Nick faulconer isn't simply homeschooled. He's also "road-schooled," as his mother puts it, by audiobooks she plays as she drives the mop-haired 14-year-old 90 miles each way from their home in rural Virginia to twice-a-week soccer practices in an elite private league in Richmond. Other guys on the team know Nick doesn't attend a traditional school, but it's not a source of friction, he says, because most of them have friends who are also being taught at home. "It's pretty normal," he says. But next year he will be forced to part ways with many of his teammates when they quit the recreational league for high school squads. Nick's mom Jeanne wishes he could join them. She doesn't think there are enough skilled players in their area to establish a competitive homeschoolers' soccer team, and that has turned her into an ardent supporter of legislation that would allow kids like Nick to play sports for their local public high school. "We want the option," she says.
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