They had a parents meeting at the beginning and I thought it was odd that none of the costs involved in playing ODP were discussed. The 95 boys had about 45 players. The quality was there.

We were told they would only be taking players from CUFC and CESA (just joking).

I think the number of players will dictate the costs..so until you have a final roster..money will not come up..except for expenses for the interstate games

Folks that's why it's important to have your child play for a club like CESA, in life it's about contacts and CESA's are pretty good. With the short amount of time the ODP coaches have to evaluate a player, they feel pretty safe picking a CESA premier player over an unknown.

First of all they shouldn't even know where the kids play, second of all that should never matter, that's why it's called a trial. I'm realistic and know that it never works like that but ther are plenty of pretty good players around the state that don't play at CESA. If you think that picking a CESA player is a safe call at the age of barely 13, then you should go and have a look at CUFC, MPSC, DISA or Lexington at that matter. I know that they might have not been at the tryouts but you would be surprised that CESA doesn't have the monopoly at that age group anymore.

Same debate - different year!

The coaches for the 96's are both from Columbia. I would expect that they might know some of the Columbia kids. Knowing them as I do, I would also expect them to pick the kids that they thought deserved to be picked. Trust me, you don't have to play at CESA or CUFC to make the team.

When are tryout results for boys and girls to be posted?

Don't know about the girls. Boys will generally receive an e-mail from Mary Bynum (ODP Administrator) within a week or ten days after the last tryout date. The make-up date is 12/7 - so I'd think early the third week of December.

the girls were notified last week but i am not sure when scysa will post them on their site.

for the boys 96 group - the players were told that a e-mail would be sent out this week with player selections (2 teams) for the sub regional games. The final selection for the team w/alternates would be made after the sub-regional event. My guess is that those players not chosen for the sub regional games would be notified, too. thanksgiving week may push selections notification to next week.

Does anyone know how many cola (CUFC) players were there?

Boys emails were sent out this evening.

I received this email today:
***************
#1 MAKE-UP SESSION Sunday December 7th FOR ALL Girls ODP and Boys ODP 1992; 1993 & 1994 Birth Years.

#1 Sunday, December 7 at Lexington Soccer Complex registration at 10:00 break 11- 12:00 dismiss at 1:00. Bring a snack and all soccer gear and water. Parents meeting at 10:00. ***
#2 Saturday, December 13 make-up sessions for 1995 Boys ODP.

#2 Coach Derek Marinatos invites the 1995 Boys to their make-up tryout on December 13 at 3:30 at Furman University, Stadium field. Coach is unable to attend on the scheduled make-up date and would like to change that date for the 1995’s ONLY.

Please email me if you are unable to come to Greenville on the 13th and we will keep you on the list for December 7.
***
#3 Saturday, December 13 make-up session for 1996 Boys ODP.

#3 The 1996 Boys will be at Cardinal Newman High School for the practice and make up tryout. We will practice between noon and 2:30 pm with a 15 minute snack break. We will ask all participating players to bring a snack for the break. The address is as follows… Practice date is December 13th from 12:00 to 2:30 pm. Thanks Bert Molinary

If a player is unable to attend the make-up tryout contact me ASAP. I will need a doctor’s note. These are the last dates for the ODP tryouts for 2009.

Regards,

Mary Bynum

SCYSA ODP Administrator

164 Chandler Road

Easley, SC 29640

Soccer Line & Fax (864) 294-8996

Cell (864) 270-9541

Let me ask a question to all you ODP veterans. I'm still trying to learn this process. My son received his email yesterday stating that he would not be invited to the sub-regionals. OK, so the email says he didn't make it. How can they determine that kids did not make the squad if they have not completed the try out process? Should he go to the make-up session on the 13th? Any help understanding this process would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome to ODP in South Carolina. As someone previoulsy stated same discussion different year. No one is really sure how the teams are selected. It all appears rather subjective by the coaches which may or may not be the best way considering it is one day of tryouts.

The flip side, could be, welcome to the challenges of trying to have a program to satisfy as many people as possible.

Given it's a subjective process, who would be better than the coaches to evaluate and select the players?

Tryouts are no longer just one day. They used to be one day only. The tryout process continues through the first sub regional event, particularly in groups where only 1 team will go to region camp. Even in these cases there may be 2 "teams" at the sub regional for further evaluation, but, only 1 team selected to continue on to the regional camp.

Now, if you have a group of more than 36 players, then it should be easily understandable that the team selection could be done in steps. I think it would be cost prohibitive to take every player that signs up to the sub regional. This likely causes a pairing down on the list prior to the sub regional event. Unfortunate, maybe, but in the end, not all players that attend tryouts are selected to continue on.

Good point Bear. The coaches are looking for 18 players to make the team and they choose about 36 after the initial tryout. Could somebody slip through the cracks.......maybe.

