SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Girls Varsity Soccer High School Playoffs broken

Its time to fix high school playoffs. I see that the 2-9 Eagles are headed to the playoffs in football against South Pointe. I wonder how that is going to go. Eastside is a great school and competitve in a lot of sports but, bless their hearts, football is not one of them. There are strong and weak conferences in all sports so just sending the top 4 teams from each conference does not work. The realignment in high school this year will produce a great soccer conference in the 4a ranks which my daughters team will be a part of.It is a seven team conference which produced 5 playoff teams from last year, all competative and above .500 records. Two of the teams have state titles in the last two years. Will be great games all year.
This means that one of these teams will be on the outside looking in while another 4a conference will have just 4 soccer teams. So its possible for a team to go to the playoff with no wins in the conference. Its time to seed the top 16 teams from the upper state and the top 16 teams from the lower state and start there. Much better representation of the stronger teams and a more competative tournament. Should be done in all sports.
Under the current system there has been times when its was better to finish second in our conference because the matchups were easier. How crazy is that when you are thinking of throwing games. (Thats just parents thinking, not coaches and players.) Even if you leave the current system at least seed the teams so you don't have 2 solid teams playing in the second round instead of the semi's. I' m not whining and if we finish 5th we probably don't need to go but am tired of watching teams with less then 3 or 4 wins for the whole year be rewarded. If I'm wrong I'll go back on my meds.

Actually, I don't think that is entirely true. According to the SCHSL website the #5 seeds from the Spartanburg area district (Maulding, Dorman, etc) and the Columbia district (Dutch Fork, spring valley, etc) get in with the 3 and 4 seed from the columbia region moving to the lower state.
However, this still doesn't create competitive balance. Switching to the boys side, the upperstate will have Mauldin, Wren, Mann, Riverside, Irmo, Spring Valley, Northwestern, Dorman, etc. you have the 3a and 4a state champion along with Irmo. how is that balance??? Why not let every school in and add a round? And/or have a voting meeting to seed everyone and then have the coaches place themselves on the board? Or have neutral sites for the upperstate/lowerstate semis and finals to alleviate travel issues? have a big tournament sheet and go down the seedings and the coach can place themselves. Some of the best schools may want to play in the first round. Some coaches may choose to travel close or go far to play someone they think they can beat.
heck in football you could have dorman play at summerville in the second round. Why not have that option in soocer?

Hey Patriot, here is something else that needs to be fixed.
How is it right that a High School that is designated as an "Academy" can basically recruit players from all over a school district to play on their team and other High Schools (not an Academy) can only have students who live in that schools zoned attendance area?

My wife went to a catholic high school in Ohio. They have the same issues in the north with catholic schools recruiting. Private schools and acadamies have no boundaries. Look at the national rankings in high school sports and you'll find that the top high school teams are mostly catholic schools. At one time Ohio was going to put all the private schools in their own rankings and the public schools in another system so that you would have a private school state champ and a public school state champ. It never materialized. In the next few years keep your eye on St Josephs Catholic High School in Greenville. It's only a matter of time that they'll dominate in all sports. You'll also find that many of their top athletes that attend these catholic high schools are not even catholic. Catholic schools use sponsor families (who have $$$) to recruit and support the athlete through their high school years.

dawgs,

Why St. Joe's in "the next few years"? If the stuff you describe has been going on in Ohio for decades.......why hasn't St. Joe's filled up their trophy case? Why hasn't St. Joe's received the same treatment that BE has?

I can answer that one. St. Joe's is a fairly new school, though getting bigger and stronger every year. In years to come, I am sure you will be mentioning BE, Christ Church and St. Joe's in the same sentence.
In Ohio the Catholic schools have been around for decades and yes, they do dominate most sports.

Glad to see another Buckeye. And yes, Ohio has a problem with this, but not only catholic schools, but all private schools. The state has started to reign them in. In Ohio, if a student is unhappy at the private school (i.e. they are promised a varsity spot and put on the freshman team) the athlete can transfer back to their home public school with zero punishment (meaning they can immediately play in that season). So if a kid goes out for soccer and they are not on the varisty after the pre-season, they can go back to their home public school and play soccer the next day. Several other states use a formula where each student counts for 1.3 or 1.7 students. This causes private schools to get moved up a division (i.e. if you have 1000 students you would have 1700 students based on the 1.7 and move up accordingly.)

Your starting to see more and more migration to the south by middle aged families because of the economical situation in oh, pa, mi. It used to be retirees just came south. They will fill the catholic schools up fast. Many of these people are so loyal to the church they'll put their kid in a catholic school before they put food on the table, believe me I married into a big catholic family. my 4 kids were all signed up for catholic shool before we moved to SC,we didn't have st jo's when we moved here. Like I said when their sports programs get a little bigger they'll start recruiting. Catholic high school football and basketball money goes to the school not just their athletic department. It's a huge money maker for the catholic school, but they have to be good to draw players and fans.

The issue I mentioned pertains to the public school Academys. These schools will have students from all over a school district. They are designated Academy of Science, Academy of Music, etc. I believe J.L. Mann and Greenville High among others are Academy schools. If one was so inclined, good athletes could attend the same Academy and create a "super team". I am not saying it is going on, but you do hear of recruiting going on at some of these. Of course that is strictly "rumormill fodder". It would seem that any student going out of their assigned attendance zone
to attend an Academy who plays athletics should have to sit out a year (like a transfer must), thus assuring the student is their for academic reasons.

I attended Catholic grammar school, Catholic high school and a Jesuit university (almost Catholic). ;>)

Before moving to South Carolina, my five children were enrolled in Catholic grammar school (K - 8th) in Pennsylvania.

Upon moving down here, I found out that the cost of keeping my 5 kids in Catholic school would be 4x what it cost me in PA.

Thus.....we are.....Fort Mill.