SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP Proper Pronunciation

Well, it's been around for several months now and everywhere I go I hear a different pronunication of CESA. I have heard SAY-SUH, SEE-SUH, and my favorite, the dreaded KAY-SUH, which reminds me of the cheese on my taco. I have even heard SESS-SUH, which in contrary to public belief, is not short for the description of the bathrooms at the MESA fields. So, in order for me to sleep at night and to bring some uniformity into my life, what the heck do I call this soccer club?

CESA: Pronounced "ranked #20 nationally and #5 in region III by gotSoccer.com." (Just saw this while benchmarking clubs over at this site...)

I've only heard it pronounced with a long "e" and a short "a".

Come on Mark. You must be spending too much on the CESA board not to hear all the variations. And by the way, CESA hasn't done that much yet (other than combine two clubs that hated one another) to jump up into the national rankings. I take that back. The fees for everything have gone up. Hmmmm......

Cornerflag: I personally haven't heard multiple pronunciations since tryouts -- and I thought that the pronunciation was clear probably because I keep hearing CESA teams scream "CESA" before each half and keep hearing coaches, kids, and parents talk about CESA at practice. But if you say it exists, then I believe you -- I was just answering your direct question truthfully from my perspective. I will ask to put something on the web site under a FAQ section on pronunciation.

Let's move on to the larger issues you raise. Isn't it interesting how difficult it is to appreciate what you have -- instead, there's something about the human condition that causes us to focus upon what we think we don't have? I think that we have a tremendously different perspective on the difficulty of the task of simply "combining" two clubs.

I live in the midstate -- and as I [and others] have repeatedly said on this message board for going on two years, I sure do wish that some clubs in the midstate would "not do much" in the same way that CESA has in terms of merging competitive clubs. For example, I'd love to have the choice among several clubs within a 100 mile radius of Columbia that were making a viable effort to compete regionally and nationally at a club level.

In terms of other issues you raise:

1) MeSA bathrooms. Absolutely agreed, MeSA needs permanent bathrooms instead of portables as fast as possible. Not exactly a new issue caused by the formation of CESA as I understand it, but that in no way diminishes its importance. There is no higher priority in terms of capital spending than the MeSA building. I've been told that the contractor has been re-engaged and is lining up to re-start construction; I know that there are no longer any financial issues in the way of restarting construction -- and it was the combined resources of CESA overall that allowed any financial issues to be overcome.

2) Fees. See #1. In the end, however, fees are set competitively with what other clubs charge for services -- and as you know, fees different drastically for the service of the club that you're using [e.g., recreation versus premier play, etc.]. If you think that CESA's fees are out of line with competitive clubs, please -- private message me with the data and I'd be more than happy to try to understand it and communicate it to others if the fees are inappropriate. I've benchmarked a number of other clubs and CESA appears to be competitive; but I could always be missing something.

3) Clubs hating each other. I understand rivalries, but I don't understand how an abstract entity such as a "club" hates. In the end, it has to be either the coaches, players, or parents who hate other coaches, players, or parents. Perhaps you can explain it more personally -- who do you hate and why? If it's not you, who do you know who hates someone and why do they hate them?

I am sooo disappointed. Here I am, trying to make jovial context of the mispronunciations of "CESA" (one of them has to be wrong), and all you want to do is be straight forward and serious. I guess that my attempt to be like laplageauxfolles with the humorous wit falls way short.

So, I guess that I have to throw away the humorous Cornerflag for now and put on my serious face. Hold on a sec...

OK, where were we...

The last thing that I want to do is have a repeat of the "CESA Formation" discussion that we had a few months back, although it might be fun now that CESA actually has some substance and is no longer theory. But since you numbered some items and put them out there I must oblige you and answer them.

1) No argument or really a need to discuss other than to say that the bathrooms are LONG overdue.

2)I don't have the fee structure for neighboring clubs or clubs similar to CESA. My comment wwas about raising the fees for everything at too high of a rate. Four years ago classic training fees for St. Giles were $40 for the coach. Now, it is 80 for premier and 70 for challenge. Now you are obviously a smart guy and can do the math but that is a 100 percent increase in 4 years or 25 percent a year. Tournament (both classic and rec) grow at an alarming rate. And no, the services provided are no different. At least none that can be seen. I'm sure that you can pull some statistic out somewhere where that is normal or in line with another club, but when prices increase dramatically and there is not a known or seen return, it usually doesn't make a person happy. Let's get off the money subject shall we...

