Boys’ soccer: City Section refuses to change eligibility rule

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The City Section rules committee has rejected a proposal to change its eligibility rule for boys’ soccer despite negative publicity directed at City and state champion Woodland Hills El Camino Real for holding out players during the regular season to play in the playoffs because of their participation on Academy teams.

The City rules committee declined to endorse on Tuesday this soccer proposal: ‘Due to the increasing number of soccer players competing for Academy teams such as Chivas and Galaxy and only playing for their high school team when the playoffs begin, we would like the following proposal to be considered. Any student that chooses to participate on a professional soccer league Academy team will not be eligible to participate on their school team for that concurrent season.’

City Section Commissioner Barbara Fiege said the rules committee felt that it was an issue that had more to do with the decisions made by coaches, and that a policy such as the one proposed by the rule change should not be made for any specific sport.

UPDATE: The proposed rule change now goes to the City Interscholastic Athletic Committee, which can make it a first reading on Dec. 7 and send it out to soccer coaches for comment. Or IAC can reject the rule and kill it immediately, according to Fiege.

-- Eric Sondheimer