WHAT IS CIF RULE 600?

Very simply, the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Rule 600 mandates that high school student-athletes can play for only ONE sport-specific team during a single season. This means that a student-athlete who participates in a high school sport such as soccer or basketball, CAN NOT participate in any club sport event (practice, games, camps, etc.) during their high school season. Student-athletes who violate Rule 600 are subject to a penalty that includes being deemed ineligible from participation in their high school team as well as their high school team forfeiting contests already played.

The are a few exemptions that are sometimes made. If a tournament or camp is approved by CIF ahead of time, then student-athletes may be granted permission to participate in an outside event, but s/he will not be allowed to participate in any high school contests until after the club event. It must be made perfectly clear that permission must be given ahead of time by both CIF officials and the high school athletic directors. Such permission IS NOT automatically granted to the student-athlete.

In the 90s, a Milpitas High School boys' basketball player participated in a parent-child basketball game at his church during his high school basketball season. At the advisement of his teammates, the young man reported this to his coach after it happened. The infraction was immediately reported to CIF officials by the team's coach; however, the young man was still deemed ineligible for the remainder of his high school season.

More recently, a high school soccer player who was also a member of the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) regional team for her age group participated in a USSF event during her high school soccer. The event was not sanctioned by CIF; therefore, the young woman did not have permission to take part in the USSF g=contest during her high school soccer season. Her taking part in the USSF game was reported to CIF after her high school season was over. The young women's high school team had won their divisional championship but then had to forfeit it.

Each league has its own "cut-off" date when it comes to the last day that participation on an outside team is allowed. The official last day for all outside participation in the SCVAL is the MONDAY AFTER THANKSGIVING. However, because the high school soccer season begins several weeks before this date, a coach is not obligated to select a student-athlete who chooses to participate in the same club sport during any overlap period. Even if the coach agrees to allow a student-athlete to try out and make the team, final permission is still needed from the MHS athletic director.

My desire has always been never to create a situation where a student-athlete is forced to make a choice between participating in high school soccer over club soccer. However, I have encountered many situations where student-athletes were forced to make this decision by their club coaches.

If you are either a parent or student-athlete reading this, please consider the fact that only 1.7% of all high school soccer players nationwide receive college athletic scholarship offers. A majority of them receive scholarship offers through their participation in USSF regional, state, or national age-group teams.

As I have always advised student-athletes if anyone offers you anything, have them put it in writing.

Coach Tomlin