SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Other Prep Sports SCHL Proposes to ban Private Schools in Playoffs

As seen in today's Greenville News, the SCHL proposes to ban Private Schools participating in the SCHL playoffs. Proposes they playoff among other private schools.

Probably a good idea as a private school participating in 1A or 2A classification is not at all the same as your typical 1A or 2A school whose attendance is restricted by an attendance zone.

Additionally many sports like soccer and volleyball, the private schools are typically filled with club participants, in a typical 1A or 2A school district, club sports may not even be available.

From The State this morning - Isolating private high schools not a good option

When I read the article in the Greenville News, I noticed that the biggest complaint was about soccer. So here's a proposal to revamp how soccer (and only soccer) is structured in South Carolina.

My idea is to realign soccer-playing high schools to encourage competition that is really competitive. In the current structure, in any particular region at any particular level (A, AA, AAA, and AAAA), there are usually a few good teams and a few not-so-good teams, and the good teams find themselves playing a few competitive games and a few not-so-competitive games (a 5 or 6 to nil score is usually indicative of a lack of competition, though 10-0 is always so). Uncompetitive games do nothing for either side, except present the opportunity for injuries and bad feelings. So how do we eliminate the bulk of these uncompetitive contests?
Let’s break the state down into four regions. The SCHSL website currently lists 205 schools playing sports, and while not all of them are necessarily playing soccer, let’s assume they are. Breaking the state into four regions will give us 51 schools in each region (with 1 extra).
In each region, then, let’s break the schools down into 5 leagues: the Championship League, and Leagues 1 through 4. That puts 10 teams into each league. Teams are allowed to play between 16 and 18 games during a season, so each team would have roughly have of its games within its league if they played only once per season, alternating the home site from year to year as they do in football (we could just as easily add more games to the soccer schedule—I think 16 is too few, but that’s an argument for another day). In their remaining schedule, schools go out of their region to play quality teams from other regions, or they could play historic rivalry games if their historic rival is in a different league.
At the end of the season, the bottom two teams in each league (except for League 4) would be relegated to the lower league in their region, and the top two teams in each league (except for the Championship League) would rise to the league above them. (If you don’t know, this is what happens in European professional soccer.) The top two teams in each of the four Championship Leagues could then do one of two things. First, the SCHSL could have a state-wide playoff to determine that year’s state champion (the league could actually do the same thing with the lower leagues as well, just as it currently does with each of the size divisions). That would be an okay option, and one might guess that we would see the end of playoff results in the 10-0 range. Second, the SCHSL could form a South Carolina League to be made up of the top two or three teams in the 4 Championship Leagues to play the next year, in addition to their regular league play (this is the concept of the UEFA Champions League or the CONCACAF Champions League. I like this option better, but there would be a one-year lag declaring state champions each, and some people might not like that.
Some SC high school teams are good every year, those who draw a lot of kids who play club soccer. Some are rarely if ever good in soccer. Some go in cycles, having a few good years as a group of players who play club come through, but then dropping off as the next group doesn’t. Such a league structure as I’ve proposed would allow for competitive soccer to be played at every level and would give players at each level something to strive for—either a championship or at least the opportunity to move up to the next league.
It would also, I think, improve the level of soccer throughout the state, and obviate the need to eliminate all private high schools from the SCHSL.

i think i got the gist of what paul is saying & i agree.
lets just talk soccer, more equity is certainly needed & the coaches/ad's need to make it happen. nothing is worse than sitting thro a regualr season wando soccer match. its a waste of time for both teams & the poor parents that have to sit thro it. no excitement & terrible soccer where both teams learn nothing. for the good of the sport, align these soccer schools up by experience level. good god, long overdue.
this also might address the poor job a school the size of wando does for most of its aspiring student athletes. alot of kids that could start at other schools have just given up at trying out for the sports offered to the 3800 kids. wando could probably field 3 varsity boys/girls soccer teams easily & done pauls way, they could compete in the different leagues. problem solved.

The promotion and relegation system would be fun and make the comptetion better. But the problem you would run into is at some point you could have two teams in a "region" and "league" where travel would be too much. You could end up with two teams at opposite corners of the region lines.

it beats the crap we suffer thro now. make high school soccer relevant & competitave & it will promote the sport, draw some fans, & contribute skills instead of being the useless drag that it is now.
this state has the climate, quality & quanity, why not take advantage of spring season? what am i missing?

I understand about the travel. But you may have noticed that my system does not include home and home every year, but rather one game against each region rival. That would cut down the amount of travel one would have to do in a particular year for that one team that's on the opposite end of the region.
Of course, another option would be neutral site games.

Fantastic idea. So they definitely won't do it.

I love the idea Paul but do you honestly think an organization that doesn't allow ties is even going to begin to get their minds around a promotion/relegation system?

Before this can happen, they need to have a mercy rule put into place for soccer like a lot of other states have.

Done right, this would pretty much eliminate the NEED for a mercy rule.

Well, I know this much. Nobody in the SCHSL knows who I am, and if I proposed this idea, say, in writing, it would find the round file faster than Cristiano Ronaldo does the step over. So, someone with some sway is welcome to take it to Columbia. You can give me credit afterwards ("The Schleifer Cup"--I like it).