CANYONS COULD GET WOMEN'S SOCCER TEAM; POSSIBLE RETURN OF FOOTBALL RAISES PROSPECT OF SQUAD.

Byline: Mary Schubert and Patricia Farrell Aidem Daily News Staff Writer

Overshadowed in the excitement over the possible return of College of the Canyons football was the prospect that female soccer players would soon join the ranks of Cougar athletes.

After high school, young Santa Clarita Valley women have enrolled in Moorpark College to play for the soccer team at that Ventura County campus. But those athletes might be able to play closer to home, because if COC's football team is restored in autumn 1998, the college also would have to add a women's sport - and soccer is the top contender.

Last Wednesday, the Santa Clarita Community College District board of trustees voted to reinstate the football team - which was dropped 15 years ago - if several conditions can be met. Among those criteria is the ability of a fund-raising campaign to generate money to cover the cost of fielding a gridiron squad. Further, the college would have to comply with the requirements of a federal gender equity law that governs college athletics.

Title IX mandates that the percentage of female athletes matches the percentage of female students attending the school, a rule that also applies to the representation of male athletes in the male student body. College of the Canyons could jeopardize $1.5 million in federal funding it receives if the balance between its men's and women's athletic programs is far off kilter and no progress is being made to remedy the inequity.

Local talent

Soccer is a tremendously popular sport in the Santa Clarita Valley, with roughly 7,000 youths belonging to American Youth Soccer Organization teams.

Many kids also play on all-star, club and ``travel'' teams, where the level of competition is higher than at AYSO games.

Oliver Germond has been coaching the girls' soccer teams at Hart High School for four seasons. In March, his varsity squad advanced to the finals of the California Interscholastic Federation's Southern Section, ultimately losing to Los Alamitos High School.

``I think it would be great for COC to have a (women's) soccer team,'' said Germond, who has coached 37 girls on his varsity and junior varsity teams. ``Just like football, in this valley the level of girls' soccer is getting really high.''

He predicted that a women's soccer team at College of the Canyons would not only draw a lot of athletes to tryouts, but also would be very competitive with other community colleges because coaches could choose from a wealth of local talent. The presence of a women's team likely would convince Saugus, Canyon, Valencia and Hart grads to stop making the long drive to Moorpark College, he added.

``I think it would be convenient for the girls to go to COC and play soccer because it's close to home,'' Germond said. ``Most of the girls, unless they get an offer to go to college (to play) soccer, most of them aren't going to take soccer over education. They're going to make their education plans first.''

Increasing demand

Germond, a 1991 Hart graduate who played four years of high school soccer and now belongs to an amateur team, said he has watched the sport gain popularity and participation among girls. ``I've seen an increase in the interest in the past four years, and the talent has gone up tremendously,'' he said.

Girls are getting better at the sport because ``at the youth level, so many people are playing soccer nowadays,'' Germond theorized. ``When I first started (coaching) at Hart, probably only half the team played on club soccer all year-round. Now, every girl on varsity plays club soccer,'' he said.

Larry Sulham coaches a club team called Pride for girls 12 and younger and serves as president of Santa Clarita United club soccer. The organization fields 13 girls' teams and 10 boys' teams; only three years ago, there were just eight teams overall, he said.

There exists ``a huge demand'' for girls' soccer teams across the Santa Clarita Valley, Sulham added. Local AYSO and club teams ``have all grown tremendously,'' he said.

Many girls are disappointed when they enter high school and find that none of the local campuses has a freshmen soccer team, Sulham noted. ``There was such a demand from the girls, but they weren't able to play.''

So the creation of a local college team - Germond noted that club teams' age limit usually is 19 - probably would fill a void in the soccer-crazy Santa Clarita Valley.

There's certainly no shortage of talent, Sulham said. Frequently, he takes his girl players to women's soccer games at The Master's College so they can watch older athletes play and learn from their technique.

Jenifer Costin said she would welcome the addition of COC women's soccer, from her dual standpoint as manager of Surf, a club team for girls 11 and under, and as a player on an adult team at the Santa Clarita Soccer Center.

``As a spectator I'd love to see it. Soccer is so big here,'' Costin said. ``I think it would be a great opportunity for girls who . . . (when they) grow up want to continue to play.''