Spencer Patterson

Wed, Feb 25, 1998 (2:30 a.m.)

When Green Valley met Bishop Gorman in last weekend's Southern 4A Zone girls soccer championship, the game could have served as the perfect warm-up for an upcoming state tournament.

But while their fellow student-athletes in boys and girls basketball prepared for their state championships this week, Las Vegas' girls soccer players stayed home, their season having come to a premature end.

Nine years after its promotion to a varsity sport in Nevada, girls soccer still is without a system to determine a state champion.

"The girls are getting cheated," Cimarron-Memorial soccer coach Pat Webb said. "After zone, it's all over with for them. That's just not fair."

The basic cause of the problem is simple: The northern schools play girls soccer in the fall, and the Las Vegas-area schools hold their games in the winter.

Under the surface, however, lies the heart of the issue, a civil war between the northern and southern coaches.

Issues such as field and referee availability have become joined by other concerns such as potential salary decreases for coaches.

"It's been quite frustrating," Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association (NIAA) Executive Director Jerry Hughes said. "There's a split between the north and the south. They can't seem to agree on the season to play in."

Throughout the 1996-97 academic year, coaches and NIAA officials struggled to come up with a definitive solution.

Initially, the northern contingent lobbied for a unified move to the fall (when the boys play soccer). But the Southern Nevada High School Soccer Coaches Association blocked that, citing logistical problems with facilities, officials and the fall's other girls sports.

According to Webb, however, the key obstacle might have been several southern coaches' unwillingness to choose between boys and girls soccer. A teacher is paid $2,200 for each team he coaches, meaning he can earn $8,800 for junior varsity and varsity boys and girls soccer.

"When you get right down to it, that's the bottom line -- coaches who don't want to give up the money," Webb said. "Because as far as facilities go, the north is able to do it, and I can't believe they're any smarter than we are."

The southern coaches countered by suggesting girls soccer be played in the spring, with both halves of the state moving the sport into the new slot for the 1998 season.

Before the NIAA could consider that arrangement, a group of northern coaches, players and parents stepped in, noting the importance of maintaining the state's club spring soccer system which helps Nevada players gain national collegiate exposure.

"We have developed and entrenched a long-standing spring competitive soccer league that's outside high school," Wooster coach Ron Jones said. "And according to national rules, someone can't participate on a high school team and a club team in the same sport during the same season."

A move to the spring also faced local opposition from those who argued that without soccer, basketball would be the girls' only sports option during the winter. With only 12 roster spots available on a varsity basketball team, female athletic participation would dwindle during the winter.

Potential crossovers with volleyball in the fall or softball in the spring also have been divisive issues. But Green Valley coach Vince Hart, for one, doesn't think those should be reasons not to push toward an improved system.

"It's important to stop looking at these little things as roadblocks," Hart said. "Life's full of choices, and you've got to give up something once in a while, whether it be the coaches or the girls. They deserve to have the same opportunities as the boys."

After months of discussion, the two sides decided to put the state tournament issue aside temporarily, leaving things as they have always been in the sport -- unresolved.

So last week, when Green Valley defeated Gorman for the zone crown, the Gators didn't get the chance to see how they stacked up against northern zone champ Reno. Nor did the Gaels have an opportunity to avenge their one-goal loss to Green Valley.

"It's pretty frustrating because we didn't get to prove our worth to the whole state," Green Valley senior Becca Hughes said. "We want to be able to show everybody what we're made of."

The Las Vegas-area coaches took a small step toward making that dream a reality last week at their annual postseason meeting. Although the group voted 11-5 (with one abstention) to continue aiming for a move to the spring, a decision was made to accept a fall season as a last resort, possibly as soon as the 1999-2000 school year.

"We have to swallow a little bit of pride and do what's best for the girls," said Eldorado coach Gerald Pentsil, president of the Southern Coaches Association.

"Every state does it differently, but every other state has a state championship. We need to have one too."

archive