The best area high school girls soccer players will have a choice next spring: play for their high school team or play for a club.
High school athletes have faced decisions for years about whether to specialize in one sport or play two or more. Some high school athletes must choose between school football or club baseball teams in the fall; spring track or club basketball; high school basketball or club volleyball.
But the Capital Area Soccer League's decision to offer a program during the high school season creates a new dilemma for girls soccer players. Instead of which sport to play, the choice will be who to play for. It also sets the club teams in potential competition with high schools for the best talent, places focus on which route provides the best chance for a college soccer scholarship and raises the question of whether the values of those scholarships are worth the intense effort.
Paul Dinkenor, the coach of state 4-A girls soccer champion Leesville Road, said it would be impossible for a player to successfully participate in both high school and club programs.
But Charlie Slagle, the CEO of CASL, said there is a need for the spring program.
"There are some girls players, who for whatever reason, choose to not play on a high school team in the spring," Slagle said. "In the past, we've tried to find boys teams for them to practice with and find some competitions for them.
"But as the numbers have increased, we've added options. The decision of where to play will be up to the kids."
Slagle said he knew of six or eight players who don't participate on the teams at their high schools. This spring, 11 Cardinal Gibbons High players skipped the state 2-A quarterfinals to play in a club tournament in New Jersey. Jay Howell, the director of coaching for CASL, expects 30 or 40 girls to participate in the CASL high school program in the spring.
Charlie Adams, the executive director of the N.C. High School Athletic Association, said he hates the idea that high school students will be put in the position of having to choose.
"Playing for your community and your school can be one of the most fun and exciting levels of competition," Adams said. "I am afraid some young people are going to miss out on what could be some of the best times of their lives."
Howell, who said he is an advocate of high school athletic programs, said CASL is offering the spring program because its members want it.
"Not every high school program is exactly the same," he said. "The environment, coaching and teams are different. Some kids have great experiences in high school sports, but some others don't.
"Some players want to move to the next level and become the best players they can be. They want to play beyond high school."
Howell said the spring club program will consist of three or four practices per week with competitions on the weekend.
Recruiting
Club events are often the starting point in the collegiate recruiting process.
College coaches, with the exception of football, generally do the bulk of their recruiting at club team events. A college coach can see hundreds of players in a single weekend.
CASL's Slagle said more than 600 college coaches attended the Girls Showcase held Nov. 20-22 in Raleigh. At such an event, college coaches can see many of the best players paired against other outstanding players.
College soccer coaches can identify the players they will recruit at major club team events in places such as Las Vegas, Richmond, Va., and New Jersey.
Slagle anticipates some younger girls, freshmen and sophomores, will choose their club teams over high school competition because of the early exposure to college recruiting.
"The colleges are identifying kids to recruit at younger and younger ages," Slagle said.
The spring program also should help CASL field better teams in national events. Howell said keeping the girls together on one team to train and compete rather than having them scattered among several high schools will make the area club teams more competitive on a national level.
"When players have to leave their high school teams to play nationally, it upsets high school coaches, CASL coaches and the girls themselves," Howell said. "When we take a team to a national competition, we are playing teams at the peak of their training. But because our high schools play in the spring instead of the fall, our teams have been more piecemeal."
Scholarships' value
Dinkenor acknowledges that college coaches recruit the club tournaments but said if a player is good enough, college coaches will find her.
More important, he said, is for parents to understand the realities of a college scholarship.
"What some parents don't realize is that some of the very best players don't get much money in their scholarship," Dinkenor said. "It isn't this $50,000 scholarship parents envision. The idea that your child is going to go to college for free on a soccer scholarship is not reality.
"A lot is sacrificed in pursuit of a scholarship. Someone needs to stop and think what is best for the girls."
Few athletes other than football and basketball players receive full athletic scholarships. NCAA Division I women's soccer teams have a maximum of 14 scholarships. A men's team splits 9.9 scholarships among its team members. Last season, the University of North Carolina had 33 players on its women's roster and 22 on its men's roster.
Bobby Guthrie, the Wake County Schools athletic director, was recruited to play baseball at the University of North Carolina. He worked with college recruiters when he coached high school baseball, and he later recruited players when he was the head baseball coach at UNC-Wilmington. His daughter, Bobbie, was a nationally ranked tennis player and was recruited nationally before signing with Georgia Tech.
"From my experience as a player, coach and parent, parents are deluding themselves if they think their child is going to go to college for free on an athletic scholarship," he said.
Claudel Pilon, who helped lead Leesville Road High to an undefeated season and the state 4-A championship, said she can't imagine leaving her high school team to play on a club team, but she said every player has to make an individual decision.
"A part of it is where you are in the recruiting process," she said. "If you want to be recruited nationally, you have to be seen nationally."
Guthrie said there are conflicts in other sports between club teams and school teams, but the conflicts are most acute in girls soccer.
"We have been able to work around most conflicts," he said. "In swimming, there is a huge year-round meet in January, and we know to afford scheduling our playoffs on that weekend. But there seems to be no getting around this one."
A national issue
The conflicts between club programs and high school athletic programs are national.
The cover story in the May edition of "High School Today," a publication of the National Federation of State High School Associations, focuses on finding balance between club sports and high school sports.
Some state high school associations, but not the NCHSAA, prohibit players from practicing or playing on a club team during the high school season. The NCHSAA had a similar rule years ago, but now its athletes can be on interscholastic teams and as many other teams as they desire.
"Doing away with the 'double-participation rule' was a good thing," Adams said, referring to the rule that prohibited players from playing on more than one team.
Some area high school coaches, athletic directors and Guthrie met with CASL's Slagle and Howell last week.
"At least we are communicating," Guthrie said.
Nicole Jewell, an all-state defender for Leesville Road, said there are benefits in playing on the high school team.
"It is so much a community," she said. "With club, you go to a national tournament and play great and nobody is there except coaches and your family.
"With the high school team, you are playing for the community and classmates. You walk up and down the halls and people are excited and happy for you. Teachers talk to you about it. There is all this fan support. It makes you feel like you're doing something important."
Dinkenor said there is no way that high school athletic programs can compete financially with club programs such as CASL.
"We're not going to send players all over the country to compete. We're not going to carry them to Las Vegas and New Jersey," Dinkenor said. "That is not the purpose of high school athletics.
"CASL is a financial juggernaut, but the high school programs offer things that club programs can't buy. The high school program is education-based. Club programs are not.
"I hate the girls are being put in this position. This isn't about Leesville Road winning state championships. It should be about what is in the best interest of these girls long term."
