Just wanted to update our earlier story about the All-CIF boys’ soccer list. We expressed some confusion as to why Servite got four kids on the list, as opposed to zero from Cabrillo, Wilson, and Jordan (especially for the Panthers, who advanced to the quarterfinals and had one player score two game-winning overtime playoff goals).
Millikan coach Rod Petkovic to the rescue! Coach called to inform us that the procedures for selecting the All-CIF list are unique for soccer–it’s done by the SoCal High School Coaches’ Association, and then given to CIF to release. The SCHSCA is a non-profit organization which runs the excellent web resource socalsoccer.org, and pays for the awards for prep soccer players.
However, like any union or fraternity or club, if you don’t pay your dues ($35), there are penalties–such as your team’s players not being eligible for the All-CIF list. “It’s unfair, and fair,” says Petkovic, whose ambivalence pretty much sums up how I feel about it. Unfair because players who’ve played hard shouldn’t be kept off the list, and fair because it seems to be a well-known trade-off.
Coach also said there’s a formula wherein how far you advance in the playoffs has a big factor in how many kids are named to the list–so when a team that advances a few rounds in doesn’t have any of their players eligible, it opens it up to other teams, such as Servite, etc.
It still seems a bit strange to us that if a school pays its CIF dues and competes in the CIF playoffs, a coach needs to pay additional union dues to have his team be eligible for the All-CIF list, but apparently that’s the way it’s been, and the way it’s likely to continue! We’ll keep updating you if we hear more/different info.