Christopher and Luz Estrada were sick of the mixed messages.
As their son Javier entered his freshman year of high school, his coaches and the UIL encouraged him to keep playing multiple sports. He knew he wanted to continue both varsity soccer and basketball at Floresville High School — a 4A school 30 miles southeast of San Antonio.
But despite what his coaches and school administrators said, it didn’t take long for Javier to learn his goals were unrealistic.
The staff at Floresville told Javier he could play both. But without being in two places at one time, he would have to miss some practices or games, which the coaches said would undoubtedly impact his chances of becoming a starter.
“He was kind of in a bind,” his mother, Luz, said. “He didn’t want to let his teammates down. Why would he remain in a spot on varsity where he wasn’t going to be most of the time? It just wasn’t fair.”
Javier, now a sophomore, had to make the tough decision to quit basketball — a sport he had played since he was 5 — to continue his varsity soccer career.
The Estradas learned other students at Floresville felt similarly, so they started a petition which received 402 signatures and presented a proposal to the UIL to move the high school soccer season to the fall. They wanted the season to correspond with football or for the start dates to be adjusted slightly so that their son and other students like him could reap the benefits of playing multiple sports.
“Why is it that soccer is running at the same time as baseball, basketball, powerlifting, tennis and golf?” Luz said. “At the beginning of the year, it’s just football and cross country for the boys, and for the girls, it’s just volleyball and cross country.”
The UIL discussed the proposal during its June Legislative Council meeting and ultimately decided to take no action, but the Estrada family plans to continue to fight.
Some have backed the Estradas, citing weather and the corresponding college season as justification for a change. Others have ignored it, arguing it’ll never pass.
“Obviously, it’s all smoke,” Grapevine girls soccer coach Steve McBride said. “There’s 100 things to get put in front of the UIL every year.”
Whether the change happens, athletes are still forced to choose. In either schedule, high school soccer — and boys soccer, in particular — is left to battle more highly prioritized activities such as club, basketball or football.
With basketball season coming to an end as teams claimed state titles in San Antonio last weekend, those like Javier who did choose soccer had to watch from a distance and wonder what could have been. Meanwhile, coaches, athletic coordinators and the UIL are left to reconsider the debate of sports specialization and where the priorities should lie.
“If you play multiple sports, you’ll have multiple opportunities,” Luz said. “A lot of people are in the same boat as we are.”
A logistical nightmare
Texas is one of seven states to start its public high school soccer season in the winter. It is one of 13 to play any portion of the season in the winter at all.
Most states, especially those on the East Coast and in colder climates, begin soccer in August and end in November. Others play from March to May. No other state besides Texas started this year’s season in December.
For most opposed to the schedule, weather jumps out as the immediate concern. Year after year, teams face cancellations and scheduling nightmares when ice storms hit, especially in North Texas.
During this year’s late-January ice storm, some teams were forced to play three games in a four- or five-day span just to catch up.
But coaches in favor of a winter start date fear moving the season could cause an even bigger scheduling challenge with both soccer and football playing Friday nights.
“When you start messing with the football season, especially here in Texas, football’s king,” Celina girls soccer coach Alexander Adams said. “The reality is that between sharing the fields, the girls being right in the middle of their club seasons and during football season, I just don’t think it would work out.”
High school coaches, especially of boys teams, already have to convince some of their players to play high school in addition to the massive commitment of club soccer. If the two seasons were to correspond, coaches fear they’d lose many of their stars.
Even though the proposal was created to accommodate multisport athletes, coaches argue it would undoubtedly hurt some as well.
“Especially with your smaller schools, I think it would almost serve as an injustice because of how many of your smaller-school athletes play multiple sports,” Lewisville boys soccer head coach Brandon McCallum said. “That’s the UIL’s biggest thing. They want kids to be able to participate in as many things as they can. I can’t see them changing something that would limit participation in sports.”
‘Left on the backburner’
McKinney Boyd senior captain Caleb Sempebwa didn’t discover football until his sophomore year. He started playing soccer when he was 3, but he added football as a secondary sport in high school.
That impulsive decision turned out to be his ticket to college.
Sempebwa will continue his career as a kicker at TCU next fall after having the opportunity to play both sports throughout his time at Boyd.
He said moving the soccer season would have been detrimental to his success.
“If you want to be good in school, you’re taking AP classes, you’re taking dual credit classes that have two-to-three hours of homework at night,” Sempebwa said. “I also have family duties, too. I don’t know how I would be able to handle two sports, plus advanced classes and things at home as well.”
Like Estrada, Sempebwa may have had to choose leaving Boyd’s soccer team without one of its captains or its football team without its star kicker.
“In my mind, it would be detrimental from a physical health standpoint, from a mental health standpoint, from a lot of areas,” Boyd soccer coach Colby Peek said.
While North Texas coaches are overwhelmingly opposed to the change, some have played devil’s advocate and said a fall soccer season could offer some perks. Beyond better weather, starting in August would allow the season to correspond with the college soccer season, making it less likely for top players to forgo their senior years and enroll early.
“I had a player who graduated in December,” Allen girls soccer coach Kelly Thompson said. “She graduated early to go play Division I, so she couldn’t play her high school season, which is common for top-tier girls.”
The threat of changing the season made the wheels start to turn for many of the area’s coaches. Some suggested shortening the soccer season. Others, such as Southlake Carroll girls soccer coach Matt Colvin, proposed splitting the season into two — with two months played in the fall and two months played in the spring.
For now, the possibilities can stay in theory, as the Estradas’ proposal is at a standstill.
“We haven’t heard anything,” Luz said. “We received nothing.”
The UIL declined requests for comment on the possibility of moving the soccer season, saying the proposition did not come from an internal member.
In a few years, the Estradas’ now 10-year-old son will be in high school and will face the same predicament as Javier. Until that time comes, Luz and her husband are determined to keep fighting for that opportunity for their children.
Whether it’s their own kids being impacted or athletes across the state, the Estradas are left with the fear that — in a state where football and basketball will always take precedence — their beloved sport is being forgotten.
“Soccer is just left on the backburner, and I feel that soccer is such a growing sport, especially amongst high school kids,” Luz said. “I don’t think it’s given the right amount of attention.”
On Twitter: @Lassimak
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