My guess is that there are more kids good enough to make the team that DON'T tryout (for whatever reason) than there are kids good enough to make the team that attend the initial tryout and don't get picked (had a bad day).

My understanding is that only those players that were unable to tryout the first time AND who had a valid excuse approved by SCYSA (i.e. medical excuse), have to come to this session. So the numbers should be small

I see the following options
1- if johnny is no better than Bobby who was cut the first time then it is obvious that Johnny will be cut.
2- IF johnny is better than Bobby AND he is not as good as Peter (the presumed lowest player from the first cut) then Johnny is cut
3- IF johnny is better than Peter (the presumed lowest player from the first cut) then Johnny makes the team and the team carries an extra player until after subregionals - assuming that the team already had the max and the coaches did not hold an empty space.

In my opinion (and as subjective as all tryouts are) the issue of "knowing" who the best players are is hardest at the younger ages - first timers. Once the older players have gone through the process you know who is who whether we like it or not (no different than HS tryouts).

Since the number of players is lower than the first time out, you are basically looking for the diamond in the rough this time around. Hurst statement is correct. There will be more good players that did not try out at all than there will be those who tried out but did not get picked.

Lastly, coaches do talk and in my exposure they are not limiting to this club or that club. A good coach knows right away from the little drills wether the player can "chew gum and walk at the same time" soccer wise. Simple technical things like passing, receiving and shooting and tactical small sided game stuff tells you real quick who is who.

Boys ODP might be different than girls, but on the girls side I am having trouble thinking of a single female player in SC who skipped ODP and plays for a major D-1 school.

Sweet,

On the contrary, I'll show you a long list of players from our fine state who played South Carolina ODP and never even sniffed any level of D1 soccer.

So.....in order to play for Anson, you must EXCEL at ODP, but in order to play for some of the D1 and D2 schools in the Palmetto State, how far do you have to go with ODP?

With the academy league the boys side will most deffinately be different. From what I understand, a player can not do both academy and ODP so there will be a number of players from all states going D-1 many of who may have been ODP for 1 or 2 seasons if at all.

Hurst:
I agree, but for todays coach its all about a strong resume. The stronger the resume the better chance of playing D-1 soccer, and ODP is a resume builder.

So D-1 college coaches want players with a strong resume...not the best players. If they have a choice between two players they are going after the one with the best resume? So giving your money to a watered down ODP program is the best way to get into college and play soocer...so much for player development.

Here I am:
Player development = club soccer
ODP = exposure
The best players have the stronger resumes. Go to most ACC, and SEC soccer web sites and check out the rosters and see how many players participated in ODP.

Here I go sticking my two cents in, but...


Sweet...that is a generalization that may hold true the majority of the time, but is far from universally true. Where someone trained/played is not the single determining factor of talent level, and talent level is not the single determining factor in where someone decides to train and play. To judge a player's ability solely on the basis of the opportunities his/her situation has afforded would be to overlook an individual's ablilty to achieve under any circumstances.

Bottom line--a good resume is simply a documentation of evidence of a player's ability, for those who have those opportunities...but you don't necessarily have to look good on paper to look good on the field. You said it yourself, even with an oversimplistic use of the = sign...exposure. Just because the ODP players get seen and therefore picked more often, that doesn't make them the best. It just makes them the most visible.

Don't encourage him!!

Since when did I need encouragement?

This is true...I don't want your head to swell before the holidays..We need to give your informative comments a nickname..I know..we will call them Chassisums!!

I'm afraid it's my belly that expands around the holidays...

I've always been a fan of the saying "It's not what you know, but who you know."

Of course, I don't believe this to be true in all aspects of life, but in addition to what Bear mentioned, if your child plays for a coach who knows a lot of influential people and is well-respected in the soccer community, something as simple as a phone call can do amazing things.

Definitely no argument there. It doesn't change who the most talented players ARE, but right or wrong, it does affect who gets attention.

Just read the post for "CASL" and how 35 college coaches showed up for a 7:45am game (although it was a girls game) I can't help but wonder how many of those players had ODP "resumes". Since ODP is for exposure and coaches will look for players with those resumes.

I guess the coaches will go look for the resume players at big tournament like CASL.

Since 7 players on the Region III 91 ODP, and 8 players on the Region III 92 ODP team were from NC and Florida, chances are there were several players with ODP experience.

Simple answer is, coaches will go look where they think the players will be. Most often when players, or their coaches contact a college coach, they will include the schedule. College coaches tend to go to an area where they can see players in high levels of competition.

Here I am:
On my daughter's team all players have ODP experience, that played this weekend at the CASL showcase.

Maybe I misunderstand your statement..But the players should of been playing first rounds over the weekend..Right?

Coldhardtruth:
CESA took the U-17 premier girls team and won all three games.

Good deal..

sweet, how was your team able to get their first-round match scheduled on a wednesday?

could it be "who you know?"

