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Interesting. This past spring, my sons division was fairly strong, but the fall had a lot of weaker teams.

Using the strength of play though, GPS NASA White was weak in our age group last year and likely continue to do so.

Once GPS took over NASA, things really took a downturn for SSC. I know my sons team lost two players to them, one of which was offered a scholarship to make the switch.

There are over 100 former SSC players now at GPS NASA.

Over 60 coaches applied to coach the Battery youth. Several SSC coaches did not. Two of the prominent SSC girls coaches switched to GPS NASA, one of whom will become the girls director there.

I think it is fair to say that the Battery taking over SSC, as well as opening fields in Daniel Island and Mt. Pleasant doesn't sit well with those that preferred the previous local club structure.

Would this move have happened if the Battery did not start their youth club? Do certain clubs stand to lose in any way if the Battery is successful?

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If you look at the number of players each year at the State and local level, you'll see that population only rise by a percent that is pretty much in line with region population growth.

That pretty much makes sense as you can't just manufacture kids overnight that want to play. What changes is the uniform they wear, so I think yours is a fairly easy question to answer: yes some clubs will lose as others win.

You allude to it already with (~100) shift from SSC to GPS recently, certainly CASC has grown at someone else's expense, and similarly we would expect to shrink with others success. We never worry about what others are doing and just make decisions based on what is best for our membership, and in this case, we decided to look at a new option for Junior Academy play, liked what we saw and took the plunge. But not lightly and with a good amount of consideration and due diligence.

To be fair, Coastal League was initiated to replace a 'club managed' local league in LSYSA and I think even SCYS would cede that the league has had its challenges and complaints over the years. More than once we've considered looking for alternatives long before the Battery decided to step into youth soccer and if a good alternative had presented itself in the last 2-3 years we would have certainly considered it. We have certainly provided feedback and suggestions to improve without too much movement and hoping our latest decision will work out and not backfire, but who knows. Onwards.


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This is going to sounds much worse than I mean it,,, but its just facts!

I cant really speak about the white teams. But I would imagine they arent any weaker than the SSC blue teams. I just know the last time my oldest son's team played the top SSC team in his age group, it was 10-0,, and it could have been much much worse. Granted they have moved in different leagues, so they dont play now, but his team as only gotten stronger, so there is honestly no telling how bad it would be now. I know SSC only had 1 boys team at the Challenge level, and they only won 1 game the entire season.

I'm honestly not trying to turn this into a GPS vs SSC debate. I think that shipped has sailed. But I do know that GPS initially tried to work with SSC. They entered 17 teams in the first Labor Day tournament that SSC held after gps arrived in Charleston. They also entered more teams in the summer Coever tourney at SSC than SSC did. Then SSC paid them back by making a formal recruiting complaint to the state about the GPS summer teams. That was pretty much the end of any joint ventures. I think that move alone costs SSC thousands in future tournament fees.

I think if I were a board member and I had lost over a hundred kids to a neighboring club, it should have thrown up a red flag a little sooner.

This is going to sound much worse than I mean it,,, if I were a current SSC parent, I would be a whole lot more concerned about the fields in Daniel Island and Mt. Pleasant. Which kids do you think the club is going to cater too. They only took 1 SSC kid to Dallas.

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These are excellent responses and help shed some light for me.

@Cainhoy thank you for being more forthright and supporting what others here were suggesting: that the decision has less, if anything to do with the Battery, and more to do with the league and its support etc...

@Mysonsdad, no offense at all. My son son plays on an SSC White team that is young and did fairly well overall (split with GPS NASA Maroon).

I agree, the SSC teams were weak, and I have discussed some of the reasons for that in another thread. Suffice to say, it was not run in a modern developmental model. Instead, the same father may have coached the same group of kids for several years. Teams were tied to specific coaches and the politics were dreadful. I was certainly exploring the move to NASA, but time is a HUGE consideration for me personally.

