Sports all over Butler County are awakening from a three-month slumber.

That includes action on local soccer fields.

Though some restrictions remain, many local players convened earlier this week for the first time since the quarantine began.

“We're only allowed to be out there for an hour and 15 minutes, hour and a half and the time just flew by,” said Mark Perry, director for SCS United who also coaches three girls teams within the organization and leads Seneca Valley High School's girls program. He held a training session at Graham Park Tuesday for his United squads. “The players seemed very excited to be back on the field and see their teammates.

“It was a lot of individual ball skills and drills. Some players were in better shape than others, but it was also a 90-degree day and we took it easy.”

Kyle Hopkins, head coach for several boys teams at SCS United and for Slippery Rock High's varsity boys, said it will take time for players to get back to playing up to their capabilities.

“They went two-plus months without touching a soccer ball,” he said. “Some of them did some things at home, but it's different when you're on the field with your teammates.”

Between tournaments and league play, Perry's teams missed out on approximately 30 games apiece due to the shutdown.

“Spring is the time when college coaches get out to recruit players. They're busy coaching in the fall and this spring would have been very important to our older players who want to play at the next level. That was as big of a loss as the actual games.”

Players will still be recruited, but for a lot of them, the process will work differently this year.

“Hopefully, players prepared in advance,” said Blair Gerlach, the executive director of coaching for Century Steel and Mars girls varsity head coach. ”It would be very helpful if they had some good game film of themselves that they can send to coaches.

“But a lot of the recruiting process is word-of-mouth. There are pipelines between college coaches and coaches at the cup and high school level. If a college coach knows a high school or cup program well, he already knows what type of players come out of there.”

Gerlach explained that the rules currently in place for recruiting differ between schools.

“Division I colleges have stricter rules (because of the quarantine) and their coaches still can't be out recruiting right now,” he added. “Division II is in what they call a quiet period, Division III and NAIA are able to do what they want because there's no athletic scholarship money at that level.”

Coaches and players alike are hoping that more contact and interaction will be allowed as the summer goes on.

“We may get in a friendly here and there against other teams from the area,” said Perry. “And we're hoping to get a combination of our (U17 and U16) teams to go to the Jefferson Cup in Richmond, Va. They moved that tournament from April to August.”

“We'll try to get some matches in between teams in our own organization, maybe a U17 against a U16 or a U15 against a U14,” said Gerlach. “That's an environment we can control.

“But the final call is not on us,” he added. “We have to see what Gov. Wolf says and what U.S. Youth Soccer and PA West Soccer say.”

Right now, players must settle for simply being outside and around others who share their passion. And of course, staying safe.

“We have cones set up, six-feet apart,” said Gerlach, whose Century Steel girls teams practice in Renfrew. “That's where the players take a break, get a drink of water. Each player has their own station. They are allowing small groups, like 3-on-3 stuff, but we're telling players to back out of tackles. The last thing we need is for two girls to hit the ground and be rolling on each other.

“We saw what it was like to go three months without soccer and we certainly don't want to go back to that. Right now, we're playing it safe as opposed to coming back too soon.”