It's not unusual to get shut out of a sport

About 6,000 play lacrosse.

Another 1,100 participate in gymnastics.

None are students in the Boston public schools. Every effort to persuade city officials to offer those and other interscholastic sports to Boston students has been rebuffed, mainly because of money.

The lack of a lacrosse program in the Boston schools is particularly glaring, since hundreds of city youths play the sport in recreational leagues.

“We have the fields and players, but we don’t have any school support,’’ said Danny Davis of Roxbury, a Charlestown High senior who has played lacrosse in Boston since he was 6.

Mike Devlin, who has run Dorchester Youth Lacrosse for 11 years, met last fall with Ken Still, athletic director for the Boston Public Schools, in his latest attempt to incorporate the sport into city schools.

“I came away with this message: At a time when we’re talking about laying off teachers, how can we add another sport?’’ Devlin said. “I absolutely believe lacrosse should be a high school sport in the city, but it looks like a losing battle these days because of the economy.’’

Girls ice hockey is offered at 74 Massachusetts high schools, including Boston Latin and Latin Academy, but is out of reach to students at the city’s other schools.

“We’ve had a bunch of girls who didn’t get into the Latin schools and were really bummed out because they lost their chance to play hockey,’’ said Frank Del Muto, who coaches girls youth hockey in East Boston.

Del Muto’s daughter, Kristin, who was shut out of the Latin schools, attended Savio Prep and Pope John so she could play hockey.

“The city is definitely losing girls to the Catholic schools for that reason,’’ her father said.

Latin Academy coach Mark McLaughlin said city officials resisted his launching of the school’s girls team in 1999. Unable to secure city funding, he reached out to Legal Seafoods president Roger Berkowitz.

“He gave me some money, I used some of my money, the school gave us their old JV football jerseys for uniforms, and we won a Division 3 championship,’’ McLaughlin said. “After that, the city had no choice but to recognize us as a team.’’

In Boston’s two-tier athletic system, girls varsity soccer also is offered only at the Latin schools. Eight other Boston high schools offer only junior varsity soccer, and the sport is not available in any form to nearly 2,000 girls at the other high schools, including Charlestown, Dorchester, Hyde Park, and South Boston.

The Latin schools also offer golf and cross-country, but students at other schools can compete in them only if they travel to Latin Academy under a co-op arrangement. This year, there were no takers.

In fact, Charlestown track coach Kristyn Hughes considered the policy so impractical that she asked city officials to fund a cross-country team at her school. When the request was denied, she launched an unofficial team with no coaching salary or transportation budget.

“Our kids didn’t want to hightail it all the way across the city on the T after school to practice with a coach they didn’t know on a team they didn’t know,’’ Hughes said. “Would the Latin Academy kids want to come to Charlestown to run?’’

The Charlestown runners also had no interest in wearing Latin Academy uniforms.

“That would be like asking the Red Sox to wear Yankee uniforms,’’ Hughes said.

The Charlestown runners, after competing as unofficial guests in suburban meets during the season, needed to align themselves with Latin Academy for the Division 1 sectional and state meets. Wearing a uniform that said only “Boston,’’ Charlestown’s Ahmed Ali won the state championship, just ahead of teammate Omar Abdi.

More students also would play golf in the city if the sport were accessible to them, said David Burnes of the Boston Centers for Youth and Families, which run youth golf programs.

“We need to put enough pressure on the schools to let them know these kids want to compete and have a chance to play for their schools in a state tournament,’’ Burnes said.

Many Boston students also miss out on tennis. Two exam schools - Latin Academy and O’Bryant - run co-op programs, but only one girl, Dalia Williams, of Quincy Upper in the South End, and four boys - two from West Roxbury and two from Brighton - chose to commute to Dorchester after school to compete with Latin Academy. Williams made the decision after former state representative Mel King contacted Latin Academy coach Jimmy Hite on her behalf.

“It’s a big mistake not to give kids access to sports,’’ King said. “We should have something that gives every young person a reason to feel successful.’’

As for wrestling, two high schools - Burke and Quincy Upper - offer co-op programs. However, the newly formed Burke team competed only on the junior varsity level, partly because of insufficient funding, coach Matt Knapp said. Other than paying his coaching stipend, Knapp said, “There was zero commitment to the program from the administration.’’