Kilbarger Drops the Juggling Act : Preps: After playing basketball and soccer last season, the Canyon senior is concentrating on soccer.

Though they aren’t even remotely on the same level, Canyon’s Clay Kilbarger can relate to Deion Sanders. Both athletes have had a difficult time choosing between two sports with overlapping seasons, and both have delayed the decision as long as possible.

Sanders loves baseball and football; Kilbarger can’t get enough of basketball and soccer--both winter sports in the Southern Section.

Kilbarger skirted the dilemma his first two years at Canyon, playing soccer as a freshman and basketball as a sophomore. But he hit the conflict head on last year, playing both sports.

Somehow, Kilbarger fit in soccer and basketball without missing a game in either sport. But his schedule was hectic to say the least and it often bordered on the absurd.

He had soccer practice from 2:30 to 5 each afternoon, and basketball practice from six to nine. And from 5 to 6?

“I had that little one-hour gap for food and homework,” he said.

Most of the time, game days went surprisingly smooth. The soccer and basketball teams had the same traveling schedule, so Kilbarger would start at halfback for the soccer team in the afternoon and point guard for the basketball team at night.

“I had a lot of fun last year, especially on game days,” he said.

However, there was that occasion when the soccer team was playing in Orange County and the basketball team was playing a tournament in San Francisco.

“I had to hop on a flight to San Francisco right after the soccer game,” Kilbarger said. “But I made the basketball game that night.”

This year--without basketball--Kilbarger’s life is simpler and slower, but it is far from boring. The choice that Kilbarger had dreaded to make was actually made for him this summer.

As he had since his junior year, Kilbarger continued receiving letters from UCLA about soccer. The soccer letters also began coming from UC Irvine, Oregon State and Nevada Las Vegas. And the basketball letters?

“I never got any,” Kilbarger said.

Kilbarger also started realizing that his 5-foot-9, 145-pound frame wasn’t helping him on the basketball court.

“My size just wasn’t going to get me very far in basketball,” he said. “In soccer, size doesn’t mean anything.”

Kilbarger also figured it might be nice to chew and digest his food this winter, and maybe spend more time with his textbooks.

Ali Khosroshahian, Kilbarger’s soccer coach last season, said he thinks Kilbarger chose the right sport.

“If he sticks with soccer, he can play at the Division I level in college,” he said. “If he’d have played strictly soccer, he’d be a much better player than he is now.”

Kilbarger understands what Khosroshahian is saying all too well.

“I lost a lot of skill playing basketball,” said Kilbarger, who was the soccer team’s most valuable player as a freshman. “My touches and my mental mistakes are there now. If I mess up, I’ll say, ‘Gosh, if I would have stuck with it, I wouldn’t be making this seem so hard now.’ ”

But Kilbarger has managed to score four goals and dish out four assists for Canyon (3-3-3).

“The physical part isn’t so tough,” he said. “It’s reading the game and situations that’s the hard part.”

Kilbarger got his leg in shape this fall by doing the kicking for Canyon’s football team. Though he had always run cross-country in the fall--he was the varsity’s MVP three years in a row--Kilbarger made a smooth transition to football. He kicked nine field goals, including a 46-yarder, and was selected first-team All-Century League and his team’s rookie of the year.

After the season, Kilbarger received a couple letters from college football programs. But he said football is not in his future.

“I don’t like football, really,” said Kilbarger, who also high jumped 6-5 as a sophomore. “Standing on the sidelines was boring. Waiting for your turn is tough. I like to be involved in the action.”

No kidding.

“He’s one of those rare kids,” said Khosroshahian, now an assistant at Cal State Los Angeles. “The kid’s full of talent. For him, it’s just a matter of focusing on one sport.”