You and I have discussed the idea of a Columbia-area merger on this message board as have others for a very long time. The reasoning had nothing to do with a single upstate club; instead it had to do with the fact that no one in the midstate was offering a full range of services for youth soccer players -- in particular, highly ambitious and talented players.
There are sure to be people who disagree that this is needed -- and quite a few of them have also posted on this message board saying that what the midstate, in particular the Columbia area, now has is fine.
Look -- when my daughter fell in love with soccer and wanted to train instead of sleeping and eating -- I agitated for a while at my daughter's midstate soccer club to take it from a "volunteer" club [USSF lingo] to a "professional" club with higher aspirations. Most people either didn't care or actively didn't want it. I looked around the Columbia area; couldn't find anything that I thought was as serious as she wanted to be. But it wasn't rocket science -- when she was 12 years old (she's 14 now) she began pestering me about taking her to the upstate.
I know that there are teams in the midlands that are wonderful; but the problem is finding a club that is wonderful. You're right; that's not going to happen without a merger. But I don't believe that most parents want a merger. And I don't see any leadership out there, with the exception of Crosby at CSC, who have expressed an interest. While I disagree with his perspective, I have to respect Heise on this board who has prefaced most discussions of this type with something along the lines [I'm paraphrasing] that he's 90% focused on HS soccer in any case. Were that everyone was so honest with respect to intent.
So I think that your choices are to get with CSC and give them your own personal time and energy to build a midlands-dominant soccer club or to use your personal time and energy to get with an upstate-dominant soccer club and help them provide broader and deeper services for all SC players. I chose the latter...and honestly, I chose it before it became a bit more obvious (e.g., before any mergers). But I fully respect anyone who chooses another path.
2004striker, the reason that I think some people attack you about this merger thing is that they see it as "barking at the moon" -- the moon doesn't care. I care -- you care -- but most people don't. I don't like it, but I completely understand that for casual soccer players, what the Columbia area has now meets their most of their needs.
One last note -- and I'm trying to state fact here, not engage in a lovefest. But those CESA teams -- a lot of them have a lot of players from 20 miles, 30 miles, and up to 100 miles away. At one point there was a girl flying in each weekend from California to play on a team. For most of the season, CESA offered two practices a week for Columbia players IN COLUMBIA and the people training were incredibly highly qualified in every sense of the word. Last time I said this on the message board a lot of people told me that this wouldn't produce high-quality teams. I disagree. But regardless, there's yet another option for highly ambitious players in the midlands that aren't lucky enough to find that one really serious team in their gender and age bracket that is five minutes from their home.
