BPAA Soccer

MSHSL Eligibility

There is a lot of confusion about participating both in high school sports and BPAA Soccer so this informational page has been created to set to rest the issue of whether it is legal to participate in both BPAA Soccer and high school sports.

The short answer is: there is no MSHSL rule that prevents any high school athlete from participating in the complete soccer season, including the season ending tournament. Some of the high school coaches have tried to use misinformation of the MSHSL rules to dissuade players from playing or finishing the BPAA Soccer season. We feel that it is a disservice to the high school players to misinform them this way and not justifying their own reasoning to force players to quit their BPAA Soccer team or to not join at all.

What follows the the justification that all high school athletes are eligible for BPAA Soccer:

From the Minnesota State High School League Official Handbook 400.00 Bylaws: Administration of Athletic Program Bylaws

Bylaw 411.00 Scheduling of Contests

Sub paragraph 10. Definitions:

Summer: The period from the Saturday following the fourth Friday in May through Labor Day. Note: Students may participate in activities during the summer, even though their high school sport season in the same sport has begun, i.e. students may play soccer, tennis tournaments or participate in road races through Labor Day. (Emphasis added).

BPAA Soccer is run through an Athletic Association that is not affiliated with any high school. The coaches are volunteer parents and are not paid high school coaches, assistant coaches or staffs at the sophomore, B-squad, junior varsity or varsity high school level. Training for particular high school teams does not occur. The uniforms consist of individual tee-shirts that identifies the player's team from other teams which the Association provides to the players as part of the registration fee. The season ends before Labor Day and consists of boys and girls as young as age 6 to age 18.

Paragraph 14 of the Eligibility Brochure subparagraph C reiterates the above. Subparagraph B only applies During the School Year, Prior to and Following the High School Sports Season and does not apply. Please note that even if it did, it is not violated by the BPAA soccer program.

The information was located at http://www.mshsl.org/mshsl/publications.asp The MSHSL Official Handbook 400 Bylaws (PDF)
Eligibility brochure (PDF)