There's been an unusual number of high school forfeits in the high school playoffs this year due to ineligible players (i.e., players in high school aren't supposed to be playing club ball during their season) Eric is reporting that there is a double forfeit in the City Section playoff finals for both Marquez and South East being disqualified. He's further reporting that the issue is with MLSN. Technically MLSN HG players are not supposed to be playing high school because their season doesn't break for high school and Flex falls in December when the high school season is well underway. Some players, particularly seniors, get waivers to the leave the club, but they aren't supposed to cheat by doing both, though if they are starters or goalkeepers they might come under tremendous pressure to do so if the club really needs them. There's been far less of an issue with MLS AD and ECNL (including the women's side) since both break for high school, though a few girls teams have gotten in trouble too since ECNL tournaments do spill into December.
High School Forfeits
- Thread starter Grace T.
- Start date
Karlton Athletic
SILVER ELITE
Was talking about that with my kid’s coach yesterday. He said that private schools can get waivers for kids who are on sports scholarships as they’re essentially getting paid to play by their school. He didn’t think that was right.
East County Soccer Dad
SILVER ELITE
Top soccer program in sandiego has a lot of mls kids
Freshman thru varsity.
Private but who knows if they’re actually on scholarship
I thought there were no sports scholarships in high school. Have the rules changed? I remember a lot of emotional posts on this forum about some rich schools (Oaks Christian comes to mind?) being accused of that practice by a young, innocent player from the Ventura area who didn't know he wasn't supposed to talk about the offers he had received.
You can have scholarships. Some of the football ones are really
. There are rules regarding recruitment, residence and cif says you can’t transfer schools just to play sports without incurring a sit out penalty. See bishop Montgomery below. the rules aren’t consistent but they allow it to go on because it allows a lot of underprivileged (especially African American) kids to play for fancy private high schools especially in football and basketball (especially for Catholic schools). And the way d1 recruiting works these days for those sports is they are very heavily tied to those private schools.Bishop Montgomery High School in Torrance forfeits 2025 football season for breaking CIF rules | abc7.com
Bishop%20Montgomery%20High%20School%20in%20Torrance%20says%20its%20varsity%20football%20program%20is%20suspended%20for%20the%202025%20season%20and%20all%20games%20are%20forfeited.
abc7.com
Gunners > Spurs
BRONZE
Mater Dei offers a few different scholarships. None of them are sport specific, but they are known for aggressive recruiting. They also have an NIL deal with PlayFly sports for athlete 'brand partnerships'.
I hear about this exception but I have not seen it in action yet. It's probably more like need based financial assistance but then that should not be tied to sports participation. I know the league my school in does not allow recruitment in this way. I hear about this exception but I have not seen it in action yet.
The biggest shame is the teammates who lose out despite not doing anything wrong. My understanding is the pressure largely comes from the clubs since their season is ongoing and there is no break and since flex falls after high school has begun. “Sure you can play but if we need you we need you”.
Doesn’t really tell you much. They might be on leave with a waiver (for scholarships) or seniors on a drop pickup (quit team, rejoin later). You’d have to go back in and check team play records and cards which is why those in the finals and semifinals are getting caught (they are directing resources against the winners…who knows how many there were among the losers).
My son's school has some MLSN players who just didn't play HS soccer. I assume that's the case for most players in that situation.
On a related note, I don't see why teams below Varsity (and especially Frosh teams) don't just forfeit all their games up-front, play the games anyway, and let their kids practice/play externally also. The season results don't matter for anything (no playoffs, and Frosh game results aren't even tracked anywhere in my son's school case); there's no good reason to prevent those kids from playing externally during the HS season, if the official results of the games don't matter for anything. It's only Varsity where the results matter at all, for playoffs and school rankings, and such.
On a related note, I don't see why teams below Varsity (and especially Frosh teams) don't just forfeit all their games up-front, play the games anyway, and let their kids practice/play externally also. The season results don't matter for anything (no playoffs, and Frosh game results aren't even tracked anywhere in my son's school case); there's no good reason to prevent those kids from playing externally during the HS season, if the official results of the games don't matter for anything. It's only Varsity where the results matter at all, for playoffs and school rankings, and such.
Yes! I feel bad for the teammates who are not in MLSN and really did nothing wrong. For them, high school is their highlight. Of course, that is probably true for a majority of MLSN players also but they just don't know it yet which is also tragic!
The only ones to blame imho are the ones running the High School Programs. If you chose to field an ineligible player as the coach, director, school admin etc there should be consequences that extend to the individual including but not limited to being suspended / fired from the district. Ignorance in terms of saying "i did not know" is not a valid excuse and these people should be held accountable for their actions.
Not sure this is fair to the HS admin people; they would have no way to know this, if the player doesn't tell them. The club team memberships are not generally public, even before information about participation in matches.
I'd agree with your inclination, but without a way for HS admins to check this, it would be unfair to hold them accountable.
Muir had to forfeit their girls' soccer season too
www.sgvtribune.com
Historic season ends for Muir girls soccer due to ineligible player
Muir, which won the Pacific League title for the first time this season, has to forfeit 17 games and will miss the CIF-SS playoffs.
www.sgvtribune.com
The high school coaches know which club/team the kids they take play for. Remember the rant from that one high school kid on here that their coach would only look at letter leaguers. For public schools the rule should be very easy: no mlsn hg players. There’s no scholarship exception. The drop pickup thing is a farce that shouldn’t be tolerated by either high schools or mlsn. The issue on the mlsn side is the reserve players being called up put down into mlsn ad. But with the age line division having moved next year there really shouldn’t be any excuse anymore since that pretense has effectively been dropped.
Reason hs soccer in SoCal is in the winter is because football has the fields tied up in fall. The hs don’t have enough practice time to compete against club teams. They aren’t year round.
Unfortunately this will never happen. The best players are in MLSN HG and private schools want to win. So what happens next? Scholarships for playing HS soccer.
You cant seperate the two. MLSN doesnt want their players doing HS Soccer and Private Schools are willing to offer scholorships if players play soccer for them. Everyone knows the game and how to play it to get what you want.
CleatSniffer
BRONZE
It is pretty sad its trickling into the youngers too. Heard a few teams have been bringing in the new format older kids (Ex. a Oct 2013 playing with 2014s) kids into this season to win games in their leagues like Pre-ECNL and EA.
The city league is almost all Lausd so scholarships don’t play a role there. That’s why it’s been more of a problem in city (all public) then southern (which is a mix including privates and where kids can get scholarship waivers). One issue is whether privates should be allowed to do what public’s can’t under the scholarship exception. The other has to do with kids using drop pick up (“quitting” their hg club and then going back after the high school season) and mls ad players called up to play with hg team as guests or for flex, reserve players who didn’t expect to play but get called due to absence of others, and futures players caught in between (neither fully hg or ad). The fix (aside from the scholarship exception) is pretty simple: if you play for an HG team at any time starting in the fall season and during that school year, you can't play high school.
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