I have a few questions and concerns about the rankings. Why is it when some people lose, they never seem to drop and when others do they get hammered in the rankings. I know rankings dont matter in the long run, but it seems strange to me.
First of all, how in the world did Dutch Fork stay in the top 10 (much less the top 15) after losing to Sumter. This years Sumter team is not even close to the level that they have had the previous few years. Sumter has lost 2 matches to Airport and also have lost to South Florence. No offense to those two teams or to Sumter either, but they are not neccessarily quality teams. Plus they have a loss to a Chapin team that is also not up to the level they are accustomed to. Again not a knock on Chapin as Coach Hiller has done a great job with the team this year.
Secondly, just because you win alot of matches does not make you a good team. At some point, strength of schedule must come into play. Take Summerville for instance, they are currently ranked 6th in the state, above a few teams who have played tough schedules. They have only played 3 ranked 4A teams: Wando, S. Valley, and Hilton Head. In those three games, they are 0-3. Then other games, they have barely gotten by it appears. West Ashley they beat in pks (which is a tie in my book) and also beat them in OT. They beat Stratford, who has lost 13 games, in OT. They only managed 2 goals against a Battery Creek team that has not won a game. How do they deserve to be ranked over some other deserving teams such as Northwestern (which brings me to my next point), Hillcrest, etc. I believe Summerville is probably a top 10, but see at least 2 teams who should be ranked ahead of them. At some point, a teams schedule and their results against quality competition should be weighted more than beating up on some average to poor teams.
How in the world is Northwestern only ranked 10th in 4A? I wont even include the beating they gave RV on Wednesday. That 7-0 score could have been 10-0 from what I have heard. Anyways, they should not have been #10 even before then. They are 6-3 against 4A ranked teams, not too bad. One of their losses came to Fort Mill in pks and I have already stated my opinion about pk wins/losses. If they are counted as ties in tournaments, why not in the regular season. They have also beaten other ranked teams including Chapin and Bishop England, who earlier in the season was considered to be a top 5 team in all classifications according to NSCAA. Their other 2 losses came to Irmo and at Ridgeview, which is normally a fairly difficult place to play with the pitch fairly tight and the atmosphere. They are going to share the region at the very worse with Ridgeview. Plus, as people seem to forget, this is the team that only lost 2 games last year and took Irmo to pks in last year's State Championship game. There are 3 teams currently ranked ahead of them with more losses and another 3 teams with the same amount, yet they still seem to be getting a bad rap.
Hopefully, Heise will wake up and figure out that some of the rankings are a bit questionable and fix them this week. These are just my few opinions.
