On Friday April 24, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association announced that all high school sports for the spring season would be called off following the announcement of Governor Charlie Baker closing schools in the state for the remainder of the year.

While the high school spring sport seasons came to a sudden end due to the Coronavirus, the Eastern Massachusetts Lacrosse Coaches Association (EMLCA) announced that they were planning on hosting the first ever Senior Classic, a tournament for male lacrosse players across Eastern Massachusetts.

The Senior Classic is tentatively set to be hosted at three sites across the state and is slated to begin on July 19. The goal of the tournament is to keep the numbers low while allowing coaches across the state to make decisions for other possible tournaments in the future for the programs, boys and girls. The two-day tournament would be held in three divisions based on school size and MIAA divisions. Each team would be composed of 10 or more players, and if a school can not reach that number within its own school, it may pair up with another school in the same situation.

Although this tournament is not what anyone was hoping for, but it not only would allow some senior athletes to come together one last time, it’s better than not having anything at all. Hope of having a spring season was taken away from the schools with Governor Baker’s announcement, and at this point, this is an idea that will allow some senior lacrosse players some hope.

The EMLCA has put the wheels in motion, and these senior lacrosse players now have a glimmer of hope that they will get to play in one last tournament before they move on from high school.