3)We could spend a lot of time defining the word "hate" but the simple fact was that overall, these two clubs did not like one another. Most of it stems from the competition form Hyslop and Tormey. Neither one of them will ever admit it, but their coaching staffs absolutely hated to lose to one another and it wasn't because of a friendly rivalry. Being from Columbia, you obviously didn't see it, but ask people who knew both clubs and if they are honest, they will say that GFC and St. Giles were essentially enemies of one another. I know that one GFC coach told his players "Better dead than red!" in refernece to St. Giles. St. Giles coaches used to say how lousy the organization and coaching was at GFC. It's kind of funny seeing people who used to "hate" Hyslop or Tormey, now praise them. I will give them credit for putting aside their differences and joining forces, but a short answer to your statement is that yes, the two clubs hated one another. As for me, no, I do not hate GFC or St. Giles, nor do I hate CESA. But do not fool yourself into thinking that every coach in that club likes the other ones from the other side of the fence.

Gotta go. Looking forward to more later.

Cornerflag: Thanks for the comments; I always enjoy reading your posts -- no one can accuse you of being a pollyanna where CESA (or its constitent clubs) is concerned!

You seem to have several basic positions: [1] spend more money faster on facilities [2] charge less in fees than other competitive club to bring fees in line with what they were at one of the clubs 4 years ago [3] [I don't really understand your third point -- it sounds kinda close to "...I don't hate [them], some of my best friends are [those people]..." so I'm going to run away from it as fast as I can.

Not too much left to discuss; however, it might be worth considering that [1] and [2] are correlatable and perhaps even causal [i.e., "a known or seen return".]

Have a great evening and thanks again for the dialogue!

I am sooo disappointed. Here I am, trying to make jovial context of the mispronunciations of "CESA" (one of them has to be wrong), and all you want to do is be straight forward and serious. I guess that my attempt to be like laplageauxfolles with the humorous wit falls way short.

So, I guess that I have to throw away the humorous Cornerflag for now and put on my serious face. Hold on a sec...

OK, where were we...

The last thing that I want to do is have a repeat of the "CESA Formation" discussion that we had a few months back, although it might be fun now that CESA actually has some substance and is no longer theory. But since you numbered some items and put them out there I must oblige you and answer them.

1) No argument or really a need to discuss other than to say that the bathrooms are LONG overdue.

2)I don't have the fee structure for neighboring clubs or clubs similar to CESA. My comment wwas about raising the fees for everything at too high of a rate. Four years ago classic training fees for St. Giles were $40 for the coach. Now, it is 80 for premier and 70 for challenge. Now you are obviously a smart guy and can do the math but that is a 100 percent increase in 4 years or 25 percent a year. Tournament (both classic and rec) grow at an alarming rate. And no, the services provided are no different. At least none that can be seen. I'm sure that you can pull some statistic out somewhere where that is normal or in line with another club, but when prices increase dramatically and there is not a known or seen return, it usually doesn't make a person happy. Let's get off the money subject shall we...

3)We could spend a lot of time defining the word "hate" but the simple fact was that overall, these two clubs did not like one another. Most of it stems from the competition form Hyslop and Tormey. Neither one of them will ever admit it, but their coaching staffs absolutely hated to lose to one another and it wasn't because of a friendly rivalry. Being from Columbia, you obviously didn't see it, but ask people who knew both clubs and if they are honest, they will say that GFC and St. Giles were essentially enemies of one another. I know that one GFC coach told his players "Better dead than red!" in refernece to St. Giles. St. Giles coaches used to say how lousy the organization and coaching was at GFC. It's kind of funny seeing people who used to "hate" Hyslop or Tormey, now praise them. I will give them credit for putting aside their differences and joining forces, but a short answer to your statement is that yes, the two clubs hated one another. As for me, no, I do not hate GFC or St. Giles, nor do I hate CESA. But do not fool yourself into thinking that every coach in that club likes the other ones from the other side of the fence.

Gotta go. Looking forward to more later.

I know that I'm a few bricks shy a load, but were your last two posts identical?

That last post was a screwup. Not sure what happened.