>>[who_me?] I would like to see a group such as the scsoccer.com super22 train and play together as a team someday. Any thoughts on how such a group might fare in Region play? How might these kids stack up given enough time to actually become a team? (Would this just be ODP without politics?)<<
The core problem with the Super 22 as an ODP alternative is that it's selected from the perspective of high school play. Please don't get me wrong -- I'm sure that all of these players are wonderful -- but the selection criteria isn't the same as ODP or any other open tryout-based group.
There are truly gifted players -- and I would argue players that are among the top 22 in the state -- who are not on the Super 22 -- either because they play outside of a SC high school league while living in SC, because they chose not to play high school and instead focus on college competition, or simply because their high school teams are not competitive enough.
I keep reading about the "politicization" of ODP and I have to admit that I just don't get it. In my experience, on the girls side, the ODP coaches do a pretty credible job of selection. Yes, you can argue about the girls on the "bubble" (what I consider to be the lower 1/3) as you can with any selection process, but it's really hard to argue with the players that constitute the majority of the team.
Do the best players play in ODP? While there are clear exceptions, from what I've seen the answer is typically "yes" -- again, on the girls side.
I'd personally rather see us do a better job of training within the ODP structure and making it more open in terms of financial aid as a first priority rather than spending a lot of time and energy changing the selection process. But again, I understand that this is just one person's opinion...
