Early on the morning on Feb. 4, there was a small, happy ceremony at Homestead High School, where soccer players Andrew Wiedabach (UW-Milwaukee) and Brynn Darga (UW-Parkside) joined golfer Nicole Westcott (UW-Green Bay) in signing national letters of intent for college.
Darga, who doubles as the feisty point guard for the North Shore title-contending Highlander girls' basketball team, talked about how much Parkside liked her defenders' aggression and her fearlessness in going for any ball. She was genuinely excited about the ceremony and the fuss of the signing. And in her mental and emotional backpocket was the joy of the surprising state soccer title for Homestead that she was a part of in 2007.
Wiedabach was a bit more sedate. He was the all-state midfielder who was the offensive catalyst for the Highlander boys gritty state semifinal run this past fall. A playmaker of peerless ability, he will no doubt be a valued performer for UWM very soon.
But the morning ceremony was just the start to his day.
Later that evening, he joined 22 other FC Milwaukee club soccer teammates in an event honoring all the club members who have inked letters of intent with colleges near and far at the trendy and delightful Le Reve Patisserie and Cafe in Wauwatosa. The event celebrated a banner year for the club, which began in 1990 as The Milwaukee Kickers.
"We always pride ourselves on our players achieving the very best," said FC Milwaukee Coaching Director Peter Knezic, a long time influential figure in Milwaukee-area soccer. "This group represents an enormous amount of talent going into college. It was just very nice that we were able to pay tribute to their dedication and hard work."
Knezic's FC Milwaukee program is celebrated for creating regional and national powerhouses on all age levels from which many players have gone on to have success on both a collegiate and professional level. The kind of success the organization celebrated the other night is not uncommon to it.
But at what cost? Among those joining Wiedabach at the La Reve program were fellow Homestead seniors Ashley Stemmeler (Marquette) and Dana Larsen (Baylor). There was much ado a few years ago when these two who were among several in the area who made a decision to play strictly club soccer as opposed to high school ball.
Highlander boys and girls coach Rich Dorn wished the pair well on what he felt was the honest choice they made. The pair didn't totally abdandon high school competition either as Stemmeler is a prominent player on the basketball team and Larsen has had some success going out for track.
However, Dorn doesn't likes the processes that he feels are at work influencing other such similar decisions.
"The issue has always been with the club coaches," Dorn said. "You don't hear us (high school coaches) put down club coaches. You don't hear us say we're the end all and be all (for successfully grooming players for college). But (some) players at clubs have been told not to play high school and threatened with ramifications if they didn't go along."
"They're selling swampland in Florida," he added, referring to the clubs. "The bottom line is that players get better by going against tough competition and they (club coaches) are lying if they say there isn't good competition in high school. You get to the level where you're playing for a conference title or in the (WIAA) regional and sectional tournaments it's very intense and the stakes get even higher at state. The players are going against good oppostion at the club level too and it is good for them."
"It's just a different philosphy though."
Knezic insists that FC Milwaukee has good relations with area high school coaches and that it isn't the policy of the organization to coerce players into choosing between either club or high school play. In fact, a careful examination of the list of signees who attended the La Reve event show a number who played both.
"We really do (get along with the high schools)," Knezic said. "We have some great relationships out there, but we also help support kids who decide to make other choices. ..If our kids want to play high school soccer we support them, but depending on the high school environment and experience, it's sometimes not what they're looking for."
And who's to say there isn't a little nudge one way or the other? Both high school and club coaches have to look after their best interests after all.
The bottom line is, is that this issue will likely never be decided clearly. As college costs continue to rise, and scholarships and grants continue to dwindle (college endowments took tremendous hits in the recent stock market plunge), there is going to be more and more pressure on kids to succeed athletically, no matter by what means, in order to earn money for school.
Sometimes that means choosing between the camaraderie and familiarity of playing with your classmates and for your school or going for potentially larger, more national exposure at the select club level with players from other communities, sometimes other regions. It is not an easy choice.
Dorn draws on long experience both playing and coaching to state his case.
"The best players, the Peles, the Beckhams of the world, they all started as kids playing pick-up games (with their friends)," he said. "Those were their tests, their education. They didn't do the seriously organized stuff until much later after they had developed their skills."
"You just have to keep working at your skills and learning and it's always better when its not being micro-managed."
Knezic offers a more direct inducement. One that could be found at La Reve in the large number of pleased athletes who were happy to play at the collegiate level and the pleased parents who were seeing at least part of their financial burden relieved by benefit of their children's talent.
Which was in some part facilitated by club participation.
"Most of our players still do well in high school," Knezic said, "and more and more of them are playing in college."
OTHER AREA PLAYERS AT THE FC MILWAUKEE EVENT
Olivia Hoff of Whitefish Bay (Wisconsin), Samantha Kailas of Homestead (Marquette), Allison Miller of Homestead (Marquette), Jason Rogers of Nicolet (Concordia), Samantha Vicker of Whitefish Bay (Marquette) and Alyssa Vogel of Germantown (Wisconsin).
