Soccer season change proposition


Spring is in the air.  Flowers are blooming, the weather is warming and seasons are changing.  The season change isn’t just reserved for the weather however as the governing body for high school sports in California is toying with the idea of changing the dates that soccer seasons run.

The proposed change would move both boys and girls soccer back into the winter months as it used to be, abandoning the comfortable weather of the fall and spring seasons for the daily uncertainty that December, January and February bring.

“The California sections are influenced primarily by Los Angeles and San Diego…but they’re not up here playing in rain, wind and snow,” Granite Bay High School varsity soccer coach Steve Fischer said.

The change would also create another impact that would weigh more heavily on GBHS as opposed to other schools.  The burden created would be a lack of field space to house the six different teams that would all be playing at the same time as each other.

“With that many teams practicing there isn’t adequate room to play,” said junior midfielder Joey Scotti.  “Sharing the fields in one season would be catastrophic between scheduling times, who gets priority and the wear and tear that would occur on the field.”

Currently both soccer teams share the field that is located next to the pool and parking lot, however if the proposed change were to go through, more field space would need to be created or one of the teams would be relegated to the football field.

“It would be very, very, very difficult to run even a practice…it would be even worse than basketball who has six teams and two gyms, we would have six teams and one field,” said Fischer  “The lights would be on constantly, the cost would be tremendous and the weather would be awful.”

Another complication that would be added to the ordeal would be the problem that the current football field has not been retrofitted for soccer use.  Currently there are no lines that fit the dimensions for a regulation soccer field, meaning either the football field would be required to be renovated and retrofit with the proper lines, or more stadium style lighting would have to be added to accommodate the night games that would have to take place.

Besides having to deal with the scheduling headache for fields that would ensue, both coaches would have to adapt their game plan to the different weather and lighting conditions they would be exposed to not only at home, but on the road when traveling up to schools like Nevada Union.

Junior forward Kennedy Christie said “Game plans will need to be changed because there is already barely enough light for girls’ junior varsity and varsity”.

Even after perfecting all of the scheduling conflicts for the boys and girls high school teams, the club season is put in jeopardy.  Many top players on each of the teams also belong to a club soccer organization as well, meaning they have a commitment to fulfill outside of school as well.

The winter months are crucial to the seasons of club teams because of the various tournaments and qualifiers held during this time.

“Every club in the area takes fall off for high school soccer,” Scotti said.  “Winter is considered one of the most vital times of the club soccer season because of State Cup seeding games”.

Not only would all high schools who currently operate on the fall and spring schedules be forced to change and adapt, all club organizations would be forced to change season dates and affect which tournaments clubs would play in.

One immediate positive of all schools being unified under a single season would be the potential for an actual state championship between the north and south.  However, that should not be the driving factor behind the push for a season realignment as it ultimately benefits only one team while affecting thousands of families and teenagers across the state at the same time.

“California is just too big for that,” said Fischer.  ‘I think its a rather selfish, arrogant and egotistical thing just to be able to say, ‘Oh we’re the state champions.”



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