler, Yuri
You must provide IN THIS FORMAT:
Existing date and teams
New date, time and location

9. Adding Extra Games
You can add extra games HOWEVER, middle of the week is out. You can schedule additional games on Saturday and Sunday only.
If you schedule a game during the week, refs will not be available.
However, getting refs on Sundays works very well.
To add a game, you send an to the scheduler with the following information: Date, Teams, Time and Location Please see new scheduler .

10. Byes
Some teams have bye's this year. If your team does, the league will be working to help fill those with teams from outside our area.
That information will flow back through your program director (board member). You are also welcome to try and do this on your own, but it may just get unnecessarily complicated.
You are not required to take that game if we offer it to you.

11. Referee Assignments
Refs will be assigned, but you will NOT be able to see the assignments.
If we can’t get refs for your game, you will be notified the game is being rescheduled. Last year we did not have any of these.
HOWEVER, we occasionally have games where only one ref is assigned. In some rare cases, we have one-ref games where he doesn’t show up and you're stuck. Suggest you postpone that game and go home. If you play using non-certified refs, most insurance companies will not cover you in case of a problem.
Please do not send the schedule s asking, "does my game have refs". We're checking each Thursday and Friday and generally you won’t have a problem.

12. Honor the Game Ceremony
At 34 and 56 games we run the HTG ceremony immediately following the game
Describe the ceremony
Stickers

13. Review 2015/2016 Points of Emphasis
72” long poles are now allowed at 56
GELL Points of Emphasis
Sideline Behavior
Sideline behavior became a huge issue last season. (ie: bench clearing near-brawl between parents at a 34 game)
Your fans are YOUR responsibility. They are not allowed to berate officials and they will draw penalties this year if appropriate. Those penalties will hurt YOUR TEAM. Get them under control!

14. Behavior Watch the video on our website
MBO’s are there to kick you out of the game
MBO’s will be flagging your spectators this year, this is YOUR responsibility.
If they don’t know who the offender is rooting for, the will flag the home team. This is your incentive to have sideline managers

15. Questions? ?