PREP ZONE: High level of play pays off for Scofield

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Sammy Scofield doesn’t believe in anything other than full commitment.

In selecting Notre Dame as her college destination, Scofield thinks she found a compatible partner.

“I come from a club that is super competitive, so I want to go in to a college that definitely has the potential to compete for a national championship,” Scofield said. “That was a big factor.”

Scofield, a Geneva junior, picked Notre Dame last week over Clemson and Rutgers. Scofield said Notre Dame soccer coaches watched her compete in a showcase with her Eclipse club program early last week, then e-mailed her a scholarship offer the next day.

Scofield only needed about 24 additional hours to decide, and deliver the good news to veteran Fighting Irish head coach Randy Waldrum, who is 394-135-27 in his 26 years of college coaching.

“He was definitely excited,” Scofield said. “He thought I was good and wanted me at Notre Dame, so he was pretty pumped that I wanted to come there.”

At Notre Dame, Scofield said she expects to play center-midfielder or center-back.

Scofield has played club soccer exclusively rather than play for Geneva’s high school program, and said she will likely continued to do so even with her college decision in hand. She does expect to continue playing in Geneva’s basketball program.

Scofield’s Eclipse club program was the 2008 and 2009 champion for both the Illinois State Cup and the Midwest Region II Championships.

Scofield said “it’s definitely a relief” that her years of club commitment paid off, and is hopeful of winning big in South Bend.

“Why play if you’re not playing at a [high] level and working toward a bigger cause?” Scofield said. “That was one of the big things, and then obviously the academics from my parents’ standpoint were big.”

The name game: The expanded Upstate Eight Conference next year will have two divisions, and they are likely to be called the River and the Valley divisions, according to Geneva athletic director Jim Kafer.

The division that will include Geneva, Batavia, St. Charles East and St. Charles North would be the River Division – a logical fit for schools located near the Fox River. Elgin, Larkin and Streamwood are the other schools to be aligned in the River side of the UEC.

The Valley will house the largest schools in the UEC: Neuqua Valley, Waubonsie Valley, Metea Valley, South Elgin, Lake Park, Bartlett and East Aurora.

Staying put: Geneva will host Saturday’s first-round football playoff game against Shepard at Burgess Field despite the field’s poor condition.

Kafer dismissed thoughts of shifting the game to a neutral site even though excessive rain in recent weeks has turned the field into a mud pit.

“I don’t ever remember a year being this wet, at least on an ongoing basis like it has,” Kafer said. “From that standpoint, it’s been probably more difficult than any I recall. The field itself is probably a little worse than it has been in other years but even last year by the time we got to the second and third round of the playoffs, we were pretty much playing on dirt, and at that time, it was hard dirt because we didn’t have much rain last fall.”

Geneva typically has played early-round home playoffs games on Friday nights in recent years but Shepard, concerned about travel time, preferred a 1 p.m. Saturday matchup.

• Jay Schwab is sports editor of The Chronicle. He can be reached at 630-845-5382 or jschwab@kcchronicle.com.

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