While the Skyline Boys Soccer team has their preseason outside on a big turf field, the Girls team has theirs crammed inside. Is having a spring season equivalent to having a fall one?
The majority of states hold both the girls and boys soccer season in the fall, but Michigan, along with several other northern states, is an outlier. Michigan has had this arrangement since the winter of 1982.
“At the Council’s Fall Meeting on Dec. 9, 1981, [Michigan High School Athletic Association’s (MHSAA) Representative Council] voted to add both girls and boys soccer for the 1982-83 school year, both to be played during the fall,” said Geoff Kimmerly, Director of Communications at MHSAA. “At the Council’s Winter Meeting on March 28, 1982, the Council reviewed that decision to put both soccers in the fall, after several school administrators requested another look….I don’t have any record of what was discussed that day – only that the Council at that meeting then voted to move girls’ soccer to spring instead.”
In 2001, the equity of having a boys sports season at one time of the year and a girls season at another time was called into question. The Communities for Equity sued MHSAA, claiming that this arrangement violated Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. As a result, MHSAA was forced to change some of the sports, such that volleyball was changed to be in the fall, and basketball to be in the winter. However, soccer was not one of those in which a switch was mandated.
This current arrangement of having the girls soccer season in the spring comes with various disadvantages. For one, the pre-season for girls soccer is quite different from that of the boys.
The girls pre-season takes place inside. “We literally run the track and do workouts…inside, in the [school] halls.” said girls soccer player, Elle Kierce (‘26). “We scrimmage, play games and do NLT [next level training],” said boys soccer player Fletcher Kierce (‘26). “We play it outside at the highschool stadium fields.”
Having a pre-season outside makes many players feel as if the boys’ side has the upper hand. “It can feel unfair sometimes that the guys get to play in the fall and have preseason outside, while we’re stuck inside for preseason,” said girls soccer player Jade Thompson (‘26). “I feel like it’s harder to work on ball control on the slippery gym floors, and it’s tough to get into the same mindset or really feel ready for the season.”
Scheduling issues negatively affect the girls’ side as well. “The spring season has more interruptions than the fall season,” said Skyline’s Girls and Boys soccer coach Chris Morgan. “Spring break, Good Friday-Easter, Memorial Day, all create issues for scheduling games…. All of the interruptions create scheduling hassles making [the girls] season have fewer days to schedule games…. The scheduling for the guy’s season has a lot more flexibility and leeway.”
In addition, tryouts for the girls team are very different to the boys tryouts due to a wintery climate and the fact that school is in session. “We are not in school in the summer, which makes things easier for the fall season,” said Morgan. “We are able to have tryouts twice per day [in the fall season], whereas with the spring season we get one tryout per day…. The tryouts are definitely not equal when it comes to available times between the two programs. Some years in the spring we are forced to try out in the gym due to fields covered by snow.”
