SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP GFC and St. Giles Merge!

Does anyone think that there will be interest in a Cola. merger?? I believe there are several points to make in favor of a merger: 1)I can see CRSA being interested since they are small. They need the fields and more talent. 2) I don't know if NECSA wants to join in a cooperative involvement to make a bigger and more successful club. If NECSA would just consider that a merger would produce more teams like the great Galaxy and Storm teams in 2000 and 2001. It would also help improve their girls program. But NECSA voted against a merger with CSC a few years ago when CSC and Carolina FC merged their efforts. That merger has proved to be successful. 3)Lexington has the fields and lots of kids. All the kids at Lexington need is some quality coaching and instruction. A merger with CSC, CRSA and Lex. would produce a strong, organized, focused club with exceptional coaching. I would dare say that with strong coaches Chris Christian, Kevin Heise, Eddie Crosby, Tom Chumura and others,they could compete well with the Greenville club, and challenge regionally. Then maybe NECSA would come on board. It needs to happen now Cola. cause according to St. Giles website they should be merged by Fall 2004.

Tom who????? The great Storm team? Remind me which Championships they won? Remind from which club did ALL their talent come from? credited ! The talent is a good point. But If all the talent in Cola is in Greenville at the new "United" what does it matter?

Tom Chumura is head caoch at Cardinal Newman. Galaxy and Storm beat GFC for state championships 2000,2001. I doubt you will see but a few players from Cola. decide to play in Greenville just because of its merger. There will be plenty of talent between the two merged clubs to field their top teams. The competition for a top team slot will be very intense. Local Greenville boys will get the top slots. You may even see that the Cola. players who do now travel up to Greenville may decide to play in Cola for a top team.

AHH I see young grasshopper. A columbia team is only good enough for local talent if their is a merger!? What makes you think a merger would make columbia any better? The grass isn't always greener on the other side! BTW the "quality" Storm players were from BC/CRSA and Aiken HS/Aiken Soccer club! Two of the BIGGEST clubs in the state!!!!!

How long will it take Talbot, Barrett, and Mills to come back and take over Greenville again. DSA was and always will be the best club.

Several ignorant questions:

1. What's wrong with "Greenville" that you want fixed? How do you define "Greenville" in terms of soccer -- which club/clubs?

2. Why was DSA the best club? How do you define "best"?

The competitive core inside apparently lives on long into our adult years. Instead of blows and goals to prove our superiority, we use the biggest and most rare words available. I enjoy reading the banter very much, I simply hope you aren't too hard on the younger folk near you who might display similar behavior. Bobby Bowden would tell you set the example before criticizing. Enjoy...

>>[4soccer] Does anyone think that there will be interest in a Cola. merger??<<

No. Sigh… I hope I’m wrong.

I made an educated guess about a GFC/St. Giles merger before it occurred in a response on this message board [re: What a Shocker thread, January 8, 2004]. The only reason it was “educated” was that it seemed to me that both clubs had similar aspirations. The reason it was a “guess” and was a shock was that I would not have thought that the two clubs could get around the control/ego issues. Even if you dismiss the control/ego issues for clubs in the Columbia area [which many believe is much easier said than done], I think you have an issue concerning common aspirations.

You have to ask yourself which clubs have board members/DOC’s that wake up each morning and ask themselves how they’re going to help their clubs better compete on a regional and national level. I’ve not seen evidence of that from any club except CSC [and please note that I’m not affiliated in any way, shape, or form with CSC or any other Columbia club – this is just the view from the outside].

This isn’t a criticism of the other clubs. CRSA seems more focused on providing lower costs and more convenience through local competition – an admirable stance if that’s what most people want/need in the area it serves. NECSA and Lexington seem more focused on convenience and recreational soccer. Again – an admirable stance if that’s what most people want/need in the area they serve. These clubs seem to make a choice to focus on this rather than expend resources on higher levels of competition.

My guess is that there are very few parents who have children playing in these clubs that want to change the status quo – and that these clubs are responding to that. Those players/parents that want more training and more competition tend to opt out of the local area system as early as possible if it is feasible and end up with the strongest team or club that they can find. Increasingly, in the Columbia area this is CSC – and outside of that Greenville or Charlotte.

I hope I’m wrong about interest in a Columbia merger. If I’m wrong, I sure hope that someone will tell me I’m wrong and explain it. Better yet, I hope that they will show me I’m wrong by taking Mr. Crosby up on his offer. But I’m not holding my breath.

I hope you will be proven wrong, as well, MC. I have heard rumors that there may be another merger to our west: Aiken Soccer Club is considering a big merger between Augusta Arsenal, Columbia County, and maybe another club. They would play out of Aiken, so it would be a SC club. I just hope that Cola area clubs can come together and at least start with the older age groups U-15 up, with the goal set before them to primarily produce regional-caliber teams. Here's how it can happen........1) Plenty of fields between Lex./CSC and plenty of quality coaching/instruction between NECSA,CRSA/CSC. Sure, you may have to travel across town once a week for practice and then practice a couple of times a week on your own side. But if you wanta play quality ball, it beats the trip and time to Greenville. And at a high level of soccer, don't we all travel a good bit anyway? So, location cannot be a factor to not consider merger. 2) Egos?? Control?? I think the DOCs now should understand that quality and successful soccer should be the over-riding factor, and not fear loss of any control or prestige. Control of what? Its a kids game. Its their game, not yours or mine. 3)Lets create a local soccer environment that encourages and promotes the ability for area boys/girls to be the best they want to be. For so long there has been such a division of the talent pool in Cola. that the guys have been denied the ability to progress to the highest level. A few area teams have for sure, done well in the past years -NECSA Galaxy, Storm. But those were too infrequent. The area then began to lose players to GFC, St. Giles and that continues. We need now a concerted effort to produce a high level environment to train and instruct here in Columbia. The offer from Crosby is there to consider soccer fans/clubs. If our northern capital friend, Raleigh, can do it with CASL, then lets go for it here. The guys/gals deserve it and if it is built (the new club),as they say, then they will come.....