By Marc Raimondi
By all indications, there is no easy solution to the PSAL's problem. If the girls' soccer season stays in the spring, it could be a gender equality issue in which females are not getting the same rights as males. If it changes to the fall, the field space and refereeing issues will make a full season for both the boys and girls “logistically impossible,” according to PSAL officials assignor Allan Wharton.
Are they any solutions? Bob Sprance, who coaches the boys and girls at Forest Hills, thinks so. He proposes a five-team showcase season for the girls in the fall and a full season in the spring.
Another possibility is having the boys' and girls' seasons flip-flop one year the boys will play in the fall and the girls in the spring, the next year the opposite. A third proposal is for the Class A teams, the ones with more club players, to play in the fall and the Class B teams to compete in the spring.
Most Queens coaches, though, wish things would just stay the way they are.
“We have it made in the spring, we have it much easier,” Sprance said. “The bottom line is, (a change) is going to cost us programs.”
