SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Girls Varsity Soccer HSL Ruling against home school athletics

For whatever reason the HSL has choosen to not allow homeschool athletic teams all over SC to participate in HSL sanctioned tournaments, not only in soccer but all other sports as well. I am speaking for Providence Athletic Club, which has been allow to participate for the last three years in various tournaments and has enjoyed the competition and I believe others have benefited from our participation. It is our hope that this decision will be adjusted to allow our athletes the opportunity to be apart of the tournaments offered throughout the state. PAC comes for the competition and the family friendly environment; sometimes we win, sometimes we lose but whatever the outcome our teams look forward to the thrill of being in a tournament. It is not our goal to force our way into the play-offs or championships. It is our hope that we would be supported by the coaches and soccer programs that we have developed relationships with over the past three years. You all have been wonderful accepting us into your tournaments and giving us games from the very beginning, for that I want to say Thank You! Our soul objective is to let these kids play and create memories of playing High School soccer (for my kids)and the various other sports this ruling is affecting as well!
I wish you all the best as you begin your conditioning and hope to see you this spring in games and tournaments this spring!

Jennifer Aurednik
Providence Athletic Club
Athletic Director

I'm really not sure what the League is trying to accomplish by excluding teams from invitational tournaments, except to exert another element of control. Leagues and championships I understand completely, but invitationals...well, now you're telling schools who they're allowed to invite.

I'm always saddened when I see politics placed above young people. Just my two cents.

I have mixed feelings about this one. SCHSL is supposed to tell its members who they can play. This is one measure of its organizational function. Without guidelines schools could all do what they please and chaos would prevail. However, I do know that the league has granted permission for teams (like the one I took to Italy in 1996) to compete in foreign tournaments against clubs from other countries. I am not sure what the difference is.

To me, if you can play/scrimmage private schools, why not home schools? If you can play public and private schools from other states, why not home schools? I know that a lot of SCISAA schools play versus home schools.

It is odd, in regular season they can play textile teams, college teams, clubs etc. They (SCHSL) get weird when awards are given, championships etc.

Wayne,

I agree that it is the function of the League to govern and provide guidelines. As I said, when it comes to league competition, that's the whole point of being part of an organization. For invitational tournaments, though...seems a little more flexibility could be used. As Backscreen17 pointed out, if "schools may play non-member private schools, parochial schools and preparatory
schools...teams such as college freshman, alumni or textile teams" (SCHSL Constitution, Article VIII, Section 2) as regular-season games, how are we protecting the integrity of competition by excluding home school teams?

Are the home schools considered public schools? In that case, they would be considered non-member public schools, which the League Constitution explicitly forbids. However, the Constitution has not changed recently, to my knowledge...if PAC and others like them were allowed to compete in invitationals previously, they were either approved by the League in violation of the Constitution before, or letting them play is not in violation of the Constitution now.

Which is it?

Coach Chass,
I am not current on all the HSL rules, but I can tell you "home school" teams are not public schools. In the past three years that we have played in various tournaments there has been occasion that I have had to call the HSL and talk with the commissioner. In 2010 he initially denied us (PAC)entry into the very first tournament we tried to enter, but later gave us approval and basically said he would watch our "behavior" and "conduct" in the tournament. We had no problems until this fall. All four teams JV and Varsity have been in numerous tournaments.
Our JV girls have had the most success, winning the Irmo JV highest bracket last spring. We usually finish somewhere in the middle to lower end of the tournaments. Is this a problem?

I was told one of the issues is that we could possibly travel around the state and recruit "the best" players. Really??? I can tell you this, you can't recruit anyone to give up their job and home school their child/children unless they have a very good reason to do so. Another thing, if you know any home schoolers you will know there are not that many who are willing to forego "family time" to cart a child across state to play soccer, let alone pay hundreds of $$$. Remember this is a one income family more than likely and most likely thier child has only played rec or church league.

Honestly, we are not a threat to any public or private school team. We try to follow the HSL rules as closely as possible, not because we have to but because we don't want to cause any problems. There are somethings that we have to do that may seem "unfair", like having tryouts early. Reason being #1 so I will know we have enough players for each team and have time to notify teams we have scheduled with if we cannot fulfill our commitment, #2 so uniforms can be ordered. Each player has to pay for their uniforms therefore they get to keep them, so we run more like a club purchasing uniforms every two years but having to order for those joining in on the odd year. Being funded totally by the player, there is no other way to make it work.

We are not out to make money or gain big titles (everyone likes to win though:) It is about the kids, their development as athletes and letting them have fun in the process.

For all in the Charleston area who may not know ...
When you see Lowcountry Wildcats in a high school basketball box score, you're seeing the local home school team.

I can certainly see why the League would protect its members from having to compete with teams that do not follow the same recruitment, attendance, and practice rules as League teams. Still, invitational tournaments are, by definition, well--by invitation. Schools choose who they want to invite, and schools choose whether they wish to attend and compete with the other schools invited. If teams CHOOSE to invite another team for competition in an invitational tournament, what is the League protecting us from?

Also, as previously noted, League schools are allowed to CHOOSE to compete with a variety of other types of teams who obviously do not follow the same rules of recruiting, practice, etc. as League teams...so there must be another issue at work here.

Coach: I'm with you on this. I would add that the SCHSL might be more concerned about the practices of its parochial school members, at least one of which has recruited athletes across ALL sports FOR YEARS.