SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Boys Varsity Soccer High School Soccer

I have read this thread with curiosity for several days. I can see both sides of the argument having validity. However, to me it's all about choices. If you look at the different types of restaurants in the Columbia area most people could name probably 20 - 25. If you look at the number of electric companies in the Columbia area most people can name one - SCE&G. The point I am making is luckily, in most things we deal with in our lives choice is a fact of life. What if soccer was like SCE&G and we had only one level --- would that be a good thing? We now have so many levels of soccer that something should be available to most anyone. From recreation, classic, challenge, premier, DA - and of course school soccer. These are all "choices" - an important part of our Democratic way of life. Yes, the DA may have an effect on high school soccer - but with choices often come change. Sometimes for the better - sometimes for the worse. To me - we are just fortunate to live in a country where these players (who wish to train and play at this high level) have that choice!

Nuke worker the DA does not pull from the premier teams, it consists of a few who use to play premier, the best premier teams often have better players than any of the DA kids. Cole Seiler is not a DA player but I challenge you to find a player on the DA in Charleston who is better, Patrick Khouri is not a DA player and I dont know of any player his age who is better and he lives in Charleston but drives to Greenville to play on a Premier team that is much better than the DA team in his age group. Also the only HS team that will be hurt by this decision is Wando, most of the DA teams are made up of the old Bridge players and Mt pleasant kids. The last I checked only one kid in the DA used to play at CESA, more kids drive from Charleston and Columbia to play in the upstate and the premier teams you refer to as being watered down were not that good to begin with.

Liverpool...Every sentence you said is incorrect. 4 kids in the development academy used to play for CESA and switched to the DA. Joe Amon Started on the US U-17 World cup team and is TopDrawerSoccers #10 player in the country, and is committed to UNC...I believe he is better than Cole. And Patrick Khouri is a 1996 which would place him on the U-16 DA team. This team is the first team in the country to make the playoffs this season. And at one point in the season were ranked #1 in the nation. His team would not stand a chance.
You are wrong my good man

Don't let yourself get drawn into this silly "debate." It's been done before and is irresolvable and meaningless.

Score_a_goal, You know not what you speak, Seiler is much better than Amon, Top Drawer rankings are a joke they have Discoveries as the best in the state. Seiler committed to Georgetown (turned down UNC) and Khouri used to play with Amon on the same team because he was just that good he could play up (he happens to be in Catalonia right now playing soccer,where are the DA players). Besides Michele who played for CESA? And the DA is ranked #1 out of DA teams that makes them the best? Khouris team played the Dallas Texans DA this past year and destroyed them, how did the Charleston DA do against them?

Academy changes are all about training - TopDrawerSoccer.com

Another interesting sidebar here involves D.A.coaches( and they have some outstanding ones). Three that I know of(two that have talked to me personally)have said they will have to leave because of full time job considerations and family when the 10 month schedule starts.

It will be interesting to see the replacements as alot of the states top coaching heirarchy seems tapped out.

When and where did CESA play the Texans' Development Academy team?

The whole tit for tat arguments about "my dad is stronger than your dad" are pointless and demeaning and add nothing to the debate on 10 month Academy.

All the kids referenced....are superb players who would do well in any environment.

19 times out of 20 where Academy exists.....the better kids are playing there. There are exceptions. There are also areas like Greenville that aren't represented by Academy. Therefore a kid like Cole isn't in the Academy program.

Those exceptions or circumstances.....are real. If anyone thinks that Academy is exclusively the be all and end all...they are wrong. There are still kids out there who for a variety of reasons.....don't play Academy.

But they are exceptions.

Happy Daddy......my guess would be that the CESA team played the USYSA Dallas Texans. I have friends whose kids play at CESA (in other age groups) and they are still seeing the non-Academy teams of Academy clubs....at events lke Regionals or National League.

There are friendlies between Academy teams and non Academy teams. People need to be careful in reading too much into those. From experience.....my son's Academy team played Cobb 2 years ago and drew 2-2. It was 2-nil at the half, Academy, and the coaches pulled the first team off at half and played the second team in the second half. Cobb tied the game. My sons' R3 team played SCU Academy in a scrimmage last year (2010) in a scrimmage.....he wasn't there (my daughter got married that day) and lost 5 or 6 to
nothing. Outcome could well depend on how coaches view the scrimmage. The NM Academy coaches could have cared less about the outcome. We had a lull in our schedule and they wanted the kids to play.

Between us guys, I've seen all of the kids mentioned play on MULTIPLE occasions and in various competitive settings. There is no monopoly on talent, coaching, etc. To make the case that one is "better" when they're ALL quite good (but not THAT good) borders on idiocy. To cite Top 100 lists crosses the border.