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We just added Wade Hampton to our schedule so now we have 2 teams that are ranked in the top ten in 2A. That gives us a little more strength of schedule points.

Can Indian Land possibly make some noise this season? The demographics in this school district are changing as it is fast becoming a Charlotte bedroom community. Lots of growth along Hwy 521. The problem is, they'll probably be 2A or 3A by the time they really get the program going.

Beating a 4A school is a great accomplishment for a 1A school. It doesn't matter how far down the line they are in 4A, a win against them is good for the program.

well we (dixie) went a couple of hours down the road to play BHHS and WE because we wanted to play more 1A teams so perhaps the other schools in 1A dont care enough to do so i was just stating that if some teams played some of the upper-state teams they would stop talking trash about how sorry the other teams are

It's give and take with traveling the state to play teams. Is it better for a AD to: 1. Have a bus ride to play a larger school that is 30-45 minutes of riding...or to 2. Play a 1A school that is 3 hours away? It costs money to travel that far, and usually ADs and coaches of smaller schools shy away from the idea because of a limited soccer budget. Generally, it seems that you get a better seeding for playing the larger schools anyways.

On the other hand, you go the whole year not knowing where you stand among the ranks of 1A schools, until the playoffs. It seems that teams like Buford and GSSM tend to play more teams closer to them, even if the other team is better than them. Seedings wise: what helps you the most? Traveling 3 hours and beating to a 1A school, or traveling 30-45 and losing to a 4A school?

Hurst, IL is seeing lots of growth, and is probably going to be in 2A very soon. They didn't graduate many last year, and have a middle school program that will help them in the long run. They should be the only "tough" region series Buford has this year. However, I believe after this year, Indian Land will regain the crown of Region 3A just because of the talent Buford will lose this year.

are budgets in that bad of shape? i hope your team doesn't win a few playoff games as a lower seed. that would be detrimental to the athletic department. your coach drives u and you pay 30 more bucks gas at the most. do a fund raiser or something man. there's no excuse for not being able to go 2 hours away from your place. if u do travel, then you could likely get on a system in which you travel one year, and the next year your opposition does...that cuts your cost in half and you keep the good competition.

the point is that good competition is priceless at this stage of your careers, assuming most of you won't be playing college ball. you'll get to a post-career point where you wish u'd made a full effort to play one of your message board rivals (i say that bc u compete more on here than on the field) a few more times for at least the thrill of it if not the win. our coach gave us full opportunity to play any and all of the best competition possible, and he continues to with the newcomers, yet still there's nothing i would like more than to do it all over again. you just can't be satisfied talking it up all season and only getting to prove it in an 80 minute time-span in the playoffs, if even that. if you don't realize that now, then you will soon.

Once again the problem is the time frame in which you have to work with. I mean if you actually look at some of the uppper/lower state teams that are in the top 5 (in 1A) it would be well over a 2 hour drive. Good for your coach and your AD, but the majority of 1A schools don't have either the funding or support to do that, hince the 1A label. Sure you can meet somewhere and play at a neutral site but that takes time to put together in the offseason when other sports or going on. It's just not a big priority.

Chelsea Blues brought up a great question and was curious what you guys think:
Do you think it's better for your team to travel that far to play a 1A competitive team (in top 5) or to play a close to home match against a decent/good 2A to 4A team.

I would have to say that it's better to stay closer to home and play a 2A/3A/4A team. I mean I would love to play all 1A teams but the reality is, is that your probably not gonna face any of the upperstate top 5 teams if your in the lowerstate. I know DIXIE has and much props to you guys but.........yeah. We should have some sort of 1A type tournament at the midpoint to help all the teams out and get a feel for where they stand against the competition. That would be a nice little weekend tourney.

Good luck to all and sorry for rambling on.

well the thing about dixies travels is that our alumni payed for our trip we have an alumni game every year where the alumni play our current varsity team and they give donations to the team which many are very willing to give to help the sport

On the other point i think its always better to play 1A teams it shows you where you stand against the teams that you could possibly play in the playoffs also many of the upper divsion schools 1A teams play are often not that good anyway