The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Euclid should not have to play a GCC schedule in soccer
All-independent matches would benefit Panthers, league foes more for time being
Sometimes the truth, even when it’s uncomfortable, has to be stated. Not to be provocative. Not for clicks.
Because it’s the right thing to do.
This is something I’ve believed for years, now in my 19th season covering high school soccer for The News-Herald, and have shared privately with coaches.
In the best interest of everyone involved, Euclid should not have to play a Greater Cleveland Conference schedule in boys and girls soccer.
For the Panthers’ sake. For their GCC opponents’ sake.
It’s time to find a reasonable alternative.
No, it’s not insulting to Euclid. No, it’s not a personal indictment against student-athletes or coaches who are diligently honing their craft.
No, it doesn’t mean Euclid should leave the GCC entirely.
No, it doesn’t mean it should be permanent.
But the tipping point, in a competitive soccer sense by any fair measure, was reached long ago. Euclid deserves better, and playing a GCC schedule is not helpful in the programbuilding process.
If you know my work, you’re aware of how protective I feel of our coverage area’s soccer sides, admittedly to a fault at times.
That, of course, includes Euclid. We all want to see thriving boys and girls soccer programs for the Panthers. Our sport is better off locally when Euclid is on generally good form as a side.
It benefits soccer in their community. It maximizes that beautiful, fairly new soccerspecific facility on East 222nd Street. It makes their neighbors better. And yes, by the way, Euclid is a leading contributor in helping to bring diversity to high school soccer that is desperately needed locally.
That’s why it hurts me so much to see such a clear and sustained pattern in GCC play with matches involving Euclid.
And if you think it’s out of line to say this, what’s worse? Discussing it, with the ambition of finding a more viable solution for Euclid and its fellow GCC soccer programs, or continuing to follow this same cycle year after year, essentially as if there’s no problem and this is the way it “must” be?
Conference disparity is one thing, and that tide comes in and floats out with every soccer side.
When you have an upper-half league side play a lower-half league side, in all likelihood it’s not going to go well. So be it.
But in many of those instances, we’re talking about, say, 5-0, and it’s on to the next match.
Part of the uncomfortable truth is, especially on the boys side, Euclid matches in GCC play are decided by at least 10 goals.
According to the Ohio Scholastic Soccer Coaches Association match database — and these are the publicly available statistics; there are more — there have been at least 37 instances since 2005, including 32 since 2015, of Panthers’ boys matches with a minimum margin of 10 goals. Euclid has not had a winning season in boys soccer since 2004. A few years back, and honestly the side that did this should be ashamed of itself, one match was 23-0.
The vast majority of these match results are coming from GCC play.
That trend isn’t as widespread with the girls side — and I really like the work Nate Johnson is doing over there with program building — but GCC play is also a tall order for that side as well.
And among many, here’s one of the saddest parts: Most of these sides are winning these matches this way while showing great restraint and, I know for certain, remorse and empathy privately.
On Twitter, watch what happens to a school or team handle in a GCC match against Euclid. More times than not, these handles are active, detailing goals, real-time score updates and good play in general. On these match days, though, they go relatively quiet before offering a subtle “we defeated Euclid” tweet. They don’t mention the score because they prefer not to.
The GCC is one of Ohio’s best soccer conferences, producing sides with rightful Division I regional and state aspirations.
It’s not just lopsided margins. A 10-plus goal margin, over and over again, has to be demoralizing, especially when decision makers can take prudent steps toward the greater good.
Euclid deserves a path toward building its programs without being unnecessarily subjected to these types of matches.
How? Simple. Afford Euclid the ability to play an all-independent schedule in soccer only against opponents of a fairly similar caliber. Take that one match slot out of the rest of the GCC sides’ schedules and let those coaches use that spot for another nonconference match.
You afford everyone involved more competitive matches, which under these unique circumstances is reasonable.
Also, the Panthers get the opportunity to build confidence and positive form, with a hope of one day returning to play a GCC slate.
There’s precedence for it. When University was briefly a member of the old Premier Athletic Conference in the 2010s, it wasn’t considered a PAC school in swimming and diving. It’s a little closer with disparity with today’s Western Reserve Conference, but the fact of the matter back then was US being a league member in that sport served no benefit for either side.
Preppers swimmers would have been several seconds faster than PAC competition. That would make for duals, tris and conference meets that are counterproductive.
In hockey, if a Greater Cleveland High School Hockey League program is on the downswing with numbers and/or skill level, it drops a division.
That provides time to gather themselves again vs. opponents of a similar caliber, with the hope of one day returning to their former division when they’re ready.
It’s not surrender. It’s not about not having enough tenacity. It’s not out of line.
It’s practical.
One of my favorite days covering soccer for The News-Herald in recent years came in 2019, when Euclid hosted a doubleheader against neighborhood rival Villa Angela-St. Joseph.
The boys rallied for a 4-3 win, relinquishing a 3-1 second-half lead before netting a 69th minute matchwinner. The sheer joy of the young men in that side at the full-time whistle getting one positive result was so endearing.
At times over the years, I’ve encountered Euclid’s longtime boys coach, Donovan Smith. He is a very nice man who does laudable work, and after that 2019 match, he summed up the reality well.
“When we play this rough and play the schedule that we do and lose a lot like we do, it’s tough to keep their hopes up,” Smith told me. “But these kids, they don’t quit. And every team we’ve ever played, every coach I’ve ever talked to, they’re just always amazed at how much my boys never quit. And that’s what we strive to go for.”
We all appreciate that mettle and attitude.
So we should also give Euclid a plausible path to more of those moments.
Even when it may be deemed an uncomfortable truth.