The Paw Print

By Owen Zolner

2016 Chino Hills or 2020 Montverde? This question, which has been going viral on social media, is talking about the two most elite basketball teams in high school sports history. The teams, each riddled with talent, inspired documentaries and were the talk of the entire sports world. Each one had several NBA players, all picked in the top 10 of their draft classes, and almost every player on each of their rosters would go on to get scholarships to play Division One basketball. They had the best of the best of athletics on display, even if just at a high school level, and these athletics captured the attention of a nation and got exposure for these young athletes, an effect that benefited them then and has helped bring them success in their future careers. 

High school sports aren’t just something kids do for fun. As an anonymous member of the Payton Varsity soccer team pointed out, “I didn’t join soccer just to make friends.” High school sports are the first stage where athletes get recruited- they are the first real-time where athletes come into their own, where they showcase their true talent. It is the first competitive arena for them to see, for the world to see, just how good they are. Barring the best athletes from this arena would be a crime- not just to the athletes themselves who should be maximizing exposure and seeing how they fare against the competition, but also to other athletes who want to play against the best competition that they can. By not allowing them to participate, the competition is weakened and the sport itself is too. Other sports, like football, basketball, and baseball have realized this and have allowed their athletes to play at the most competitive level they can. However, soccer has not yet come to this realization.

The most competitive levels of soccer available to high school athletes are Major League Soccer(MLS) Next and Elite Club National League(ECNL). These programs are offered in partnership with America’s professional soccer league. However, if athletes play in them, they are then rendered ineligible to play High school soccer. No other sports have the same eligibility restrictions. Out of all of the major sports, soccer is the least recruited. The recruiting process is very political, and the vast majority of athletes get recruited based on their level of performance at the club level. Why would recruiters attempt to recruit at the high school level? The best athletes straight up don’t play in it. Although MLS next players were attempted to be reached for comment, three of them have already left the school because they were declared ineligible due to their participation in MLS next, and decided to simply solely focus on club soccer instead, opting for schooling and training in the fire academy- a former MLS next player said that he “fell out with his MLS next coaches about wanting to commit to high school and was kicked off the team.” MLS next wants to keep itself as the primary source of recruiting for high school soccer athletes.  

A league’s success is dependent upon its competitiveness. How can anybody care about a sport when nobody good plays in it when there are no athletes to root for, where there is nothing to watch upon in awe, where it is impossible to contemplate athletes when they are at their most athletic? Junior 25’ Varsity Soccer and Chicago Magic player Vaughn Collier stated that he felt like “When I’m at the club level, I play against the best competition with the best players. Now, at the high school level, I don’t get that same opportunity.” Collier went further to say “I want my team to be the best that it can be. I want other teams to be the best that they can be. I have played for an ECNL and an academy team. I know that I have what it takes to play at the highest level. I don’t want to be seen as a weak player. I don’t want my league to be weak, and I also don’t want to give up playing high school soccer.”   It’s not like MLS Next and ECNL players don’t want to play for their high school teams- they just don’t want to drop down to a lower club level and risk losing out on college scholarships. 

IHSA basketball is one of the most competitive leagues in sports- stars like Antonio Munoz, RicoAntonio D’Alessandro, and the Glenbard West varsity team where every member of the starting 5 went on to play division one basketball. Sure, worse players can have fun, and maybe win a few more games against weaker opponents, but this will be a negative for them in the long run. Nobody cares about the sport itself. A league’s success is dependent on how competitive it is, and high school boy’s soccer continues to devalue this competitiveness. This has negative implications for how seriously the sport is taken seriously in the United States as a whole- the NBA, NFL, and the MLB, the US’s three major leagues, all have one thing in common- they value competition at the high school level. Without this competition, soccer has no chance of ever succeeding inside the United States.