Posted by Where's Jeremy, a resident of another community, on Feb 19, 2012 at 2:22 pm

What - no Paly or Gunn boys or girls teams in CCS soccer? is that unprecedented??

Posted by paly parent, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Feb 19, 2012 at 8:27 pm

Don't know if this is true, but parents have told me that the PALY boys coach makes it very hard for the boys to play club soccer and varsity - so the kids opt to play club. If that's true, he's probably got a pretty weak team.

Posted by Paly Mom, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Feb 21, 2012 at 11:20 am

The Paly JV girls won their league, but the varsity teams did not fare well.

It is against CIF rules to compete in both club and high school at the same time, but the Paly coach was apparently unwilling to be flexible about boys competing in high level tournaments for their club team over Thanksgiving and Christmas break - i.e. wouldn't let those boys join the high school team after their tournaments were done. So they chose not to play high school.

Posted by paly parent, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Feb 21, 2012 at 11:38 am

From what I understand, a lot of the college scouts go to the high level tournaments, so if you want to the chance play college soccer, it would seem like you have to play in them.

Posted by paly parent, a member of the Palo Alto High School community, on Feb 22, 2012 at 7:20 am

"Offensive sells tickets, defense wins championships"...apparently Coach Donald Briggs is an offensive coach. The entire denfensive line gets no instruction and no recognition, this was clear the entire season. The defense and goalkeeper are the guys that kept Paly in each and every game this season. The coach clearly favors the offensive players, even giving the offensive players awards for literally flopping on the field to try and get a call. The forwards couldn't score on their own, half of the goals were pks.

It's hard for kids that love the sport to play for a coach who doesn't seem to share the enthusiasm. He has driven and is driving many of the of highly talented soccer players away. Hopefully the majority of the team decides to return to Paly soccer next year despite Coach Briggs.

Posted by shhh, a member of the Palo Alto High School community, on Feb 22, 2012 at 12:15 pm

I watched many of the games this year. The defense is solid and in fact the goalkeeper {maharaj} is quite good. You are right, these boys are the ones that kept the Paly team in every game. Too bad offensive couldn't make it happen. Hope these boys will come back next high school season. It would be a shame if they walked away from high school soccer.

Posted by rather not say, a member of the Palo Alto High School community, on Feb 27, 2012 at 6:53 pm

From what I hear Briggs is not a very good coach. Shows a lot a favourtism and by his actions is a bit prejudice. Sad that Paly keeps him on as a soccer coach, especially since he is a PE teacher at Gunn. I hope that the school gets their act together and starts talking to the parents and kids. Kids don't want to say anything because they want to play for their high school each year.