Caught between a soccer ball and a hard place

Soccer is a staple sport in the state of California. Children of all ages gather on the pitch to join together in a common bond, to play a sport they love and for many the culmination of their hard work leads to four years of playing high school soccer.
  However, a relatively new proposal by the California Interscholastic Federation, the governing body for high school sports in California, would have a significant effect on the way high school soccer is played.
  The proposal on the table involves a change to Bylaw 600 which states that a high school athlete cannot play their respective sport on an outside team during their high school season.
  However, soccer in the Sac-Joaquin Section is one of a few sections in the state that is exempt to this rule.
  Currently, due to weather restrictions, boys’ soccer in the Section is played in the fall and girls’ soccer is played in the spring rather than during the winter. This allows players to also play for their competitive club teams during their high school season. But this is not how it is in most other sections in the state.
  “All of our southern California sections, the Los Angeles, San Diego, Southern and Central Sections, they all play high school soccer in the winter,” said CIF state office senior director Ron Nocetti.
“Because that is the official season of high school soccer in the CIF that means that if you play soccer for your school you cannot play soccer at the same time.”
 The change to the Bylaw, which would remove the exemption from Sac-Joaquin Section, was brought forth by schools in the North Coast Section, a small section in Marin County that is concerned with the number of injuries that increases when student athletes play both high school soccer and club soccer at the same time.
  If the proposal were to go into effect, it would essentially force players in the SJS to make a decision, which would have lasting effects on the Section – club soccer or high school soccer.
  “We don’t know exactly how much impact it would have (if the rule passes), but we know that it would be a pretty big impact,” said Sac-Joaquin director of communications Will DeBoard.
  With players being forced to make a decision, they would have to choose between being able to represent their schools or have potential scholarship opportunities.
  “There is something magical about putting on your school’s uniform and playing with your neighborhood buddies,” said Granite Bay High School varsity boys’ soccer coach Steve Fischer. “But, granted, if you’re playing club ball you’re going to be seen by more college coaches.”
  And the motivation for potential scholarships, as well as a more competitive level of play’ would be the motivation for many current players to choose competitive soccer over their respective high school teams.
  GBHS junior Nico Mamone and sophomore Ty Thompson have both been involved in elite, high level soccer programs for a large portion of their lives. And while they agree that high school soccer is fun, in the event that the rule was changed, both boys said would choose their club teams over high school soccer.
  “High school is fun – it’s like a little getaway from all the stress (of club),” Mamone said. “Club definitely prepares you more for (college) because the competition is better; high school just isn’t taken as seriously.”
  And, unfortunately, this would be the decision of many players like Mamone and Thompson, leaving the level of play in leagues like the Sierra Foothill League, a league with numerous club players playing for high school teams, greatly diminished.
  Kurt Johnson, senior sports editor for the Roseville Press Tribune, has spent years as a spectator of high school soccer and knows the effect that club players have on the style of play in high school.
 “Elite players are going to play club soccer and the high schools are going to lose them,” Johnson said. “I believe that if you take away the competitive players it levels the playing field and it becomes a little bit lesser grade of soccer, but I think you take away the opportunity (for some) to play with better players who can make their game better.”
  Although the rule was brought to a vote on Friday, May 7, the Federation council voted to postpone the vote indefinitely. Until then, soccer players and coaches across the SJS will have to wait to see how their future seasons might be affected.
  “As far as the Section goes we do not like this rule, obviously it would affect us quite a bit,” DeBoard said. “So we’re kind of hopeful that maybe it is never brought back up to vote again.”