The high schools of the Sac-Joaquin Section may be powerless to stop a major change to the participation rules that impact their soccer teams.

A proposed revision to a California Interscholastic Federation bylaw would force soccer players to pick between playing for their club teams and suiting up for their high school squads. The Bay Area Conference of the North Coast Section proposed the revision to its board of managers in early February.

That conference, which currently has leagues playing soccer in all three high school seasons, claims that athletes are overextending themselves in playing school and club soccer at the same time. Once the proposed rule change was passed on to the CIF federated council, it was set to come to a statewide vote.

“Historically it is our practice when a section forwards a proposal to us to let it go forward to a vote,” said CIF senior director Ron Nocetti. “It is not our policy to shut it down.”

While state high school rules typically do not allow athletes to participate on outside teams during their sport’s prep season, soccer has been the lone exception. That is largely due to the fact that sections throughout the state play soccer during different high school seasons.

Currently, CIF Bylaw 600 prohibits soccer athletes from competing with an outside team only during the winter prep season, which has been defined as the official soccer season after an agreement with the California Youth Soccer Association many years ago.

The Sac-Joaquin Section is the primary large section that has taken full advantage of the exception, as boys soccer is played in the fall and the girls go in the spring. That has allowed soccer players in this area to enjoy full participation in year-round club team play without having to forfeit the chance to represent their schools.

Throughout the southern part of the state and much of the Bay Area, where the large sections lie, most of the high school soccer is still played during the CIF’s officially recognized winter season.

According to an agenda for the upcoming Sac-Joaquin Section board of managers April 28 meeting, the bylaw revision “would mandate that students could not compete on an outside team in the sport of soccer while competing for their high school team, regardless of the season in which soccer is played.”

The issue for local high schools revolves around the powerful influence of club soccer, with programs like Placer United and the newly formed California Development Academy being the pathway to college scholarships for soccer players.

“Club soccer teams attend jamborees that showcase entire teams that are comprised of players considered to be college ready athletes,” said Granite Bay girls coach Chris Roberts. “College coaches can attend these tournaments and evaluate hundreds of potential athletes in one visit.”

Because of that, and the year-round nature of the elite club programs, it is likely that the cream of the crop will not be playing high school soccer if the rule is changed.

“I don't think the kids will be pressured into sticking with high school if that is what some are hoping,” said Oakmont boys coach Mark Broers.

Rocklin boys coach Grant Depue is not worried about the very best players, but he is concerned about the players who might see themselves as future college athletes when that is really not the case.

“One of the troubles is young players and their parents may be disillusioned as to how good they are and their chances of playing at the next level and consequently miss out on the high school experience,” Depue said. “Isn’t school involvement and pride the foundation of the CIF philosophy?”

With the top players gone, high school coaches are concerned about their ability to maintain programs at their current levels.

“It would bring down the level of play at the high school level but would level the playing field amongst schools,” Roberts said. The better players, and sometimes players that think they have a shot at a scholarship, will opt for club sports. Participation would decrease. Being from Grass Valley I've seen the effect of not having a successful club program versus having thriving programs such as Placer United, San Juan, etc. as we have here in the valley.”

For programs like the one at Oakmont that have just a few competitive-level (Placer United, CDA) players, the bottom line will be dependent upon the decisions made by the select-level players at the local clubs. These are the players who have moved beyond recreational soccer, but are not participating at the high-cost, heavy-travel competitive level of play.

“I believe these kids (the competitive players) add a lot to the quality of our programs and can often times serve as role models or good team leaders,” Broers said. “I think if forced to choose, the comp players would stick with their year-round club teams. The bigger population I'm concerned about includes the class 3 select players. I have more of these kids on my team and they often practice and play tournaments during the high school season too. To lose them might cost our school the program.”

While a change in Bylaw 600 does nothing more than bring soccer in line with every other high school sport, the issue here in the SJS is complicated by the way the clubs have exploded with the current rules in place. It is possible that the impact of the change may lessen over time, but the immediate blow to high school soccer in the greater Sacramento area could be extreme.

Club soccer and high school soccer have been able to co-exist, but this change would have a major impact on those relationships. The key will be the way in which they work together to their mutual benefit and in the best interest of players who want both the memories of donning the school colors and college scholarships that are typically only available for those who get the competitive club exposure.

The Sac-Joaquin Section will vote on the proposal at its meeting at Elkhorn Country Club in Stockton April 28. Each of the section’s 26 leagues gets two of the 55 votes, while and athletic director’s representative, a school board rep and a superintendent’s rep each receive a vote.

That result will determine how the section’s 18 votes are cast at the CIF federated council meeting, which is set for May 7 at the Embassy Suites in Sacramento.

The SJS holds the second largest block of votes, but the Southern Section has 36. A main point of concern for local teams may be found in looking deeper at where the votes lie.

All of the large sections, with the exception of this one, play soccer currently either all or in part during the winter season right now. That means that the rule change would not change their current system at all as they are already operating under Bylaw 600.

Will those sections decide to bring the rest of the sections in line along with them or vote to allow them to continue with things as they have been? That is the question that will be answered next month. Far more than half of the 136 votes will come from sections that will not be impacted by the rules change.

“This would have a pretty serious impact on any section that doesn’t play soccer in the winter,” said Will DeBoard, director of communications for the Sac-Joaquin Section. “It does not surprise me to hear that coaches across this section are against this, as it would impact them more than any other section.”

The decision will be made by majority vote and all of any section’s votes go en masse into the yes column or the no column.

“If just one more than half of our league votes are in favor of the proposal, all 18 of our votes will be in favor,” DeBoard said. “There is no splitting of the vote.”

There are certain to be a lot of interested soccer coaches, parents and players awaiting this decision when it is made on May 7. If it is approved, it would be in effect when boys soccer kicks off in September.

“I could not even speculate on which direction this will go,” Nocetti said. “Until those league and section meetings take place there is no way to gauge things. It is going to be an interesting discussion.”

Certainly it can be said that fairness is not at issue here as all other sports are already under this rule. In fact, it might be true that soccer has been given and unfair opportunity not available to other sports all this time.

However, now that everyone has gotten comfortable doing it this way, the transition could be a difficult one if the change is made. Even without the change, there are coaches, particularly in the competitive clubs, who would prefer that their players skip the high school team altogether.

Hopefully, if there is a change in the rules, all parties will be reasonable and work to a compromise that will be best for the kids. As a parent who has seen two sons play both select soccer and high school soccer, I know the advantages of both, and I remain a firm believer in the value of representing your school.