Hunter,
What you have to consider is that Furman is private; Costal is so small as to be generally off the radar; and Charleston, while a great city, is a featherweight of an educational institution. Though as you observe, CoC is at least pulling its weight in supporting state soccer. The big two state schools are USC and Clemson, and Clemson doesn't bill itself as a feeder program for state soccer the way that Berson does with his youth summer camps.
I don't claim to have the pulse of the people; I've been out of it for a few years. But just from growing up around SC youth soccer, I would say that Berson catches more flack than Adair because of his camps and the fact that SC players are always secondary if not tertiary recruiting concerns.
I hate to hinge an argument on a single premise, but with annual camps that draw players and parent's money from all over the state, Berson's program gives the impression that they are invested in improving South Carolina soccer. For me at least it was highly disillusioning to find that after taking all of this money from the state, that the best players of the state were not then heavily recruited. I mean seriously, you've had a chance to watch these players grow, train them into what you want them to be since they were 7, is there a more ideal feeder program? And make no mistake; innuendo's about spots on the team for the great players are definitely flowing from the coaching staff, right up until about the time you become a second semester junior in high school.
Given the number of people I have heard that from, I don't think that it is a couple of aberrant cases. All that aside however, I think that it angers a great deal of people that the program almost completely ignores its location.
I'm not naive; I've played the state teams of Texas (either half). I know they're better and further along. SC is behind some states in soccer, but hey, the whole country is behind most of the world in soccer. Half of the country probably thinks that soccer is a women's sport between the combination of Title IX and the fact that our women are the least oppressed on the planet which enables them to win "world cups." You think the MLS is ever going to become less than fringe unless they can improve and acquire the star talent of the country?
The same principle extends to USC. Eventually for a sport to have the support of the local people, they have to recruit and land the local stars. Local soccer players feel betrayed by a program that relegates them to a backhand concern after the "real recruiting" is done out of state. No one, after reflection, resents the great local program where they just did not make the cut. But given equal talent, you have the expectation that the local boy is going to be picked. However, at USC the impression is all things being equal, Berson prefers Arizona on the residency card.
