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recruiting does occur overtly and slyly, and it also occurs due to success. if your team is good year in and year out the players will come. several york county players began migrating to cesa a couple of years ago due to the success of the team in their age group. once one went others followed. the dsc u-17 boys team is a prime example. when it won the u-13 championship all of the players were home grown. as this team continued to succeed, the players came from columbia, charlotte, knoxville, mt pleasant and st simons, ga. they came because they wanted to play with the best. why are the best college teams good year in and year out? they get the best players because the best want to play with the best. yes they are recruited, but they wouldnt go if the program was not successful. success breeds success. good players and coaches attract good players and coaches. it's real simple. cesa's u-17 keeper is from georgia. like field of dreams, if u build it they will come. if u build a successful team/program/club, u will attract good players from outside of your area. it aint rocket science. it's called business.

I think the kid from Knoxville came because his family relocated for his father's job???....unless he had a buddy who is/was making the commute?

>>[HappyDaddy] Sorry I scared you with the quotation marks. They were used because there might be a difference of opinion on what defines "success" and what defines "results."<<

I'm sorry; I'm obviously using terminology with which you are not familiar.

From Wikipedia: Scare quotes is a general term for quotation marks used for purposes other than to identify a direct quotation. For example, authors might use quotation marks to highlight special terminology, to distance the writer from the material being reported, to indicate that it is someone else's terminology, or to bring attention to a word or phrase as questionable or at least atypical in some way.

Re: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scare_quote

>>I won't get into a point by point rebuttal. I said what I meant to say and I stand by all of it.<<

Don't let logic get in the way, huh?

>>There are differences in the cultures of the big clubs in SC. I prefer ours (CUFC). CESA's and Bridge's may suit others better. That's fine. I guess it just depends on what one's looking for.<<

How do you know what the differences in culture are among the big clubs in SC? I'm just wondering. How did you go about making the selection based on its culture? Did you select CUFC because of its culture, or because of its convenience, or for some other reason? This is truly fascinating stuff...I've heard lots of reasons people select clubs (social reasons, coaching, convenience, winning records) -- but I've never heard "culture."

>>I meant to add that I have no desire to limit anyone's choice about where to play, and don't know how you could have inferred that. As I said in the other thread, I do think clubs should refrain from recruiting. Everyone knows how to contact them. <<

I realize that you don't want to go into a point-by-point rebuttal; but if you read a bit more closely you'll see that the sentence to which you're referring is part of a paragraph that is attempting to make the point (obviously quite poorly!) that a focus on club competition (that competition which you previously rejected) is a good thing in that it increases the diversity and level of services. Trying to limit choice by either hoping other clubs will fail (e.g., your questioning of why CESA-Columbia existed a while back) or pushing for regulations that try to prevent kids from playing at other clubs (e.g., the current state rules that forbid kids choosing to play for a team when that team already consists of more than 50% of players from outside that club's district.)

Actually, to put this more specifically, it's great to hope another club will fail as long as you're doing things that offer superior services so that more people want to come to your club. That's the right way to compete. On the plus side, by achieving higher numbers of finalists, CUFC will be offering a much broader ability to participate in RIIIPL-East than any club in the state other than CESA. That club-level competition is bound to be good for CUFC.

You constantly use the word "services." Can you list all the services a club needs?

Services. Services, services. Services, services, services.

Sorry. I was just experimenting with what the constant use of the word services would entail.

More seriously, I think you're onto something here. There are two models I've seen for what a club is -- a loosely-affiliated collection of teams and an organization that provides services to children. I'm sure that there are infinite shades of gray here; but for the most part you can tell by asking a few questions to which model a club adheres.

Take RIIIPL-East participation. There are two ways to view this; a team earns the right to play the next year in RIIIPL-East or a club earns the right to create a team in a specific age and gender bracket to play the next year in RIIIPL-East. If you're operating under a model of a club being a loosely formed collection of teams and that teams are formed socially, then the former view holds sway. If you're operating under a model of a club providing services, then there's going to be an open tryout and based solely on merit a team will be selected that plays in RIIIPL-East based on the previous earned right.

To answer you specifically, there's no way in the world I could list "all" services a club needs; it's like asking any other business to list "all" the services it might potentially provide. I can certainly give examples. Enabling kids to participate in USSF Academy or RIIIPL-East is a service to those kids that Bridge decided to provide. Providing recreational soccer is a service. Providing various levels of competitive soccer, not just at the classic, challenge, and premier levels -- but high school preparation, and social soccer (where the focus is on playing with your friends) are all services. Programs where you scrimmage colleges are services. Showcase events are services. Tournaments can be services. Help in the college recruiting process can be services. College combines can be services. TOPSoccer is a service. Types of training (Coever, etc.) are services. Open training is a service (where you open up all training to anyone in your club -- or even people outside of your club.) Organized ride sharing is a service, particularly when part of a program to reach kids that might not otherwise be able to play.

Please note that I tried to use the word "service" as much as possible above.

In South Carolina today, I see threee youth soccer clubs/alliances that are focusing on top-to-bottom services for kids: CESA and CUFC and the Bridge alliance. Please note that this not not solely determined as a function of size; for example, LCSC and MPSC are large "select" soccer organizations that operate more under the model of a collection of teams.

Thank you.

The paragraph listing specific services is needed, I think, for alot of people that post on this site. Good stuff.

Alot of people think winning a few more State Cups then last year makes a club complete. It doesn't. It's the consistent offering of stuff you listed, IN ADDITION to winning, that does it. Development!

LCSC: My vote for the club with the most unrealized potential in the state!

Has there been any changes or is LCSC still select only and there are two other Lexington-based recreational clubs?

If by select only, you mean trying out and being placed on a team, then yes. But they also have 4 divisions in the club: Development, Classic, Challenge, and Premier. Won't have a premier team next year, unless they can play U19 (which I don't know of any off hand) so it will go back to 3 levels.

Yeah...2 rec. clubs in Lexington County...LCGSA and LCRC (co-ed).

Lexington County has too many clubs! CUFC, LCSC, Congaree, LLSC. 2 in Richland...CUFC and CESA-Columbia. Maybe their needs to be some more merging like CSC and NESCA made CUFC. Of course I know the rule about merging...but c'mon.