I'm sure they will eventually, but each school will have the choice whether to sanction it as a sport.
For example, lacrosse is the big thing right now and it was sanctioned by CIF only a couple of years ago. A couple of schools, one being in Hungtington Beach, Todrick, are having a difficult time getting it on the roster of CIF sports because it conflicts with other spring sports practice time i.e. football. A lot of football players are now going out for lacrosse because it's a new sport and it's fun. However, it takes time away from conditioning and spring football. That one school's football coach has had several football players leave the team (not superstars, but just everyday grinders) to play lacrosse instead. He used his leverage with the administration to keep them from sanctioning it as a CIF sport at the school. Now I understand a couple of the kids are transferring to another school in HB where lacrosse is sanctioned. Sad for everyone around.
The only downfall with ice hockey is that it may interfere with lacrosse too because some of the best lacrosse players these days are current or ex-ice hockey players. It would be sad to see them have to choose between the two sports if the season overlaps.
Being part of that fight for my school to have lacrosse as a CIF sanctioned sport 2 years ago, the only way that it will be sanctioned is just continued support. And it must be massive support. We started a club team 4 years ago, and after two straight years of petitioning and bringing well over 200 of the districts lacrosse players to board meetings to show the huge support for the sport, they got it sanctioned. Now it is a CIF sport, but there are no CIF championships because there are not enough schools in the CIF-Southern Section that have lacrosse as a CIF sport. They need 109 schools to get championships. We have an OC championship and an LA championship and those two teams play each other. It's a de facto CIF champion, but not a huge deal.
If just some students and parents can do that, I'm sure Brian Burke, the Ducks, students, and parents can all get that organized. It will take a lot of effort and continued naggings at board meetings and such but it can be done.
And as far as practicing goes, Lacrosse practice may begin in late January, but the season doesn't start until late February. These practices are usually to get players back into the rythym of catching, throwing, and shooting. Nothing too exciting and can easily be done in the spare time until Hockey season ends. And with no CIF playoffs or championships like I said, hockey season would end in mid-February. Especially if there aren't a lot of teams in the beginning and the limited ice space, the season will be shorter.
We do have CIF Roller Hockey, but they dont have championships either. Also almost every team in South OC plays up at the Gretzky Center. So practicing and time are very restricted. Ice hockey will have the same problems for a while. While Lacrosse just needs some goals and some grass to practice on, an ice rink is a harder thing to come by. And with all the equipment needed for ice hockey, kids will have to buy all their own equipment because these fledgling programs won't have the school funding early on and such. That is also a problem because of how much equipment hockey needs. Helmets, shoulder, arm, glove, pants, shins, skates, sticks, jerseys. Lacrosse is just helmet, shoulder, elbow, glove, stick, cleats, jerseys.
Hockey won't take off as fast as lacrosse will because of eachs' basic skill. You just need to be able to run to at least try lacrosse. Hockey requires skating. In lacrosse, a new player can pick up basic stick skills very quickly. It takes time to perfect them but they can be easily taught. Hockey will take learning stick skills, skating, and then doing both at the same time. HS Hockey will definitely take a while to grow.
And on the Lacrosse/Football thing, it did take a while for our Football coach to understand the sport and give in. He wasn't happy when I wanted to play lacrosse because it was during prime weightlifting and conditioning time. Due to field space and time, we even had to bend our practice schedule to his demands so the football guys could lift and run and then go to lacrosse practice about 20 minutes later. It wasnt the easiest thing, but in all HS sports, football is king. It also depends on the coach. Some coaches live by the football is king method, others encourage kids to go out and do many different sports and clubs and stuff to diversify our HS experience. My coach was a mix, but it was well worth it to spread out.
I doubt you will see much problems between the hockey scheduling and the players in other sports. With the dearth of teams and ice space, seasons will be shorter and conflicts will be minimal. I hope HS hockey can find its place in OC, but it will definitely take some time.
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