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Almost forgot......the Bishop England girls....they did win a title.

That brings up another interesting comparison.....why do upstate clubs dominate while HS titles are evenly split amongst the lower, mid and upper districts?

Irmo4 --

I was going to write to say that Soccermom had just mistakenly moved the BE state championship from the girls column to the boys, but you were quicker on the keyboard. It's worth pointing out that both BE and West Ashley girls' teams were repeat state champiions (2002 and 2003).

lpaf

Time just wizzes by at amazing speeds....I think it was 2002 those teams won.....but at any rate - the high schools do have more equal successes....interesting.

Soccermom

Irmo4Now-
To answe your question, I believe that high school teams are evenly split compared to club teams because an overwhelming number of players travel outside their own distrcts to play club, especially the more talented teams. They are so good because they have good players that travel o go to practice, whereas high school teams consist of students at that particular high school.

Lexington will never be a true club because the facilities are owned by the county and not a club. And I know the people that work for the county have no interest in classic. They are very happy with the Rec. program. The classic is just tolerated but not encouraged.

I agree with Bdad11 that NECSA and CSC could worked together to cover the mid-state for soccer. Allow natural selection to take care of which is the best team for each age group.

I also agree that good coaching makes the team and CSC is putting together a very young energitic coaching staff. Eddie Crosby is doing a great job. The worst mistake CSC made was a few years ago when they tried to use name drops to drawal players and not actions. Parents saw right through the smoke and mirrors.

Chapindad: I have several, very respectful, questions concerning your last post. Please don't take anything I'm saying as disagreement; I'm simply trying to understand. I've gone on record now for the last year with my admiration for CSC/CFC -- so we're certainly not in disagreement on that. I'm going to use excerpts from your post to try to put my quesions in context.

>>Lexington will never be a true club because the facilities are owned by the county and not a club. And I know the people that work for the county have no interest in classic. They are very happy with the Rec. program. The classic is just tolerated but not encouraged.<<

I'm certainly not arguing with you about the quality of Lexington's four clubs, and in particular the two classic clubs. But here's what I'm wondering. It's true that Lexington has county fields controlled by a huge number of clubs put together in a bureacracy called LUSA. But given that there are two classic clubs devoted only to classic soccer, why would it matter who owns the fields? To put this another way, who cares what the county government thinks as long as the two classic clubs have field access? Isn't the success or failure of the Lexington classic programs completely the responsibility of the two classic clubs?

To put this another way. If I had to start a regionally/nationally competitive club right now, I'd rather do so with guaranteed field access provided for free than have to devote resources into building those fields. I'd then take the resources and devote them into building the best coaching staff in the state.

What am I missing?

>>I agree with Bdad11 that NECSA and CSC could worked together to cover the mid-state for soccer. Allow natural selection to take care of which is the best team for each age group.<<

I think what Bdad11 actually wanted was one club, but wanted to see as a compromise, intermediate step two clubs, with a series of mergers led by NECSA on one-half and CSC on the other half [which makes sense since these are the two largest clubs in the area].

I believe that CSC is the best hope for competitive regional and national soccer in the area. And I applaud the steps that the club is taking in terms of coaching staff and resources. But I think it's pretty important to note that in 2003, CSC yielded only one state championship team and that came from the CFC side. The merger with CFC paid huge dividends -- not just in the short term with respect to winning state championships but with respect to increasing the quality and level of the coaching staff. The point of Bdad11's message [and if I'm wrong, I hope you or Bdad11 or anyone will correct me] was that he'd like to see a consolidation of clubs and thus resources.

I don't think that SGU and GFC and MPSC are stationary targets -- they're getting much better very fast and are emerging into the regional and national arena with more breadth than any Columbia area club has had for years. As a fan of SC club soccer, I'd like to see CSC continue making non-incremental leaps [e.g., mergers]. Because the more quickly we in the Columbia area can become competitive on an intra-state basis, the faster we can begin helping the state in terms of competing on a regional and national level.

>>I also agree that good coaching makes the team and CSC is putting together a very young energitic coaching staff. Eddie Crosby is doing a great job.<<

I know from your past messages that you know this, and I'm sure that Crosby is doing great things, but I'd also give Frederick a big part of the credit. I'm aware that the U-16B team was second in the state this year -- but there was some history there with past success. Frederick took a team with little history and won.

Chapindad,
It would be great if NECSA & CSC would work together or even merge. For instance, both U-16 boys Columbia teams were in the semis at challenge cup. If the best of those 2 teams were combined then Celtic would not now be 2003 state champ. But it will never happen.......
Also, I am not aware of what you were saying about CSC a few years ago. I do know that under Crosby, who became DOC last spring, the program has taken off under his leadership. You just have to meet him to see and hear his determination and passion, for not just soccer, but the overall development of the players based on their character, attitude and work ethic. CSC should do very well in all age groups from U10 boys/girls to U18 boys/girls in the coming spring and next fall.

Not a comment on the pros and cons of a CSC/NECSA merger as a whole, but just a comment concerning 4soccer's comment about the U16 boys.

I watched the semi-final match in Summerville (my son plays for the NECSA team). I am not sure that a merger would do anything for either of these teams.

The CSC team, on average, is probably made of better individual athletes. I thought the NECSA boys might not have been as athletic, but played better team ball.

I'm not sure adding two or three of the NECSA boys would make the CSC team better and I think adding CSC boys to the NECSA team would likely interfere with the team chemistry.

Again, not to say I would be opposed to a merger, I just don't think these two teams would benefit.

Just my opinion.

To clarify my earlier post, Yes I believe columbia would be better served by merging clubs on the eastside together, and the westside as well.I see Necsa struggling to field teams in the older boys age groups and I see congaree struggling to field teams that are mediocre.It just seems logical that the eastside of cola can only support 1 club that can field competitive challenge level teams .Take the u16b for example. Necsa and Congaree fielded 4 teams for this age bracket.Taking the best remaining players from Congaree,along with the Ambush players, and the Congaree players who migrated over to CSC.I believe you would have a premier level team without any question.I see this possible in other age groups as well.At least fielding strong challenge teams in each age group would be a possibility.
On the westside CSC seems to be aggressively following the GFC/SGU model.Having a quality coaching staff and enough fields to play and practice are the sound foundation of a strong club.By merging Lexington in with CSC you would get more top notch facilities and a rapidly growing population with a soccer friendly demographic.Lexington would seem to be a sleepng giant in the production of top soccer talent.

Players and parents know where the best situation for their child is. I believe that a good coach and a strong core group of players will draw other players from other clubs to that team.There is no reason Columbia can't field at least 1 team capable of being a good premier level team in each age group.

This is just my opinion.Note I don't even live in Columbia though I have a child playing on a Columbia team.