SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP Midlands Soccer [Moved from Thread with **** in Name]

>> [man city fc supporter] Last Year ST Giles/GFC won 8/9 Champs in u15-u18<<

[2003, U15-U18] SGU or GFC teams were state champions 5 times [of 8 possible] or 62.5% of the time. SGU or GFC were finalists in 9 [of 16 possible] or 56% of the time.

A modest theory. Perhaps reasons for merging, or not merging, any club or clubs have less to do with who won what when, and more to do with the services that these clubs provide all of its members [example only: how many training sessions have been and are being offered by clubs in the Columbia area since the state challenge cup -- and how many are being offered by clubs in other SC areas?]

THATS IT!!!!!!!!!
I can't take any more of this Lovefest with CESA!!!
I will now unleash the Red Neck League on CESA and destroy it!!!!!!
NO MORE CESA!!

2004striker: I actually was trying hard ***NOT*** to say nice things about **** but instead do as you requested and bring the discussion back to the thread topic. The first post was simply a factual response to an earlier post; the second post is a theory that may or may not be valid.

A modest question: if Columbia-area parents of highly ambitious players who want to play on more competitive teams but don't want the player to commute more than a few miles, then why don't those parents get together and ask an existing club to provide the services they want? And precisely what are those services that they do want?

Solution to all this "talk." Ya'll come on down to MPSC. This is a numbers thing. You have to have the talent available to put together a kick-butt team(s) that can compete with the best in the nation. We have been to Regionals and I can tell you, we need more talent than is available in just the Lowcountry, at least at the 1989 level. Sure, a team may be pretty good in the state, such as ****89 Premier but how do they compete in the Premier league. Not too good. This is not meant to talk poorly of them but it is the truth. If you really want to compete on the national level - it will take combining ALL clubs in SC or putting together the best on one team.
I have seen all the talent from each of the three areas of SC in the Challenge league and on ****89. No one team or area in SC can compete at the national level. If anyone thinks they can, you are only fooling yourself.
If the goal is to compete at that level, it is going to take more than combining Chas area or COLA area clubs. Just the truth!

Soccerdog6: Have you folks decided whether you're going to compete in Premier League next season -- or will you compete in the Challenge League and focus on tournaments again?

soccerdog6 - are you talking about the cesa 89 premier girls? they improved in the premier league this year as compared to last year. if you look at their games, they were very competitive with some teams ( from georgia/ nc ), going 0-0 or losing by 1 goal. i think you have to remind yourself that the cesa team is a new team, and the teams they played against have been together longer.... do you expect rome to be built in a day?

soccerdog6- First of all, SC has competed at the regional/national level with a few teams in the past. 4 or 5 yrs ago the GFC Black girls won regionals and advanced to nationals. I think they didn't win a game at nationals but were competitive (one goal loss) in each game. I think most of the girls on that team were from the upstate. A GFC boys team won Sun bowl at least once (maybe twice) which is a great accomplishment. This team had primarily upstate players, but had several from midstate as well. I am much more familiar with the Aiken Fire team 3-4 yrs ago that was national runner-up (1-0 loss in champ game) after winning regionals. That same team won Va Beach, runner-up at CASL shootout, won group at Sunbowl ,lost qtrs to Albertson, NY (who won region 1 at U16 and U17, so a pretty good team) The U15 national runner-up team was comprised of kids from Aiken and Augusta GA (15 miles away), with one kid from Irmo. The following year they were regional runner-up (losing 1-0 in finals) after finishing third in R3Pl. The U16 team had kids from Atlanta (1), Augusta(6) and one from Columbia and the rest Aiken. At U17, the team finished 2nd in R3PL at 7-1-1 with kids from Atlanta (2), Athens (1), Augusta (4), Lexington (1), Charleston (1) and the rest Aiken. At U18 this year the team struggled for players with 2 off to college, 3 opting not to play due to HS football, 2 ACL tears, 2 moving to other teams. At times they had only 10 players at R3Pl games, struggled all season and lost to CSC 2-0 in semis at state cup. Only 3 boys from the U15 national runner-up team played in that last game. Having that as a background the team trained TOGETHER two nights a week at U15. At u16 and U17 training was twice a week, but one was on Friday night to accomodate the "out of town" kids. The other midweek practice had only the local kids (13-15 players depending on the year). Not as easy to train with only one session per week. At U18 they trained twice a week, but with injuries, HS football players (2) and out of towners, 9 players at practice was the high for the year. Having a state-wide team may sound great, but it is a real committment and challenge for the players, parents and coach to make it successful. If the CESA teams (or any team) get too high of a % of kids from outside the area, quality team practice may be jeopardized and successful results at the regional/national level harder to find.

