Hurst66,
If you've actually witnessed Florida administrators evaluating players along side the Region III coach, I'd be very disappointed. I'm not aware of any ODP documentation that says all administrators are qualified to evaluate players and/or charged with that responsibility. In fact, if some administrators across the country are not qualified to evaluate players and others are and those who are qualified are actually evaluating players that's an issue they must correct to improve the integrity of the program.
Should state administrators lobby to have as many players held over as possible? It's probably human nature for them to do so out of pride. To the best of my knowledge, it's actually the job of the state team coach to pitch the players he/she feels have demonstrated "the right stuff" during training leading up to region camp.
Granted, all players get a look, but if I'm a Region coach the first thing I'm going to want to know from the state team coach is who the top candidates are on the team based upon six months of training.
Based on this scenario, every player should know that every practice is critical to their success in the program. I would say it would be rare for any player who is not totally committed to advance in the program, which is as it should be.
As far as Florida team performance vs SC, GA, NC goes, that makes sense on the surface, but to use this past week as an example our 92 Boys played and defeated LA by a score of 2-0. That team had two region III players, one of which was seen by the National team scout during the final day of holdovers and pulled up to the National team. Is that an injustice or is it a situation where a talented player happened to be seen by the right person at the right time? No one will ever know. One can only say congratulations to that kid for earning the opportunity to advance.
Should it have been one of our players, since we defeated his team? Maybe, maybe not. The important thing is to work your tail off to get in the position to have a shot at such an opportunity while becoming a better player along the way. The bonus is to be recognized at the right time, by the right coaches. Is there some good and bad luck involved. Absolutely! Players are responsible for making both, in my opinion.
