Southern Section Rules Can Make Life Difficult

One of the biggest obstacles facing walk-on coaches is not the low pay or administrative headaches.

It’s the Southern Section.

The Southern Section’s “Association Rule”--the most restrictive of its kind among the CIF’s 10 sections--prohibits a member of a school’s athletic staff from coaching an outside team during the school year on which students with remaining eligibility at the school are participating.

The rule is especially restrictive for soccer and volleyball coaches, who often are forced to choose between coaching year-round club teams and high school teams.

The rule is so broad that Michael Soylular resigned in March as boys’ volleyball coach at Laguna Beach High because of his coaching duties with girls’ teams at the Laguna Beach Volleyball Club.

“To be a boys’ [high school] coach and not be able to coach girls [at a club], that’s absurd,” Soylular said. “They need to explain why this rule exists; nobody is able to. Nobody understands the purpose of it.”

Dave Van Hoorebeke, 13-year veteran athletic director at Huntington Beach, said the rule sometimes deprives the schools of the best coaches.

“Everybody wants to have the best people coaching their teams and [because of this rule] they end up coaching at the club level instead of at the high school level,” Van Hoorebeke said.

The rule exists to shield student-athletes from over-zealous coaches who might burn the players out with too many games in the off-season. Also, many fear that coaches might insist their high school players also play for their club team.

But Soylular said that an increase in the number of club teams in recent years has reduced the potential for such abuse. Because of increased competition, Soylular said, club coaches are less likely to make unreasonable demands of their players.

Forced to choose between high school and club, many coaches choose club because the pay and talent level is better. Club salaries are in the neighborhood of $500 per month per team, and most club coaches coach several teams at once. High school stipends are about $1,500 for a season, which can take up to four months and the job requires many more hours each week.

Rob Machan chose club over high school in January, when he resigned as coach of the La Habra girls’ volleyball team. Machan said at the time that he wanted to devote more time to the Power volleyball club. His involvement with the club also posed a potential violation of the Southern Section rule because there are several La Habra players on Power’s various age-group teams.

“The good coaches should be able to coach athletes any time they can. Why put limitations on coaches? I think we should allow our kids to get good coaches,” Soylular said.

Many club coaches would like to have more freedom in coaching high school, where there often is greater team camaraderie and media attention.

“Things have kind of picked up since the high school season,” said George Larsen, who led the Mission Viejo girls’ soccer team to the Southern Section Division I co-championship this year in his second season as coach. “I have a name and some credibility.”

Larsen also coaches three club teams, but no Mission Viejo players with remaining eligibility play on them.

Most coaches say the biggest reason they coach high school is because they enjoy the players.

“Why eliminate the coaches from doing something they love?” Soylular said.