Club athletes are high-school hidden talents

Kelyn Rowe still thinks about what might have been.

As a freshman for Federal Way High School, he scored two goals and had an assist in the Eagles' 4-3 loss to Pasco in the 2007 Class 4A boys soccer state championship game. Rowe, who led Federal Way in goals and assists that season, was pumped to go all the way in 2008.

"We had 11 coming back," Rowe said of last season. "We could have won it. Hands down, we could have won it."

But Rowe didn't return and Federal Way didn't win it. Instead, he joined Crossfire Academy, an offshoot of the Crossfire soccer club for advanced players who compete in a nationwide league.

That experience has been invaluable, far beyond what Rowe would have received playing in high school. Crossfire Academy has players training four days a week and is on the road about two months of the year. The club has sharpened Rowe's skills as a center midfielder and taken him all over the country to play against teams from California, Texas, North Carolina and Uruguay.

The one place it hasn't taken him is back to his old high-school games.

The same is true for many of the top athletes in the area who bypass high-school teams where they could be stars to chase Olympic dreams, NCAA scholarships and professional contracts.

In football, high-school games are the main course for the feeding frenzy of college recruiters, although contact also comes at summer camps. But in soccer, swimming, gymnastics and a few other sports, those who compete with clubs have a better shot at being noticed by scouts and NCAA coaches.

Farrah Griffin, Newport High School's gymnastics coach, was blunt about a gymnast's chances for an NCAA scholarship if she competes only in high school.

"You can't," she said flatly. "It's looked down upon, or second class, to do high school. There are a lot of club gymnasts that would like to be recognized in their school, but at some point you have to be an adult and make decisions."

Some high-school gymnastics coaches implement a no-club policy, mandating athletes cannot compete for both their club and their school at the same time. Some clubs, including Crossfire Academy, have the same rule.

Athletes who have chosen club over high school say the experience is generally harder, but the rewards tend to be bigger.

"It's fun to play in high school, but the exposure from club is nice," said Josh Smith, a member of the Crossfire Academy team who joined after playing for Decatur High School in Federal Way as a freshman.

Smith, a junior, has attracted the attention of top colleges, something he's sure wouldn't have happened had he played only for Decatur.

"You don't get any exposure to colleges from high school," Smith said. "They don't watch that. They just care about club."

The trade-off for these high-school athletes is relative anonymity around school.

"He doesn't get a lot of recognition," said Rowe's mom, Sherri Kruzner, who played for San Diego State.

When asked if people at school knew her as an athlete who went to the U.S. Olympic swim trials last spring, Auburn Mountainview senior Mattie Kukors hesitated.

"Some people, maybe," she said.

Kukors' job is swimming. She toils seven days a week at the King County Acquatic Center in Federal Way, matching strokes alongside Olympic medalists Margaret Hoelzer and Megan Jendrick. Kukors spends 23 to 25 hours per week in the pool, polishing off her workouts with biweekly sessions with a trainer.

Kukors gets only two weeks of vacation every year — during winter holidays and in August after the USA Summer Nationals.

But she has been to meets all over the country and qualified for the 2008 Olympic Trials in Omaha, Neb.

She shared that experience with her older sisters, Emily, 23, and Ariana, 19. They're a family of swimming prodigies, but Mattie is the only one who has not competed in high school.

Ariana Kukors, who missed making the 2008 U.S. Olympic team in the 200-meter individual medley by 0.08 seconds, worked hard to balance her teenage social life with the time demands of club swimming. In high school, she would go to sleepovers at friends' houses and arrange for her parents to pick her up late at night so she could get a few hours of sleep before early morning practices.

As a freshman, she swam for Auburn High. At the Class 4A state high-school meet in 2003, Ariana won the 200 IM and swam a stunning relay leg that single-handedly moved Auburn up several places.

"I think it gave her classmates and the other swimmers a new appreciation," her mom Jaapje Kukors recalled. "They were like, 'That's why you leave early from sleepovers!' "

Mattie Kukors considered swimming for Auburn Mountainview but decided against it.

"I think that high-school swimming is great and I think it's a really great way for people to get involved with our sport," she said. "For me, it was like I had the opportunity to train with people that are ranked in the world."

Ruby Engritz, a freshman at the University of Washington, is one former club athlete who thinks she made the right decision.

At the end of 2007-08 school year, the Inglemoor High School student newspaper published a list of students who had received athletic scholarships. Engritz, one of the state's top gymnasts, was on it, having accepted a scholarship to compete for the Huskies.

After the list was printed, Engritz was surprised by how many people didn't know she was a gymnast, let alone NCAA material.

"They were like, 'Who is this girl? Why isn't she on the team competing for the school?' " she recalled.

The reason: She was too busy training and competing with her club, Leading Edge Gymnastics Academy of Everett.

"I'd go to school for classes and not really a social thing and then I'd drive to gym and be there for four or five hours," said Engritz, who began competing in gymnastics at age 7. By the time she was a high-school freshman, she had reached level 10, the second highest in the sport and the level most college gymnasts are recruited from.

Engritz knew a few people who gave up club gymnastics to compete for high-school teams, where their advanced skills turned them into state titlists.

"They wanted more of a social life and they were just tired of the commitment and the pounding on your body and brain," she said.

But Engritz never wavered, and didn't compete for Inglemoor.

"Actually, my club coaches wouldn't really allow it anyway," she said. "It definitely would have been frowned upon, and I would have definitely had a very long talk [from my coach] about my priorities and my future and was I in the right sport."

Engritz said she has no regrets.

"I am loving it so far," she said of college and the Washington team.

Federal Way's Rowe, who has committed to play soccer for UCLA, also has no regrets. His goals include becoming an All-American, then playing professionally in Europe.

But he still thinks sometimes about the fun he missed and about the state championship that never was.

"It's great to go out and play and have some fun and be known around the school," Rowe said. "I like the team and I like the social activity, but I wouldn't trade it."