SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP U15+ Spring

I've been reading the Bridge, CESA, and CUFC web sites. I understand what CESA is doing in the Spring for U15+ with respect to their college scrimmages and inter-club friendlies held at college campuses. I also saw the announcement regarding the college signings.

What are Bridge and CUFC doing this spring? Do they have anything like CESA's CAP -- and if so is it an open program for anyone or is it for CUFC players only or what? What about Bridge; anything like that over there?

Any news on college signings out of these clubs?

CUFC's Elite 88 - Jess Maki (Lexington) committed to Erskine.

Not sure about CUFC. I'll send an email to the DOC's about including college signings on the new site as we used to do on the CSC site.

I know the Columbia United U16 girls are playing at Erskine this Saturday and have other games scheduled with USC Aiken, PC and USC Upstate. There is a second game Sat. at Erskine with a combined team of U15 and U17 girls playing Erskine too.

If you have been reading these web sites you would see where Bridge does have a College signing right on the Home page.

soccerislife: You're right, of course -- I checked the sites a week or two after national signing day and didn't see anything. Either it was posted recently or I just missed it; thanks for pointing it out. Six Bridge players have signed.

So now we know that with respect to U15+ that CESA does its CAP during the spring, and that CUFC has some teams and combined teams playing in the spring. Does Bridge do anything during the spring season for U15+?

Columbia United FC has told me the site will be updated from the existing page from 2005 and 2006:

http://www.columbiaunitedfc.com/Club_Info/Player_Recognitions/index_E.html

Unfortunately, some of the High School Coaches around the area do not want their players doing anything but HS soccer. I would really like to see my team stay together during the spring season and play tournaments. These kids would get better training doing this than playing HS soccer. Just my opinion.

Chico - I'm soccers my life not soccer is life

LCSC's Jarret Epperson (Airport)has signed with Pfeiffer in NC.

>>[soccersmylife] Unfortunately, some of the High School Coaches around the area do not want their players doing anything but HS soccer. I would really like to see my team stay together during the spring season and play tournaments. These kids would get better training doing this than playing HS soccer. Just my opinion.<<

I raised the issue for several reasons:

• I was wondering if anywhere outside of Greenville had any type of "open" program. I like the concept of open programs that can be used by players to get more training and more exposure. At the same time, I understand that the "closed" programs, which are more team-oriented, are valuable as well. I know that one of the clubs complained to the SCYSA about CESA's open program and tried to shut it down; the SCYSA correctly noted that it wasn't an SCYSA program.
  
• One of the things I try to do is to sanity check the marketing that these clubs do. For example, CUFC did a wonderful job being a "de facto" sponsor of the Viking Cup and getting CUFC advertising into all of the high school games. However, they put forward in some of their materials that players didn't need to travel any more to get the best training and opportunities. Sorry -- I just don't believe it yet -- not because CUFC is somehow evil but because they aren't putting the time and energy into providing services during the spring for U15+ players. This is one of the reasons they so badly need full-time leadership.
  
• Bridge, CESA, and CUFC all hold themselves out there as "elite" clubs; this means that in addition to state championships we can and should be comparing them in terms of services. I want to understand the ODP players (which all posted -- which was great!), college signings, spring programs, etc. -- so that we can get past the marketing and into the reality of their offerings. And...maybe...get the clubs to step up and compete on providing increasingly better services to our kids.
  

>>Chico - I'm soccers my life not soccer is life<<

Once again -- sloppy message board work on my part -- sorry about that.