By Alex Frazier
Ever wonder how Central Bucks South would match up with Conestoga?
Or Neshaminy with Owen J. Roberts?
In the past, it was only a matter of conjecture since all the Suburban One League schools played soccer in the spring.
Not anymore.
Suburban One athletic directors voted 18-5 Tuesday to move girls soccer to the fall, beginning with the 2010 fall season.
Souderton Athletic Director Tom Quintois was one of the driving forces behind the move. His big argument is that girls soccer is the only PIAA sport that is split into two seasons.
“The reality is – what other sport do we do this in and why?” he said. “In my opinion, it was wrong, and a wrong that finally got fixed. If you look at the way the state is set up, most schools play soccer in the fall, so why aren’t we?”
Currently, there are 162 Class AAA teams that play in the fall and only 108 playing in the spring. At the Class AA level (Springfield is the only SOL team in that category, and the Spartans will be moving to the Bicentennial League next year) there are 164 in the fall compared to 110 in the spring.
No western teams play in the spring. The spring championship is made up of teams from Districts One, Two, Three, 11 and 12 public schools. District 12 Catholic schools play in the fall.
“Our girls deserve the same opportunity to win a state championship that’s truly a state championship as any other sport does,” said Quintois. “I am extremely sympathetic to those smaller schools that may be negatively affected, but these (SOL) kids haven’t had an opportunity to play for a true state championship.
“Look what happened to our District One Tournament. It’s a Suburban One Tournament. Is that really representative of girls’ soccer? No other sport does that, and I really don’t think it’s fair to those girls.”
There has been controversy about playing girls soccer in the spring since the first PIAA championship in 1993. Since then Suburban One League teams have won 12 of 17 state titles, and have been runner-up six times.
The idea of moving soccer to the fall was bandied about at the state level in the fall, but was tabled, supposedly until 2012.
There are certainly specious arguments on both sides of the issue.
Some coaches think it is good for girls soccer because the level of competition will be upgraded. Now you will be able to see Central Bucks South play Conestoga or Downingtown West or East. There will be no doubt who the best team in District One is.
“For the girls sake, you’ll be able to see some great games,” said Souderton coach Terry Underkoffler. “It’s better for the game. It’s better for them. You’ll have a better quality product.”
Getting into the district playoffs will certainly be more challenging.
“You can eliminate for the most part now teams with a losing record,” said Underkoffler. “That will be a thing of the past.”
Underkoffler also noted that the weather is better in the fall, especially considering the kind of spring we’ve had so far. Better weather means better soccer.
“You can’t get any continuity,” he said. “I would have loved to have had three weeks in the summer to prep the team. In my situation where I don’t have turf, I can’t tell you how many times I was on a full field for practice. It makes a difference.”
Teams that have turf fields have a huge advantage because they don’t have to practice indoors as much.
The list of cons for moving girls soccer to the fall is fairly extensive.
In no particular order: Moving girls’ soccer to the fall creates an imbalance of girls’ sports with five as opposed to only three in the spring.
As Plymouth Whitemarsh field hockey coach Marianne Paparone said, “We have 1,500 kids – around 750 girls, and you have to support five sports. There’s no way you can have two or three good teams at once.”
There’s no disputing that many girls will now have a tough choice to make between their present fall sport and soccer. Soccer’s biggest rival will undoubtedly be field hockey since the SOL is a perennial district and state power in that sport.
“I do think in some cases it’s going to hurt hockey,” said Council Rock South hockey coach Pat Toner, who also coaches lacrosse at Council Rock North. “I have mixed emotions because it’s definitely going to help lacrosse.
“You’re going to get some of the soccer athletes that will want to play a spring sport, but it’s definitely going to hurt hockey. There’s no two ways about it. If a kid’s a diehard soccer player, they’re going to give up hockey. It’s going to have an impact.”
As it now stands, a girl could have her cake and eat it too by playing field hockey for her high school and soccer for her club.
“I hope it doesn’t knock our numbers down,” said Neshaminy girls soccer coach Rich Reice. “It’s going to have to be a selling job.”
By moving soccer to the fall, does that mean girls will get a better look from college coaches?
It is fairly well known in soccer circles that girls are recruited for the most part from club tournaments and showcases. Only on occasion will you find college coaches recruiting at high school games. In fact, if all girls soccer is played in the fall, it would make it more difficult for coaches to attend games, as they will be in the midst of their own seasons.
Other spring sports could become a beneficiary of the move.
“Now girls will have an opportunity to play another sport in the spring,” said Quintois. “Kids now will have an opportunity to run track, kids will have an opportunity to play lacrosse and softball that didn’t before.
“I would have said many years ago this would hurt field hockey, but I know firsthand that field hockey competes year round. That was never the case 10 years ago when field hockey was exclusively a high school sport. Now it’s a club sport. A lot of our kids are field hockey and lacrosse players, and it doesn’t affect them.”
And getting down to the nitty gritty: Will there be enough fields to support two or three more girls teams? Will there be enough coaches and officials?
“That’s where the bigger impact will be,” Toner said. “Where are they going to get the field space? They’re not going to have it.
“There are a lot of other things. People say it won’t be an issue, but it will be an issue. I just think it’s going to be tough to do.”
Some schools have plenty of field space but others, like Neshaminy, don’t. In order to accommodate more teams, schools may have to start utilizing community parks.
“It’s going to be very difficult to manage at Neshaminy with the fields and the practice times, the equipment,” said Reice, “We share the equipment; now we have to go order a lot more.”
Quite a few head coaches are doing double duty already. Reice (Neshaminy), James Barry (William Tennent), Paul Duddy (C.B.East/North Penn), Neil Johnson (North Penn/Gwynedd Mercy), for example, will have tough decisions to make. And not only that, they will lose some of their income.
Also, it’s well known that there is already a shortage of officials in the fall.
“Are they going to be able to cover the games?” said Underkoffler. “You’re going to have to recruit a whole new group of referees.”
Those officials doing jayvee games will have to move up to varsity and freshmen and middle school refs will replace them, watering down the talent level.
And you will find refs double dipping, doing an afternoon game followed by a night contest.
“From a personal standpoint, I’m disappointed with the decision,” said C.B. East coach Paul Duddy. “From the AD’s standpoint and from girls soccer, to have one season makes sense. Now they’ll be in the mix of all the teams on the other side of the river. If you’re good, you want to play the best.”
As a result of Tuesday’s vote, the SOL opted to make the move to the fall before it became mandated by a higher power.
In January of 2009, the Public School Athletic League (PASL) in Staten Island, N.Y., announced that girls’ soccer would move from spring to fall. The move came about when the Department of Education was threatened with a lawsuit by the New York Civil Liberties Union on behalf of three players in the league who -under Title IX - cited that spring play relegates the girls’ teams to ‘second-class status’ and that they are not afforded the same opportunities as boys’ teams that play in the fall.
According to silive.com, in a survey sent to more than 600 players, 582 (96 percent) of the players said they did not agree with the PSAL’s decision to move soccer from the spring to the fall.
A meeting was scheduled between the New York Civil Liberties Union and the law firm representing the girls’ soccer players to discuss alternative solutions.
Stay tuned!
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