Sac-Joaquin Section soccer moving to winter for boys and girls

The Sac-Joaquin Section Board of Managers voted to move boys and girls soccer to the winter on Wednesday.

The vote was 31 to 23 in favor of the move, with 15 leagues in the section voting for the move and 11 against, said Will DeBoard, Sac-Joaquin Section director of communications. The change will take effect in the 2016-17 school year.

“This is something that has been talked about for about eight years,” DeBoard said. “I think the big reason it passed this time was to give kids more opportunities in the winter and eventually to give soccer teams something to play for beyond a section championship.”

Currently, boys play in the fall and girls in the spring. Rather than weather, facilities and referees pose the biggest challenges to playing soccer in winter, especially for schools that lack artificial grass fields.

“It’s going to take some getting used to,” said Lance Eber, who coaches the boys and girls teams at Golden Valley. “We’re going to have practice fields and match-day fields used every day. That’s the first big adjustment. I’m going to have to pick a gender, because I won’t be able to coach both teams.”

The weather will actually be a nice change, Eber said, with no triple-digit heat.

The only sports currently available for girls in the winter are basketball and wrestling.

“I think it’s really good for the girls,” Merced boys soccer coach Bart McAfee said. “This will give them the option of playing another sport in the winter. The one thing I’d like to see them do is move the start of spring sports back a week or two if they’re going to do a state championship in soccer. That could last all the way until March.”

The majority of the sections already play boys and girls soccer in the winter. Thursday’s vote could open the door for a future Northern California regional championship or state championship playoff.

▪ Also approved at Wednesday’s meeting: a new playoff rule that says if a team is a league champion in a playoff sport with enrollment-based divisions, it must play at that division for the playoffs. For instance, if a team wins a title in a Division III league it may not move down to Division IV for the playoffs.

▪ Associate section commissioner John Williams also announced his retirement, effective July 1. He will be replaced by Lemoore High School athletic director Ryan Tos.

Softball

Atwater 2, Pitman 1 in Atwater – Cheyenne Mahy and Maritza Iglesias each drove in runs as the Falcons (14-10, 8-5 CCC) clinched a playoff spot. Hailey Lawrence added two hits for Atwater.

Golden Valley 9, Turlock 3 – Christiane Grijalva threw a complete game and drove in a pair of runs with a double for the Cougars (13-11, 5-8 CCC).

This story was originally published April 30, 2015 at 5:03 AM with the headline "Sac-Joaquin Section soccer moving to winter for boys and girls."