The other football: Soccer is Charleston Catholic’s main fall sport
CHIP ELLIS/The Charleston Gazette
Sissonville’s Travis Rhodes tries to stop Charleston Catholic’s Graham Warren during a recent game. Due primarily to its small size, Charleston Catholic does not have a football team. The school focuses on soccer instead.
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By Natalie Tupta
Charleston Catholic High School
It’s that time of year again: we’re back at school, it’s starting to get colder outside and football season is underway. This may be the fall mindset for most high schoolers, but not for students at Charleston Catholic High School.
Why?
Because Charleston Catholic does not have a football team.
Instead the school offers four other fall sports for students - soccer, cross country, volleyball and golf. Of those, volleyball is the only one that is not offered to males. Approximately 47 percent of Charleston Catholic boys participate in soccer, cross country or golf, and many of those who do not play a fall sport do play winter and/or spring ones.
Principal Debra Sullivan says that the number one reason the school does not have a football team is size. The school has 261 students in grades nine through twelve.
“We are a small school,” she said. “We have three sports available for males, and they are very well supported. It would be difficult for a school of our size to have successful football and soccer teams, and we plan for success.”
Last year, the Charleston Catholic boys soccer team finished the season with a No. 4 ranking in the state. Coach Bruce Ruhlin was named the Class A-AA boys soccer coach of the year, and four players were named to the first-team all-state team.
Other reasons for the absence of football at Charleston Catholic are lack of a field, proper equipment and the means to pay expensive start-up costs, she added.
It wasn’t always this way, though. Sullivan says there was a football team at the school until sometime in the 1970s, when it was shut down because it was not adequately supported. “Instead, soccer has become the premier boys’ fall sport.”
Sullivan’s final reason for not having a football team is perhaps inspired by a protective attitude toward her students as their principal. “There is brute force body contact. People get hurt, and that really concerns me.”
She says that she is rarely approached about the absence of a football team at Charleston Catholic, and if she is, it is usually in good-spirited humor. “People recognize and value the strength of our current athletic offerings and understand that there are limitations.”
Students have mixed feelings about not having a football team.
“We shouldn’t have a football team because our soccer team would be bad,” said junior Catherine McGough. “But it would be cool if we did have one.”
“I wish we did, but you have to weigh all the options,” said junior Marie Cavalier. “There are not enough people, so we’d have a weak team and it would take soccer players. [But] more people would go to football games because football is a more popular game to watch than soccer.”
“Yeah, and it would give the cheerleaders something to do during the fall,” added junior Anna Clarke.
Rather than having a football game for homecoming, Charleston Catholic has a soccer match.
“It’s another one of the beauties of our school,” Sullivan said of the unique arrangement.
She said it is not something to be embarrassed about. “The point is that people come to the game. It is well-attended by both current students and alumni. It really is a homecoming.”
“It’s not embarrassing,” agreed Cavalier. “People still support it.”
However, junior Kristin Knopf disagrees.
“I think it’s embarrassing to have to tell people that our homecoming game is soccer!” she exclaimed. “I think more people would come if it were football.”