The history of the two clubs from your point of view is interesting. I am not sure SSC staff would see it see the same way, but I never asked because it really did not matter to me. My son was on a good team with a great group of kids and parents, visibly improving, so I had every reason to be happy.

I am actually not as concerned about the DI and MP locations. I have no delusion that my son is the next Modric or Scholes. I think it will be a while before they make inroads in player development East of the Cooper, but I may be naive. I just want my son to continue to have the opportunity to continue playing similar teams. I don't want to start over at new club, but we'll see. At least NASA costs less.

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My own started at SSC.... My oldest literally scored 500 goals in the SSC in house league. He was there from 3-8, and it was fun as a parent watching him score 8 goals a game,,, I didn’t have a soccer background,,,but the more I learned and read... I quickly realized that it was because he was just bigger and faster. Every coach/dad he had in the in house league just put him up top and let him outrun everyone.... the more we learned,,, we knew he wasn’t going to get any better that way... my wife and I went to the first meeting that SSC had about their academy, and we realized they truly had no developmental curriculum. He was going to have another dad who was basically winging it.... we knew then that footskill wise and speed of play wise that we needed to move him.... long story short—- we made the trip over the bridge for a few years.,,, until Gps got here and gave him a viable option on this side of the river.

That being said, every club certainly has its issues and the grass isn’t always greener,,,, but for our family,,,, moving them has been a blessing.. My guys have never had the coaching that they have now. My oldest has been played In big tournaments in 7 different states and Europe all a smaller fee than other local clubs. Just my 2 cents.

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At the end of the day you should choose the club that you feel is aligned with whatever goals and aspirations your child has for the sport. What works for some definitely doesn't work for others.

As for the new league, I see SCYSA has countered somewhat with their revamp of their U12 statewide league. Somewhat of a too little too late IMO, but I'm always a fan of more to make better. Now that there's competition in the league, maybe we'll start seeing better leagues more aligned with the development of players


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Good to know, and I agree on all accounts.

Anyone have an idea of what this means for U9/U10 as far SCYS?

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I just got off the phone with someone from the Battery. They did not reply to my email because they can't put somethings in writing. I will try to summarize a few key points we discussed:

1. The Battery is fully aware of the new league as well as the one announced today by SCYS. Although they can't prove it, they do feel it was created to exclude and isolate them. As they asked me, "why wasn't Summerville invited given their facilities alone are much better than most of those other clubs?"

2. Over 330 kids have registered so far for tryouts. That is more than 5x what SSC had at this point last year. Only 16% of those are from Summerville.

3. The new league is "players first" yet 26 kids can be on the roster for a 7v7 team. 18 year olds can coach u14 and 21 year olds can coach u18.

4. The national headquarters of the league is based here in Charleston, SC. The CEO is a season ticket holder with the Battery.

5. Some other clubs have certain pieces of info TBD because they poached coaches whose contracts with SSC have not passed yet.

6. The club assured me that The Battery will have a positive game day experience. There are certain things about the new league that they don't like but they have a decision to make and when they can, they will communicate with everyone and try to be as transparent as possible.

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It’s going to be interesting for sure!!! I did see that scysa kind of answered with their new plan of a statewide league. One thing that stood out,,, they said you had to compete in their u-12 league in order to be eligible for u-13 challenge. Of the 29 or so teams u13 and u-14 teams playing either challenge or premier this season, 23 are going to be part of the new Carolina Premier League .... I don’t know how scysa will be able to enforce the mandate and still have enough competitive teams to fill their premier and challenge slots. Just something I thought about!


On another note, I noticed that Charlotte and the surrounding North Carolina area announced a very similar league today.... should be interesting for sure!

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Yeah, I don't know what SCYSA wil do (or their GA and NC counterparts now).

Discovery SC is listed in both leagues.

A lot of SC clubs on the outside still, particularly in the upstate. I wonder if SCFCU will stick with it. They have enormous influence in the midlands. I am not sure how much this benefits them.

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