SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Girls Varsity Soccer Woodruff

As coach of the CC team, I will say this...IF (and it's a big if) there is ever a A State Championship, I would not have a problem playing in the AA ranks if that is what the HSL says we have to do. The 1.5 ratio would ONLY move us to AA anyway. We do not and WILL NOT shy away from the best competition we can play. Even though at this time we do not have the number of club developed players as other teams (including Woodruff), I would still suggest that CC can play with some of the best teams in all classifications. I refuse to allow the team to slide by playing only teams I think we are capable of beating.
All of the data and research is great and quite frankly a little overwhelming, but if making changes would make everyone else happy, I would be happy as well. Even if I don't agree with the idea, if the HSL says this must be done, then we would abide. And it would make winning the AA Championship that much nicer (if that ever happened). This is just my opinion.

I don't think anyone doesn't believe that BE has an advantage -- demonstrably it does. The problem is how you account for that advantage. Do you use the label "private" to assess some type of penalty or do you use other indicators (such as affluence)?

Here's the analogy from a social issue with which our society is currently wrestling. It can be seen as per statistics that African Americans are unfairly disadvantaged in terms of admittance to universities. There are two fundamental methods for attempting to compensate for this disadvantage: one is to take into account race and the other is to take into account affluence. There are arguments for either; however, there are those that argue that labeling all African Americans as disadvantaged is in and of itself racism (of course, there are others that argue not labeling all African Americans in this manner is also racism.)

In this debate, the theory is that Orangeburg Prepatory school has the same advantage as BE on a student-by-student basis in terms an assessed "1.5" penalty (or whatever.) Maybe...but I kind of doubt it.

I appreciate the pain that schools like Woodruff feel at having to compete "unfairly" with BE. The trouble I have is creating a system that compensates for the "unfairness." I'd want to make sure that Wando and Dorman, two of the largest 4-A schools, are made more "fair." Then again, I'd personally take less affluence, less draw, and less everything else if I could turn LCSC (Lexington's soccer club) into CESA (Mauldin's "unfair" advantage.)

Your more than competative,one of the best AA teams Woodruff played all year. It would be ugly to watch CC play a single A plubic school. Thank you for proving my point

Shibumi:

I think you keep TRYING to raise the broadest and ultimately BEST point in all this, but it keeps getting lost—and I may be to blame.

I think HS sports do and should have high ideals. HS sports ultimately lay the groundwork for young people's live, primarily away from sport. Thus, we do things like have classifications, like having guidelines addressing fairplay.

The "private/public" topic should not become the focus, but how we address inequities SHOULD (as Shibumi keeps nudging for us to hear).

Without any doubt, the data are there, these attendance, poverty, and other factors create unlevel playing fields throughout SCHSL, many of which are exposed blindingly in soccer.

I think we have a moral responsibility to address those issues—not BE or CC as specific cases.

If you look at many topics over the years in this board, people look at my Poverty Index posts about public schools and respond MUCH differently than when I address inequities between public and private—although they are the SAME issue.