After watching his program advance to the state tournament for the first time since 2019 on Saturday, Flower Mound boys soccer coach David Doyle was glad everyone’s legs held up for 80 minutes.
The night before in the 6A Region I semifinal, Doyle’s team survived a shootout against El Paso Eastlake. The penalty kicks came after 100 minutes of soccer — 80 minutes in regulation plus two, 10-minute overtime periods.
Flower Mound returned to the school on Friday night around 8:30 p.m. and met Prosper for the 6A Region I Final at noon the next day. Before the regional tournament, Flower Mound played a tough Allen team in the third round last Tuesday.
While Flower Mound cranked out a 1-0 win over Prosper for the 6A Region I title, Doyle noticed the dead legs on the field.
“They were exhausted on Saturday for the final,” Doyle said. “You could see it. Even though Prosper didn’t go to overtime, you could see toward the end of the game they were getting a little bit tired.”
Prosper girls soccer players felt similarly after surviving back-to-back shootouts in Friday’s regional semifinal and Saturday’s regional final.
“Those two games back to back, that’s so much to ask of your kids and I’m just so proud of them for fighting through that,” Prosper girls coach Matt Dickinson said after the 6A Region I final win over Flower Mound Marcus.
High school soccer players can run between three to five miles a match, often sprinting downfield and exerting themselves in other ways. When muscles aren’t given ample time to recover, performance can suffer and the risk of injury or overtraining conditions increase.
Several Dallas-area soccer teams at the UIL state tournament this week at Birkelbach Field in Georgetown could find themselves with little time to recover between matches if they advance to state finals after their state semifinals contests. The Class 4A girls state semifinal and final, along with the Class 6A boys and girls state semifinals and finals, will take place on back-to-back days. Area coaches have determined how to best help their players recover on the road, but some also hope scheduling looks different in the future.
To Doyle, the current format doesn’t prioritize the welfare of the kids. “You may pick up some injuries that may need more than a few days to recover, and then you’ll have both teams at full strength,” Doyle said.
“It’s definitely taxing, and it’s definitely something that is difficult to try and turn around and play another game the next day,” Frisco Wakeland boys coach Andy Holt said. “And that’s where that recovery comes in big time.”
The Flower Mound boys, Duncanville boys, Prosper girls and Rockwall girls could potentially play on both Friday and Saturday. Celina’s girls won on Wednesday and will play Thursday.
The area’s Class 5A teams — the Colleyville Heritage girls, Midlothian boys and both teams from Frisco Wakeland — will play state semifinal matches on Thursday and state final matches on Saturday if they advance.
After playing three games from Tuesday through Saturday last week, the Wakeland boys will have a day off at state if they beat Leander Glenn in the state semifinal on Thursday at 5 p.m. The 5A boys final isn’t until Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
But the Flower Mound boys are left with the same scenario from the regional tournament, with their state semifinal match scheduled for Friday at 7:30 p.m. and the state final game scheduled for Saturday at 6:30 p.m. Doyle doesn’t understand why all the teams can’t get a day off between their matches.
The Friday game could go to overtime just like Flower Mound’s regional semifinal match, meaning the contest likely wouldn’t wrap up until about 10 p.m. Then the players would have to get something to eat and find time to adequately recover.
Doyle said the UIL told Flower Mound’s trainer in an email that a recovery room will be available on-site at the tournament, but it will cost $100 an hour for players to use it. The UIL didn’t immediately respond Tuesday to request for comment.
“We’ll bring as much stuff for recovery as we can to help them out,” Doyle said. “But to charge them to use the equipment there? And then to ask them [to stay in the recovery room] even 30 minutes after the game, when you play at 7:30 at night, to get ready for the next day? It’s crazy.
“You don’t see Duncanville or DeSoto [football] playing their semifinal on Friday night and then have to turn around on Tuesday and play their final. They get a whole week off. Yeah it’s a different sport, but our kids are moving for 80 minutes.”
Holt plans on finding a place along the route to Georgetown for the Wakeland boys to stretch their legs and kick the ball around. He wants to make sure the kids stay moving and don’t just sit around in their hotel rooms waiting for the game.
At Wakeland, Holt sticks to a routine — ice baths, rollers and anything the trainers recommend — to keep the players feeling fresh. That has boded well for Wakeland, which advanced to the state tournament for the ninth time on Saturday and will try for a sixth state title this weekend.
“It’s really, really important that you’re doing what you’ve got to do to get your body back and ready to play,” Holt said. “I think the teams that are able to do that are the teams that are successful.”
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