WARREN — Chaos.

This wasn’t what Reid Friedrichs had in mind when he got the call July 4 from Warren De La Salle’s athletic director, Brian Kelly offering him the Pilots’ head soccer coaching job.

“It wasn’t a pretty picture,” he said about his first meeting with the players. “They were discouraged and out of shape.”

The team was reeling from the aftershocks of a couple of soccer-quakes over the summer.

First, there was the resignation of Thaier Mukhtar, who in 29 years at DLS had racked up 499 wins, including five state championships and 18 Catholic League titles.

And, then, five seniors and four juniors bolted from Pilots soccer for the United States Soccer Federation (USSF), which initiated an all-or-nothing policy mandating that high school soccer players play exclusively in its 10-month program of practices, games and travel, eliminating the provision that had allowed students to fit in their high school schedules.

The phenomenon of talented kids leaving their high school careers behind for an opportunity at higher-level action has been happening in hockey for years. The goals are the same for the student-athletes: to improve their chances at a college scholarship. The difference between the two sports is the impact on the family.

At De La Salle, Friedrichs, 38, said he was aware of the Pilots’ predicament when he decided to give up a 13-year coaching reign at Livonia Churchill. “It’ll be a challenge,” he reasoned. “We’ll all be in the same boat: new to each other.”

Senior defenseman Anthony Abate recalls: “Some of us were a little upset at first. Lost players, lost coach. It was a mess.”

A dozen games into the season, the Pilots — with zero returning starters, Friedrichs pointed out — had a 9-1-3 record (2-1-2 in the CHSL Central) and were ranked eighth in Division I.

“I give the kids a lot of credit for coming around,” Friedrichs said. “There was no negative talk about the guys who left. I’m proud of them.”

While the ultimate mission of the USSF is to develop a national team “to compete with world powers ... for the World Cup,” Mike Leone, one of the departing seniors, has a more practical goal in mind: “to make myself better prepared for college soccer (he’s committed to Brown University). The advantage is it’s easier for college coaches to take a look at us.” He played part-time the last two years for the east-side Vardar club.

Considered a candidate for Mr. Soccer honors this fall, Leone said he “misses what we could have had (at DLS), but I’ve made the right decision.” He is keeping his connection to the Pilots by volunteering to be the student manager.

Leone estimates it has cost his parents “a couple thousand dollars” for him to play federation soccer. However, he’ll be at home, going to school at De La Salle.

Such is not the typical case for hockey players such as Cody Milan, one of five players who have defected from the Orchard Lake St. Mary’s Prep hockey team to play junior hockey. Selected ninth overall in the United States Hockey League Futures Draft, the 16-year-old junior is playing in Sioux Falls, S.D.

“This was the hardest decision our family has had to make,” said his father, Dan, who coaches junior varsity hockey at OLSM. “Cody is living with a host family who is looking after him as if he were their child.” He’s attending a local high school.

“He preferred to stay and graduate from St. Mary’s,” said Dan Milan, “but this is the sacrifice he wants to make to play and develop at a higher level” to take advantage of a “verbal” offer of a full-ride scholarship to Michigan State in 2014.

Cody’s expenses are covered by the league. “I have to pay my own way to see him play, and it’s a 13-hour trip,” said Dan Milan.

Understandably, coaches and ADs are not happy with the situation. OLSM’s hockey coach, Brian Klanow, and Friedrichs both believe coaching and training on the high school level, particularly in the CHSL Central Division, is top-notch preparation for college and beyond.

About the kids leaving their teammates and friends behind, St. Mary’s AD George Porritt says, “I wouldn’t want to miss high school and what you get out it for anything.”

DLS’s Kelly agrees: “The high school experience is the key factor in the development of a young person.”

Alas, such is the nature of high school sports these days.