ABOUTUS

WHY IS THIS CALLED A “MOVEMENT”?

The national high school champions league is a movement because it represents a way of thinking about youth and school soccer. It is a throwback to a time before the dramatic influence of youth soccer as a business and the pay to play model as the driving force in the youth soccer business. It is a recognition of the validity, importance, and meaning of high school soccer.

There will always be expenses such as equipment, uniforms, facilities, travel, and coaching stipends. Within these categories and in other ways, the youth soccer environment in the US has undergone some dramatic changes in the past several decades:

• ◊Consolidation and merging of local small clubs into larger clubs has damaged local rivalries as once rivals now often represent the same uniform
• ◊Travel has been taken statewide, regionwide, nationwide leading to great travel expenses
• ◊As these changes have come in, exclusion has become the result – exclusion due to economic circumstances
• ◊The exclusionary practices have extended to the team and club level: invitational tournaments and showcases have tended to favor teams and clubs that can afford them and drifted away from merit as the sole determining factor for inclusion
• ◊At many clubs, high school soccer has been downgraded, actively discouraged, and even forbidden by those that stand to benefit financially from these policies
• ◊The benefits of representing your school and community have been downgraded
• ◊Professionals sometimes mistrust one another, quietly seeking to convince players to leave clubs and join other clubs
• ◊A wide and confusing variety of leagues and associations each claim to represent a “champion”
• ◊Coaching and “Director” salaries have seen huge growth

WHAT WE SEEK TO RESTORE

The high school champions league seeks to restore some of what has been lost or threatened:

• ◊A celebration of high school soccer
• ◊A return to the excitement and meaning of local rivalries that extend beyond soccer
• ◊Less travel
• ◊No economic barrier to participation
• ◊Inclusion based on objective metrics for participation that are known ahead of time and available to every team
• ◊An opportunity to give all players, including those of modest financial means, an exciting and competitive platform…a place to show what they are capable of when there is a meaningful trophy on the line
• ◊One single unifying trophy open to all teams that have earned the right to participate regardless of the size of the school or whether it is a public or private school
• ◊Respect and appreciation for professionals that work for modest salaries and in a professionally collegiate manner within a holistic framework; professionals that work together within metro areas and across metro areas to preserve the ideals of free to play, merit-based inclusion, metro-based inclusion, coach collaboration, and student-athlete empowerment

The high school champions league movement is not a tournament, but it is a clarifying statement on behalf of high school soccer's ability to contribute to the role and meaning of soccer in the lives of the participants. It does not seek to replace the state championship, but instead to leave there be no doubt about which school has the best team within a given metro area.

Whether you're a school looking to join the league, a coach interested in learning more, or simply someone who shares our passion for high school athletics — we'd love to hear from you. We're open to all inquiries and welcome any school that wants to be part of the movement.