Coach’s decision sparks battle between girls soccer club, high school teams

The Wichita-area high school girls soccer scene was stunned over the weekend when some of the area’s best players from seven schools considered quitting their teams halfway through the season.

The mass exodus was spurred by Brandon Bleakley, the coach of FC Union, a Wichita-based club team of sophomores that won a Kansas club championship last summer. Bleakley offered his players the option of training exclusively with the club and potentially with FC Wichita, which would end their high school eligibility for the season.

The fallout was swift. Six starters – three from North, two from Maize and one from Eisenhower – decided to quit, while the majority returned to their school team. The timing of Bleakley’s action cost him the summer coaching job with FC Wichita, as the organization severed ties with him over the weekend and refused to endorse the move.

But Bleakley says this is only the beginning of a trend of the top club players choosing to train during the spring instead of play for their high school teams.

“I’m just a small pebble that you throw out in the pond and it creates the ripple effect,” Bleakley said. “(FC Union was) the first high school club to win a state championship from Wichita, but we’re not going to be the last. There are some very good club teams around here and they’re going to continue to improve and win, so this issue isn’t going away. Sooner or later, it needs to be addressed.”

High school coaches were outraged by the decision Bleakley made to ask his players to choose between playing for their high school team or train with their club team, which won’t play competitively until July. Some coaches worried how it might affect their team’s chemistry with three weeks until the postseason.

“Our team is committed to their teammates in the Valley Center High School soccer program and (Bleakley) did not affect our team chemistry at all,” Valley Center coach Steen Danielsen said. “He should be ashamed of his actions. Our local high school coaches fight to do what is best for the kids and his deception tarnished the trust which players place in their coaches.”

Bleakley denied giving an ultimatum and says he wanted to give his club players the option of periodization training, which isn’t available in Wichita during the high school season like it is for players in Kansas City, Oklahoma City, and Tulsa. Periodization training allows for more training sessions between games, where the ratio of games to practices in high school is much smaller.

“I feel like Wichita is definitely behind the times, especially in competitive soccer,” Bleakley said. “Once you get to the high school age, you can see them plateau and they need to continue to go up or else the better players are going to continue to leave.”

FC Wichita is working without Bleakley on building a year-round training program for prospects of all ages. Director of operations Larry Inlow could appreciate Bleakley’s vision, but said FC Wichita will continue to encourage club players to play for their high school even after the training program is rolled out this summer.

“If FC Wichita had been in on an earlier part of that discussion, I think it may have turned out a little bit differently for (Bleakley),” Inlow said. “We are excited about the future and FC Wichita is a very large supporter of our local high school soccer and our local high school soccer coaches.”

Will club players leaving their high school teams become a trend in Wichita? High school coaches don’t believe one coach at one club makes it a trend.

“I think club soccer has its place and I think high school soccer will always have its place,” Maize coach Jay Holmes said. “Do I think it’s a good idea to do something like (year-round training)? Yes, I want my kids to have an opportunity to play at the highest level and I think that’s only going to help grow the game in Wichita in the future.”

This story was originally published April 26, 2017 at 5:17 PM with the headline "Coach’s decision sparks battle between girls soccer club, high school teams."