HIGH SCHOOLS:

Several area soccer coaches have expressed displeasure with a CIF Southern Section rule which bars them from coaching the same players on their high school and club teams.

The rule, No. 2412 in the CIF Southern Section blue book states: “No member of the school athletic staff shall organize, sponsor or coach a soccer team outside the season of soccer, during the school year, in which students with remaining eligibility at that school are participating. After the soccer season and before May 12, coaches may associate with potential team members for the purpose of learning and practicing skills of soccer only during one regular physical education class.”

Eugene Day, the girls’ soccer coach at Costa Mesa High, and Larry Draluck, the girls’ coach at Newport Harbor, would both like to see the rule disappear. Gannon Burks, the boys’ soccer coach at Estancia also said he thought it would be advantageous for players if they could have the same coach year-round.

The rule is meant to foster an environment of amateurism within high school sports, according to Kristine Palle, a CIF assistant commissioner whose responsibilities include girls’ soccer.

But that’s something that’s become increasingly difficult as college admission stakes climb ever higher for high school students.

When high school athletes are competing for scholarships worth tens of thousands of dollars, are they really amateurs?

The rule is also in place to prevent undue influence, to keep players from transferring to schools to follow a coach, and to keep coaches from recruiting high school players. There are any number of conflicts of interest CIF is trying to prevent, but Day said it doesn’t really work because people shirk the rules anyway.

The risk for getting caught remains low because CIF depends on others to tell the organization when someone is in violation.

And well, who wants to be a snitch?

The result is whack-a-mole enforcement that breeds resentment when some violators get sanctioned and others don’t.

Day was suspended for 40 days in 2001 because he was coaching his two daughters, both students at Costa Mesa, on a girls’ club team while coaching the Costa Mesa boys’ soccer team.

“You can find coaches that are doing it (coaching their own club players) right now,” Day said. “But CIF doesn’t go out and look for them. I don’t blame them. That would be a full-time job. Its not that they can’t enforce it. They’re waiting for people to snitch. And you have some mean people out there that snitch.”

Burks doesn’t coach a club team, but, he said, “It’s actually probably a good thing to help your team — both club and high school, if they’re practicing together year-round.”

There’s an exception for players who play on Olympic Developmental Program teams. Those players can play for the same coach. According to Palle, CIF maintains a list of players who fall under this category.

“I just think that the rules are just silly,” Draluck said. “They don’t make sense. The clubs don’t propose rules that restrict high school soccer, but CIF has rules that are in direct relation to club soccer. Why not be excellent at something if that’s what your passion is? I think parents should have an ultimate say-so about where their kids play, when their kids play, and how much.”

SORAYA NADIA MCDONALD is a staff writer. She can be reached at (714) 966-4613 or by e-mail at soraya.mcdonald@latimes.com.