Socdad:
I'm not sure ask someone who plays on the team. If you want to know about my daughters team, they were the #1 ranked team in the country in the U-18 age group, How about your kids team?

Socdad, it was the same CESA team, and they played in the 18th overall bracket, beat some descent teams tough.

Sweet feet, which team from sc was ever ranked #1 in the country? the only girls team that would be even close to that would be the 89/90 Cesa Premier team but they were ranked #20.

Sweet Feet's daughter plays for IMG in Florida

Sweet said “On my daughter's team all players have ODP experience, that played this weekend at the CASL showcase.”

CHT asked, “...the players should of been playing first rounds over the weekend..Right?”

And sweet responded, “CESA took the U-17 premier girls team and won all three games.”

Which, apparently, led most everyone to believe that sweet’s daughter plays for the CESA U17 Premier team.

For some reason, sweet is either being obtuse or ambiguous – not sure which, but he/she definitely has a chip on his/her shoulder.

Belligerent:
Your right, I probally wasn't clear enough, however I find it quite amusing how quick people love to pile on CESA.

by the way, can we move the girls discussion out of the boys odp thread.

sweet, it IS often “quite amusing how quick people love to pile on CESA,” but it’s just so dang hard to bite your tongue when other people make such pompous and arrogant statements as “...you can be successful in SC by sending your daughter to CESA.” (and, thus, dismissing the significance of every other club in the state)

Regardless of what you might think, those of us who cannot afford to send our children to a place like IMG, don’t live anywhere near the upstate, and don’t have the desire (nor feel the need to make the arduous drive up there on a regular basis) CAN find success for our child somewhere other than CESA.

And, although my own child may not always (if ever?) feel the same way as me, I actually enjoy seeing them and spending time with them on a daily basis, and just can’t see sending them away from home any earlier than necessary (i.e., college). But, hey, maybe that’s just me.

hard head, are you trying to say that girls' soccer has nothing to do with boys odp?

Belligerent:
First off, let me say your name fits well.
Secondly, I have never said a single negative thing about any club in SC, it's up to the parent and player to find the right fit. Would it be to forward of me to ask what club your child plays for? As a parent we try to do whats best for our children, IMG works quite nicely for my daughter thank you.

I'm getting the feeling of a great State Cup weekend!!

Kudos to SCYSA for recognizing the significance (and importance) of the CASL Showcase, and allowing teams to move their quarter-final games to mid-week so that they can make the trip to Raleigh.

sweet, thank you - i'll take that as a compliment – just like to keep people on their toes!

semantics - you may not have specifically called out other clubs, but by making the statement you did, the way you did, it might as well have been negative towards everyone except CESA. but, if i somehow misunderstood what you were trying to say, and you really did not mean to slight all non-CESA players, please let me know, and i will apologize immediately.

i’ll agree - most parents try and do what’s best for their children. i’m truly happy (seriously) that img is working out quite nicely for your daughter – she is probably in the best place for her situation.

and, you are very welcome, although i'm not sure what for.

I agree with Hard Headed this thread is about the boys ODP tryouts. The first practice is this weekend for the 96 boys. I saw the list of boys and it totals 36. My question is.... if there are 36 boys selected from the first tryout for the trip to Winston Salem, where is the room for the kids from makeup group. I was told that there was going to be two teams of 18. The makeup is going to be a part of the weekend practice, but it looks like the teams are full.

fine - sweet ran off to greener threads, leaving behind a thundering, deafening silence.

horse-person, regarding winston-salem, makeups, the magical #36, etc., it's all fairly fluid until they pick the final team. if there is a player at makeup that the coaches want to see more of, they will make room.

the main thing you need to know is that when mrs bynum says jump, you should have already been there ten minutes ago.

And be notarized with 2 copies! Originals, too!

I believe that the list sent out recently included players selected at the makeup session

You don't "need" to have anything on your resume, heck you don't even "need" to have one. You don't "need" to participate in ODP, you don't even "need" to participate in club. SCYSA doesn't "need" to provide an ODP program that meets each individual parent's desire for what they think it should be.

In my opinion, the only thing that "needs" to be done by a parent is to evaluate the desires of the child, and provide the best opportunity, for your own child, within the framework that is available. If you don't feel that is enough, then get involved and change the opportunities available.

Of course, then again I'm almost done so my opinion may not really matter as I have no dog in the hunt.

I don't know about the boys list, but the girls list that came out this week included the girls that attended make up try outs.

Don't be surprised if a player that has played previously but did not come to tryouts shows up for the sub regional and makes the team..Some can be inherited..Just concern yourselves with your child playing up to potential and all should fall in place..

The 95 boys make-up date is this weekend and the initial list only had about 26 players on it. Expecting more to come form the make-up tryout.

Sorry, Soccerpop, I was responding to Mustang's post re the 96 boys, don't know about the 94s.

dang, bear - a little testy today, aren't ya? you stay up too late last night?

I guess it's been a long week.