SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Girls Varsity Soccer Wando girls achilles heel

Mann could recruit the entire student body of neighboring Eastside, call it a merger of school districts and still have about 600 fewer students than Wando. Would Wando feel better about Mann picking up 1200 students from Eastside (including its entire boys team) rather than 1 or 2?

As for the girls' weakness of schedule as the possible achilles heel, yes it doesn't help. But, after the final regular season game loss of TLH to RHS, a number of posts here pointed to a supposed overrating of TLH based on weakness of schedule... "It appears that Vegas did not give enough weight to Hanna's weak schedule before they posted their line. " What Vegas didn't weight in that game was a catalytic midfielder watching the entire game from the bench. I still think the achilles heel of more than one team will work itself out in about a year.

Yes. It helps Vegas when we get a starting roster. I am liking that merger with eastside. Tired of stealing mauldin and Riverside players.

There's really no point harping on enrollments and attendance zones, once the SCHSL establishes them. There's really zero reason why a school with 1800 kids can't field a team that is competitive with its counterpart from a school of 3200 kids, when the only issue is the skill, fitness and preparedness of the 12-14 who are on the pitch in the final 20 minutes of a tied match.
Where this stuff IS relevant is the case of parochial schools, which draw from wide attendance zones and don't always adhere to "recruiting" rules.

Chief: Shouldn't the opposite also be true? If it's ALL about enrollment, why don't Dorman, Summerville, the pre-Cane bay Stratford, etc., absolutely dominate IN ALL SPORTS? The point IN SOCCER is, if you have a solid base, with a good coach, the question isn't, who has 1800 or 3200, or who has the best 32 players? It's: Who has the top 14-16, and who coaches/develops them best?
I'll give you another example. For years, the Goose Creek High School girls basketball team was one of the worst AAAA programs in the state. The "demographic" and enrollment were there; the coaching and programmatic commitment were not. One without the others? Largely ineffective.
You're right, attendance zones ARE established at a local level, but CROSSING them to compete athletically is against SCHSL rules. That's where the SCHSL comes in.
Finally, everyone here gets way too hyped over these issues. For years in the Lowcountry, Summerville, Stratford and Berkeley were dominant high school football programs. They built community traditions, feeder systems, and facilities and thrived. Maybe I missed it, but nobody said they had an unfair advantage (except in the case of redshirting and recruiting allegations against Summerville).
So why make a big deal over similar things in soccer?

For what it's worth, from a purely competitive perspective, I suspect Wando would have been better off by cutting to 24-26 kids BEFORE the season, focusing on that hard core, developing a merit-based player rotation, and fostering the type of cohesiveness and match fitness J.L. Mann showed in the boys' title game.
(But that's just me.)

Like you say, shades of gray.
And if all things are equal ...
But things are SELDOM equal and always in flux. Seems to me, this year's Class AAAA boys Final Four was a large enrollment defending champion (Wando); two not-so-long-ago AAA teams (South Aiken and J.L. Mann); and your "outlier" ... Clover.
The Lower State semifinal losers this year were Fort D and Lexington. The Lower State championship loser in 2011 was Beaufort.
...
I will say this. My sense, with nothing to back it up, is that AAAA girls' soccer is more of a limited field. That may be unfair. And I'm open to correction there.

Enrollment is one of a number of limiting factors that can affect overall performance, but it is only one of a number of variables. The trick to a limiting factor is that just because less of something can limit your chances, having more doesn't necessarily help in proportion.

To quote Papa John, "The best pizzas start with the best ingredients." While this is true, just having the best ingredients on hand certainly doesn't guarantee that you have the recipe and the skill to produce the best pizza with them.

Since it's the beginning of grilling season, I'll continue the food metaphor...just having the best cut of meat doesn't necessarily mean you can grill the best steak...but it sure helps. Still, it's a lot easier to take a great cut of meat and make it tough than it is to take a tough cut of meat and make it tender. Top-quality ingredients are a lot more forgiving of error, but there are still many more variables that can keep them from transforming into a top-quality dish.

Make sense?

Nice metaphor. When do we break out the cold ones?
Many of the people who endlessly cite enrollment and demographics are the same ones who blame every loss on the quarterback. It's what they see, what they know, and what they have the capacity to quantify ... especially when they haven't seen a team play all year, then struggle to form opinions based on a one-game sample.
Not to write off those issues. But in reality, once two competitive teams advance through four playoff games to a single-game championship match, enrollment has little to do with the outcome. It's about form, fitness, coaching, strategy, field conditions, officiating, "intangibles" and a bunch of other things.
If you look at Wando's boys, they lost two of their final seven matches: one to Class AA Bishop England and one to a comparatively small-enrollment J.L. Mann side. Both of those programs have great traditions and long-time professional coaches. One of Wando's late-season matches was a 2-0 (1-0 until late on) win over a James Island side that likely will slip to AAA classification in the next go-round.
Now, to get back to the Wando girls' "achilles," I could give you several: inability to replace graduated players over several years; potential loss of a proven, successful coach; etc. But that's the same at EVERY high school in EVERY sport, regardless of enrollment.