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In his initial vision - imagine pants and shirts being flung into suitcases - Karl Kummer couldn't pack his bags fast enough at a chance to play soccer in England.

Then came a clear-headed sorting of the pros and cons of deciding to stay America, rather than going to England to perhaps earn an opportunity to play soccer for Chelsea F.C., one of the most successful teams in England.

Kummer, a sophomore at Kecoughtan High in Hampton, VA, and his family decided two weekends ago that he would not sign on for two years in a developmental program with Chelsea. A big factor was the academic gap between his current honors curriculum and the vocational school he'd attend overseas.

This conclusion was not reached immediately. In fact, Kummer said that he felt he was at odds with his parents before they convinced him the situation had multiple facets that had to be considered.

"At first I was hard-core 'let's go do it because I want to go,' " he said. "And then I started thinking about it like: I'll be missing my junior and senior year of high school, and then I'd have to make new friends and all that. Then I started thinking about the school aspect, and then I was like, well, if they don't have this, then I'm not going."

While attending a soccer camp last summer in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Kummer earned a spot on a list of players Chelsea coaches flagged for further evaluation. He eventually was invited to play with a group of American players from those camps in an overseas tournament in early April.

The teams trained together in England for five days before playing in a tournament in Italy.

"That was amazing," Kummer, 16, said. "Our coach made us into, in my opinion, probably the best team there because we'd only been together for five days and we beat a team 3-2 that had been together five years. We had a phenomenal coach.

"The competition over there was just crazy."

Afterward, Kummer was one of three Americans, plus a Brit, who were offered contracts to come back and train while attending school for two years. He actually would be training with Stevenage Borough, a feeder club for several teams in England, while living in a house with the three others and attending school 40 miles north of London.

The situation was kept under wraps while the family made a decision. But after someone posted a blurb about it on HRvarsity.com, people started asking Kummer.

His parents, Cynthia and Phillip, asked Karl to look at the angles and weigh the plusses and minuses.

The plusses: He does well, is promoted into Chelsea's Academy, and is a step closer to becoming a pro soccer player.

The minuses: If soccer doesn't work out, because the English school is mainly vocational, he wouldn't be prepared to attend college when he returned to the United States.

Kummer also sought input from his Virginia Legacy club coaches and college coaches he's known.

The more Kummer thought about it, the more the impact on his hope of becoming a doctor became clear.

"If you think you're good enough to go over there and possibly get scouted, then you could possibly get signed by one of the biggest clubs in the world, or at least to their academy and get going with that," he said. "But if you get injured or something like that, then you have nothing to fall back on and then you're just basically stuck and you have to do it all over again, basically just wasted two years of your life.

"I felt like I wanted to do it. But I think I needed a little bit more of a backup."

One option is to wait a year and possibly go as a senior. That's still being considered.

"Now I feel a lot better about it because it gives me a chance to develop more as a player," Kummer said. "Because then the three people that are going this year can talk to me and tell me if they liked it or not. And if they didn't, that it would be a good idea that I didn't go."

Source: DailyPress.com