High school soccer in the MIAA’s Fall I season is still an 80-minute game. But little else is normal in-game with the COVID-19 modifications implemented to get players and coaches back on the field safely.
And those restrictions — no intentional body contact, no slide tackles, no headers, throw-ins replaced by kick restarts — have forced college coaches to adjust the way they evaluate recruits.
“It’s not really soccer, to be very frank, when you take away all those things,” said Megan Jessee, who is in her fourth season as the women’s coach at the University of Rhode Island. “It’s hard to watch."
Taking the physicality out of a game that only gets tougher in college makes finding players who can fight for 50/50 balls difficult. Removing headers makes it harder for strikers and center backs to stand out.
Although the NCAA extended its recruiting dead period for Division 1 and Division 2 through at least Jan. 1, coaching staffs can evaluate prospects via film. Coaches have to try to glean whatever information they can from a sport that’s been radically changed.
“None of us really know what is and isn’t safe on the soccer field right now,” said UMass Amherst men’s coach Fran O’Leary.
"I think [the MIAA] deserves credit rather than criticism in coming up with these guidelines. That being said, it’s not a competitive game of soccer. So it’s really difficult, if not impossible, to evaluate players to go on and play later.
"College soccer is competitive, it’s physical, and with the guidelines at the moment, it takes away some of the competitiveness and the physical nature of the game.”
Garrett Elliott, who directed the Rhode Island men to the 2019 Atlantic 10 championship, does not plan to attend an MIAA game, even if he could. “The game’s too different,” said Elliott.
Boston College men’s coach Bob Thompson said the biggest challenge in scouting high school games this year is grading aerial ability. Otherwise, he said, the rules are consistent for everyone on the field, so talent will reveal itself.
“Everybody on the field will still be able to [prove] their personality, their character, their athleticism, their intelligence, how they’re reading the game, their technical ability, all that stuff,” said Thompson, who starred on the field for Dan Avery at Framingham High and later at BC.
UMass women’s assistant Sam Mitchell, the program’s recruiting coordinator, said the defensive tactics are most impacted by the rule changes. Without slide tackling, shoulder-to-shoulder contact, or heading, the only way for a defense to win the ball back is to wait for the offense to make a mistake.
But there also may be hidden benefits to the changes. Players have to focus more on tactical skills on the ball. More “clever” players can find ways to use the new rules to their advantage, an appealing trait for colleges, according to UMass women’s coach Jason Dowiak.
Over the summer, when teams couldn’t run traditional practices, the UMass women’s coaching staff saw an increase in players downloading “Beast Mode” and similar apps that help individuals hone their skills. O’Leary pointed especially to the youth game, where players may develop better foot skills in a noncontact game. The pandemic has forced athletes to maximize the time on their own, Dowiak said.
The high school season began in early October, sans the Independent School League, and top prospects will play on club teams come the spring, when recruiting returns.Currently, club soccer programs have adopted the same limitations as the MIAA, but some teams have traveled across state lines to play under normal rules.
BC typically pays equal attention to high school and club prospects, though the club schedule is more conducive to college recruiting since it’s in the offseason. The 2020 extended recruiting deadline may put more of an emphasis on club, since rules may revert back to normal in the spring.
However, showcases that typically attract 50-100 players to a site are not being held.
Colleges aren’t comfortable offering a scholarship solely based on film, but that may be the reality.
The coaches are hopeful that the rules will revert back to normal by the end of the dead period.