[CREW SOCCER ACADEMY WOLVES] Players aren't the only ones choosing between high school and club ball. Yale grad Lars Richters, a highly regarded club and high school coach in Michigan, resigned after 14 years as head coach of Livonia Stevenson High School -- his alma mater -- because of the increased demands on his coaching duties with the Crew Soccer Academy Wolves Development Academy program, part of the Michigan Wolves organization.

Richters was the 2009 Development Academy Coach of the Year after leading the Derby County Wolves -- the club had a tie-in with English club Derby County -- to the inaugural U-15/16 national crown.

He had a 232-46-23 record and won four regional titles at Stevenson.

“It was a tough choice," Richters, a former college star at Yale, told the Observer, "but I felt it was the right thing at the right time. I’m going to continue coaching, but for a number of years now I’ve been trying to balance high school coaching with club coaching with my teaching job, and of course with my family. It finally came to a time where I had to make a change. It put me in position where I just didn’t feel where I could do both the increased demands of the club game and continue on with the high school game.”

CSA Wolves is 4-0-1 but won't begin its DA conference season until March 24. Next fall, it will go full-time, meaning DA coaches who also coached high school programs face conflicts.