Form and the movements are the reason I would never do CF, so I completely understand that.

Was the lacrosse team doing any other muscle conditioning? I know one high school in the area was using CF for their BAND (really?). I would hope that at the high school level, CrossFit is toned down.

One thing you said had me looking yesterday, and what the article doesn't mention is the effect of body chemistry on someone's susceptibility to rhabdo. It would seem that overexertion plus drinking the night before or overworking in nasty hot temps without properly hydrating would increase the incidence of it. But that's a not very educated opinion based only on a little internet research.