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Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 13
bench
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Joined: Apr 2011
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The 1A final used to be good until Academic Magnet went 2A..that's when it went downhill
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Joined: May 2013
Posts: 204
Corner Kick
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Corner Kick
Joined: May 2013
Posts: 204 |
Finally a sensible parent!!!  Next we will have a Wando parent admit that they have an unfair advantage... BTW if St Joe did become 4a and it turned into a St Joe vs Wando every year situation then you might just have to remove St Joe from the playoff system completely. Let them play games like they do now, but don't let them into the playoffs. Overall this should be a public school system designed for the pubic school kids first and foremost and extended to the private schools IF they can be done in an equitable way. I think as a private school parent you would agree that they are certain trade offs you make when you remove your child from the public system and if one of those turns out to be the inability to play for a state championship then you will have to decide what is most important to the child. Of course it is unlikely that we get to that point unless St Joe starts recruiting and offering scholarships to soccer players.
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Joined: May 2013
Posts: 204
Corner Kick
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Corner Kick
Joined: May 2013
Posts: 204 |
Quote:
The 1A final used to be good until Academic Magnet went 2A..that's when it went downhill
Good if your child is in a private school.
Not so good if you live in Blackville or Lewisville etc etc.
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 1,198
Brace
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Brace
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 1,198 |
Magnet is not a private school, it is a magnet school, but they do get to draw from the entire charleston county school district.
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Joined: May 2013
Posts: 3
bench
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Joined: May 2013
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Again, does anyone remember how this dispute resolved itself in Georgia?
A lot of ideas here to improve what is clearly a broken system for soccer, but I wonder what can realistically be done. But then again, I didn't realize that it would ever be possible to change the old HSL rule that if you dressed out an ineligible player (even if he didn't play and you gained no competitive advantage) you would automatically forfeit the game - but they did.
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Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 8,421
World Cup
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World Cup
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 8,421 |
Quote:
I've posted this before, but here it is again:
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.
This was bandied about 9-10 years ago on this Message Board concerning "promotion/relegation" and a more balanced system for prep soccer. However, the powers that be at the S.C. High School League, will not consider this whatsoever because all sports must be treated the same in regards to enrollments, etc. But, the "Cup competitions" such as the Palmetto Cup (boys), Raising Cane's Carolina Soccer Classic (boys), Taco Bell Viking Cup (girls), and Lady Bearcat Invitational (girls), to name a few, have orchestrated a sense of this measure through the years.
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Joined: May 2013
Posts: 204
Corner Kick
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Corner Kick
Joined: May 2013
Posts: 204 |
1. The idea won't work anyway due to the distances involved. You'd be looking at 2 hour drive times for many of these schools and that is too much for regular season games.
2. The enrollment rules shouldn't apply to the private schools. For the private schools being allowed to play against public schools is a privilege and the public schools should have the right to decide what level the private schools play at.
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Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 1,062
brace
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Joined: Sep 2010
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The point isn't whether lack of opportunity impedes kids. The point is, you can throw all the opportunity and money you want at a kid, and that doesn't assure success. Otherwise, every pay-to-play kid in the state would be great.
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 50
Throw In
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Throw In
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 50 |
Welcome to my world. Being a small, rural, school in the low country, has all of the problems that many have mentioned on this topic.
Old saying we small public schools have: "Last public school standing wins the 1A public school championship".
When was the last time a 1A public school won the state championship? Never since the inclusion of the private/magnet schools.
Most of the comments on this topic are from folks in larger schools (2A+) and you don't see the great division there is between the haves and have nots. For many of us, the closest travel team is 40+ miles away, there are no city recreation leagues, and kids don't even kick a ball until the 9th grade. What I teach is what the kids know as they have no other outlets to our great sport.
The 1A championship has always been a joke since Aca Magnet moved up. There never will be good competition for championship until the decisions regarding soccer in SC are made by people who care about soccer in SC. Which will not be in my lifetime.
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Joined: May 2013
Posts: 204
Corner Kick
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Corner Kick
Joined: May 2013
Posts: 204 |
Keep up the good work coach!!
I am sure it pays off in ways much better than state championships (although one of those would be nice)
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