Following this with (somewhat vetsed) interest.
Having myself before faced some of these challenges with my kids at one time attending a public charter school with no athletic program.
I took the club route at the time to form a (school) team to compete where we could (U13/14/15 girls mix). Of course it helped that I could since I had immediate access to a club and a friendly registrar. I opted this route quickly because it gave me some access to fields and necessary insurance coverage. Also I tried to decipher what it would take to become a member of SCHSL (since the school was public) and soon became lost and gave up. I never once thought it would be OK to compete against JV or HS teams since I imagined they must, in turn, have policies and rules in place to cover all the necessary liability and insurance needs. Just like SCYS has rules to cover sanctioned play only (another great debate), I certainly accepted HS teams had something similar. For the record, our approach was not succesful since to be registered to play, certain families would have to transfer or relinquish existing club ties, or at best 'guest' only at tournaments. This of course limited the pool of players ready to commit to the school (really club) team since the depth of talent was shallow and they were (rightly so) quite happy with their existing club situation.
Could PAC somehow apply to become members and 'get in' that way ? Still I am confused now reading here that the students can readily apply to their zoned teams now which means the whole need for the home schooled, & charter type teams goes away as Hatch suggested. I certainly accept that it may be hard to compete for a roster spot on a public high school (particularly in soccer rich communities) but how is that any different than young Susie (playing MPRD U14 rec ball) from Cario looking to get on Wando's team with 48 classic/challenge/ecnl players ahead of her. I am certain however that there are several schools who will take a warm body to fill a roster in less (soccer) rich communities. Again, just one of those life isn't fair, or life choice considerations on where we choose to love and public school options.
My eldest is now approaching high school (9th grade next year) and some of these challenges exist since we will likely opt out of her zoned public high school (and probably choose private). Our choice thankfully is not based on athletics since she'll have to sit out an entire year because of another policy that is in play to offset other recruiting concerns. All way too bizarre and heavy handed for kids who really have little to no choice where we parents put them for their schooling based on our goals, preferences, location, informed insight and often economic situation. Coach Chas, in our situation, we have a family that is choosing to attend private school (over public) but can not participate in athletics because this private school participates in public school leagues (and not private). Way too confusing (-: So be it.
