Making club count

When West Coast Futbol Club’s Mike Lane started coaching Estancia High senior Eric Duarte, he assumed Duarte’s motives for playing club soccer matched those of just about every other kid on his team.

The reason, Lane figured, was to compete at a higher level than what Duarte would experience playing for the Eagles alone, and to have a better shot at playing soccer in college.

Lane was right.

“I like the competitiveness of the Cal South League,” Duarte said. “There are a lot of chances to get seen by college coaches. It’s a pretty big known league. The coaches tell you about the big tournaments the club goes to and there’s big showcases where college coaches watch us play.”

Duarte is no different from hundreds, if not thousands of Orange County high schoolers who play club soccer. After eighth grade, the stakes rise considerably, and those who choose to continue playing club soccer, especially on a premier team, have their eye on a bigger prize: college.

“I think it’s always been that way, but, like everything else, it continues to grow,” said Lane, who coaches the West Coast boys’ under-19 premier team. “With more kids involved, with more aspiring to play at the collegiate level, more kids being recruited at coast soccer premier level, year in and year out, it continues to become a priority for the players.”

Lane’s been coaching club soccer for 10 years. The demand to get into college has increased, he said. But the number of elite players who make it to the pros is still about one percent. If there’s a pool of athletes playing club soccer in high school, the percentage who advance to play on the Division I level or higher is closer to a shower stall.

“Every kid that plays soccer at the premier level thinks they can play Division I soccer,” Lane said. “But that’s not the case because only a percentage of them are capable at playing at that level.”

So far, Duarte’s been in contact with recruiters from UC Irvine, St. Mary’s College of California, and Libscomb University in Nashville, Tenn.

But with national signing day — the day student athletes make their college commitments official — fast approaching in nine days, nothing is set in stone for Duarte.

Sage Hill goalkeeper Hannah MacLeod is just a sophomore, but she’s hip to the club-soccer-as-a-route-to-college game. She’s already begun discussions with her parents about her options.

MacLeod is a talented goalkeeper who has a goalie trainer and attends goalie camps in addition to playing for the Newport-Mesa Soccer Club and Sage Hill teams.

But she’s also a budding fashion designer, and sketching and sewing clothes is the other talent that’s pulling MacLeod opposite from soccer. She’s mastered the art of making clothes for herself, including a formal dress, and MacLeod has moved on to designing more casual pieces for others.

She may have to choose between the two, but in the meanwhile, MacLeod has begun looking at bigger club teams that could offer exposure to college recruiters.

“I’ve talked to my coaches about it,” MacLeod said. “They think I could go to college for this, so they want to get me on to the best team that they can.”

MacLeod said she got an offer from the San Jaun Capistrano-based SoCal Blues, but that would have meant a daily 40-mile round trip during club season, which diminished the attraction. MacLeod lives in Costa Mesa.

“It was too much,” MacLeod said.

Dillan Freiberg, a sophomore on Newport Harbor’s varsity team, used to play for the Newport-Mesa Soccer Club, but stopped after the 2006 season.

He told the Daily Pilot in December that his parents were tired of playing the club fees — about $350 — and he didn’t want to be tied down and unable to compete for Newport Harbor.

Freiberg is a multi-sport athlete. He’s the kicker for the Sailors’ football team, and he plays baseball, too. Club soccer season would have run into football.

His speed, agility, and fearlessness impressed Newport Harbor boys’ coach Ryan Hernandez.

Freiberg kicked the game-winning goal, a free kick from about 40 yards out, to lead the Sailors to a 2-1 victory over Back Bay rival Corona del Mar Dec. 21.

But just because he’s stopped playing club doesn’t mean Freiberg doesn’t want to play college soccer. He’s hoping he’ll be able to, anyway.

And he may be on to something, at least in the eyes of Estancia girls’ soccer coach Steve Crenshaw.

“For those in club who think that high school doesn’t have any validity, there are kids who play for years in the highest levels of club in anonymity,” Crenshaw said. “Nobody knows they play except for their neighbors and their friends. That’s the thing that high school athletics has to offer a kid and that’s a thing they shouldn’t pass up.

“The only ones that think the high school experience has no value are the ones concerned with themselves and their club teams. I think kids should have the opportunity to see both worlds and participate in both of them.”

In the second of a three-part series, the Daily Pilot will examine how college coaches and recruiters view club soccer next week. The third part of the series will explore the business side of club soccer.

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