Soccer, Fall, Winter, Spring What makes Sense

A couple of years ago I was at the State Basketball Tournament and during the "State of the CIF" speech by Executive Director Marie Ishida was discussing potential playoff scenarios for the various sports in California. While we have Cross Country, Volleyball, Basketball, Track & Field, Golf and Wrestling there were sports that have not yet been able to come to grips with a State Championship. Now Football has their version of a state championship it is a shame that Soccer does not have one.

California is a hotbed for soccer and in my opinion both weather and club soccer has dictated when soccer is played. In the NCS the North Bay plays their girls soccer in the fall while another portion of the NCS plays in the Winter and finally other schools play in the spring. In the Sac Joaquin Section their girls play their soccer in the spring along with the MCAL in the North Bay. I truly believe that soccer would be one sport that would benefit from a state championship. While various websites will rank soccer teams, it is truly just a ranking and thus teams can be ranked, however with boys and girls all playing in each of the three seasons then it is opinion and not playing on the field that determines the champions. The Southern Section, San Diego Section and Central Section all play their soccer in the winter.

Now that brings me to club soccer. While I am not a soccer player and have never played soccer I do know quite a few athletes who have skipped their high school season to play club soccer. Just like many other sports players will probably get much more exposure at the club level, however I still have not spoken with an athlete after their high school years that talks about their "club experience", while I have encountered many athletes who talk about their high school experience. While the home trophy case will probably show quite a few first place trophies, medals and banners there is nothing like a banner on the gym wall with a league, section, region or state championship.

The next excuse that I hear is that the weather is a factor and thus we have to play in the fall or spring. That is just not true. In the Northern Section they play soccer in the winter and fall which is the time of the year with the the most rainfall. Thus weather should not be an excuse and with the rise in popularity of lacrosse if ALL soccer was moved to the winter it would free up field space.

If there is a good reason to not mandate that soccer be moved to one season, with winter being the most logical choice, I would welcome your comments about it as I would love for the high school soccer athletes to have the opportunity to be a state champion. Many of the club seasons take a somewhat break (yes I know that the SERIOUS teams go year round) and this would ease some of the conflict as well as give California what it deserves: A STATE CHAMPION