I couldn't agree more!! I just put forth the only viable plan to CONSISTENTLY compete at the regional and national level. Of course it will not happen. Even teams in the past that have drawn from other parts of the state (NECSA, SURF) could not really compete at that level.
As previously stated, it is a matter of numbers. When Sterling Elite and Chicago FC have literally hundreds of girls trying out for a team, and willing to pay in the neighborhood of $10,000 per year for club and coaching fees, little SC cannot compete with the talent. Of course the occasional team will come along and win at regionals but not consistently. The old CGSA Fusion competed very well at regionals in the past but we seem to be looking for a club to consistently compete.
MPSC has at least three girls coming from Hilton Head to practice and play. This is over two hours each way. TOUGH!! My son drove 1-1/2 hours to practice two to three times per week. Thank God he is now in college!
The point I am trying to make is SC does not have the numbers, even with regional clubs, to compete with the big dogs. I have been honored to watch my daughter compete with these folks at WAGS and Southern Regionals. Please believe me, we have a long row to hoe. It can be done but how many girls are committed to practicing FIVE nights a week and traveling every weekend to either play games or attend tournaments.
It may be best for our clubs and teams to simply play within themselves with available talent.

SM1121 - don't take it personally! There is no reason to defend your beliefs, I give you guys all the credit in the world.

Mark - we have not had a formal meeting to discuss it but I believe we will be playing Premier. Hopefully we will be able to bring in a couple of players to help us out.
Ya'll have a great holiday. I'm off for 12 days!

[Preface: Soccerdog6, hope you have a great holiday. Several points you raised deserve a general response. 2004striker: You don't want to read this; I'm going to be complimentary to CESA; sorry.]

>> [Soccerdog6] It can be done but how many girls are committed to practicing FIVE nights a week and traveling every weekend to either play games or attend tournaments.<<

In SC, from what I've seen, probably no more than 20-25 per age group -- and that may be high. A relatively small number. That number seems concentrated in the upstate where more kids practice more time and more parents support more travel/tournaments/etc. than anywhere else in SC.

>>It may be best for our clubs and teams to simply play within themselves with available talent.<<

This is an important point. For most kids playing soccer, the current local clubs are fine. The problem is a relatively small number of parents trying to get their soccer-serious [some say soccer-obsessed] kids the training, with other serious kids [and parents willing to support them], that they want.

1-2 years ago I cared a lot if midlands soccer clubs merged. I don't any longer. A merger isn't going to help the highly ambitious kids ages 14+; many of the best in the midlands area are commuting to Greenville [and Charlotte, and I'm sure other places]. I don't see a merger reversing this; I see it accelerating. And that's probably good; the truth is that SC can probably only support a single group of really serious kids at a given age group if there are ambitions of regional or national competitiveness.

A year ago I cared a lot of lowcountry soccer clubs merged. I don't any longer. The CUSC Fusion are great; but beyond that the landscape seems almost as fractured as Columbia with questionable commitment [I ***do not*** know this first hand -- MPSC has done some wonderful things in their younger age groups -- I'm simply noting what parents have said on this board]. Soccerdog6: you may not have been trying to insult the CESA 89 Premier team by citing their deficiencies in premier league play, but as soccermom1121 noted, there are some seriously mitigating circumstances involving the fact that they've existed for a single season [note: my daughter doesn't play on this team, so this isn't personal]. But MPSC in this age group didn't even try -- as you noted this summer, it was too expensive and would impact social lives too much. No problem at all with that -- but in response to "...ya'll come down to MPSC..." why in the world would a serious player travel 2-3 times a week 90 miles to join a group you described in that manner?

In the last week and a half since the state challenge tournament, my daughter's biggest issue has been which of the conflicting three training sessions per night she'll attend for various teams/groups of players [note: this isn't a joke -- she's mad that there isn't more coordination among the different teams so she can attend more than one practice -- a problem that I hope will be addressed in coming seasons]. There are a lot of very serious folks at CESA.