Welcome to another high school football season, with so many boys and girls players coming and going that you'll need to call or text the head coach to confirm who is and isn't playing for the club team, the national team, or training with the professional team.
It's not chaos, but just another sign of the many options Southern California's elite players have to consider, and playing high school football isn't exactly the No. 1 priority on the minds of college football, club teams, college programs and professional teams.
The example of Santa Margarita's top seniors, goalie Peyton Trayer and forward Coral Frye, may be the future. They helped the Eagles win. Southern Section Open Division Junior Championships. This season, they will play for Santa Margarita this month until they leave in January to join their respective college programs, North Carolina and Tennessee. Each said seven recruits from their future college teams are also leaving school early.
“It's a huge benefit for me to go in the spring, start classes and acclimatize to the environment, do a pre-semester of training with the team and gain strength and conditioning to be ready for the freshman season,” Treuer said.
Fry said, “Being more prepared will help me a lot heading into the college season.”
Tray and three more players got into trouble last season when they went to participate in the training of a professional team in Brazil and were disqualified from participating in the school season for violation CIF Regulation 600.
Under CIF rules, players cannot play for a club team and a high school team at the same time. There are also US Soccer commitments midway through the high school season, and many club teams do not allow students to play both. Girls and boys are not allowed to play on a professional team during the school season.
“It’s a ripple effect,” Santa Margarita coach Craig Bull said. “It's really driven by the professional clubs. I'm from Europe. We graduate from high school at 16 and you sign a professional contract if you're good enough and you train five days a week, and here you are 16 to 18 years old, playing club and high school football, training for two or three days. It's about making sure America keeps up with the rest of the world.”
Seven Santa Margarita coaches will meet in non-league games this season and told the Bull they have players who choose not to play high school football.
To help replace Treuer and Fry after December, Santa Margarita brought in one of the country's top juniors, Mia Corona, a UCLA commit who is scheduled to join the team in January. She missed training with professional teams last season and hopes to finish training for the last part of the high school season.
Consider how Harvard-Westlake managed without the Thompson sisters, Alice and Giselle, for most of their four-year high school careers. Alyssa turned pro her senior year and both signed with Nike in 2022.. “Southern California has so much talent,” Harvard-Westlake coach Richard Simms said.
The good news for the Wolverines this season is that two of their best players are available. Leading scorer Kaya Santomarco-King is a Colorado international, and goalkeeper Sasha Selvaggio is an Ohio State and Italian national team member. The Wolverines, Santa Margarita, Corona Santiago, Mater Dei and Sherman Oaks Notre Dame should have the best teams.
Boys teams have put game planning on hold until after the big club tournament in San Diego last weekend and the MLS Next tournament in Arizona this week.
Cathedral goalkeeper Peter Cornejo attended the FIFA U-17 World Cup in November representing El Salvador.
(Eric Sondheimer/Los Angeles Times)
“We just play with who we have,” Loyola coach Chris Walter said. “It's a tough situation. I don't think it's fair for student-athletes to have to make decisions. They should be able to play at their school's level or the highest level they can.”
Loyola has its best player, Cody Davis, who hasn't played high school football since his freshman season. He is committed to Loyola Marymount and will not play again this high school season. Loyola's top returning player is Josh Gallagher. Birmingham lost brothers Carlos and Cristian Esnal, who decided to continue playing in Uruguay. Robert Mejia joins the team after not previously playing in high school. “He's really good,” coach Gus Villalobos said.
Give credit to those who persevere in high school football and try to prove that you can still be an elite player.
Reigning City Section champions El Camino Real and long-time rivals Birmingham are set to battle it out again for the City boys title. Nine players return to Cathedral South, including goalkeeper Peter Cornejo, who played at the Under-17 World Cup representing El Salvador. Loyola's annual non-league matchup against Cathedral is scheduled for Dec. 9 at Loyola.
J. Serra is the defending Southern Section Open Division boys champion and will face competition from Mater Dei, Cathedral, Bishop Amat, Orange Lutheran and Palos Verdes.
In the meantime, CIF coaches and officials need to develop a plan for the future to find ways to get their elite players to compete for their high schools.
CIF Executive Director Ron Nocetti said schools have failed to change or get rid of Ruling 600 because it affects all sports and will create additional problems. “We are constantly approaching different football organizations to collaborate with them,” he said.
World Cup participant Trinity Rodman attended JSerra but never played high school soccer after playing for Corona del Mar her freshman year.
“These girls need it both ways,” Bull said. “They love high school football [and] what it brings and they love the club [and] what it brings. We need to find a way to do both.”
