Soccer - Generic Graphic
Jul 20, 2009
A high school athlete's choice between playing a sport for their school or for a club team can be a difficult one.
In the Triangle, the best high school girls soccer players will have to make that decision.
The Capital Area Soccer League in Raleigh is introducing a program that will allow its girls players to compete with CASL club teams this spring. That program will run during the high school girls soccer season in North Carolina, which upsets North Carolina High School Athletic Association executive director Charlie Adams.
"I just hate to see any student-athlete forced out of their high school program in order to play outside competition," Adams said.
CASL CEO Charlie Slagle says the program was started because an increasing number of CASL's best female soccer players were already choosing not to play for their high school teams. Instead, many of those girls would practice against boys during the spring. Slagle wanted to give them a program where they could compete in the spring against other girls.
"What we're looking for is what's best for the player as far as their development," Slagle said. "It's all about exposure to national team coaches and college coaches."
That is the area where club teams in most sports claim an advantage over high schools: Recruiting.
"College coaches mostly look at the club games," Slagle added. "A lot of these club competitions are tournaments where you end up having a hundred teams." At these tournaments, Slagle says a college coach can travel to see dozens of prospects in a close proximity playing against each other within a few hours instead of seeing one or two recruits at one high school game.
The North Carolina high school sports schedule also plays into the dilemma. The high school girls soccer season runs during the spring in North Carolina, but most others states hold the season in the spring.
Slagle believes the CASL spring program will practice four times a week and play on weekends. He thinks it is possible for an athlete to play games for both her high school and club teams, "but if you're trying to do both, you may overuse yourself." Slagle says at the most, a player could compete in games for both club and high school teams but would have to decide with whom to practice during the week.
He estimates twenty to thirty girls will participate in the CASL spring program. "We're looking at the elite of the elite," he said.
Adams does not like the program that could attract the state's best talent away from high school teams. "This takes care of the premiere athlete, but it forces the decision [to play high school or club soccer] on students who shouldn't have to make that decision," he said.
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