SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP Youth Southern Regional scores and updates

One other note on the Aiken Fire - a lot of the guys came over and watched the SC CESA U17G versus NTX Dallas Texans - it was great support - best of luck to Aiken today -- win it all!!!

Beezer & Chico -- excellent posts today! Thanks for the dialogue.

Chico:

U19 Aiken? If they are the original team, my bad. I just figured, like all over the country, U19 teams are usually teams where former players bring back new college teammates for one last run. I don't know U19 Aiken that well so if I spoke out of turn, apologies to them.

Money-making? Adding a quarterfinal round and a U14 age group was more enticing for the host city/state association due to extra teams and nights of hotels/income for a bigger kick-back, which host cities/associations do get.

X:

You're right. It was 12 teams (just State Cup winners) with 3 group winners and a WC. Still, 1) only 33% advanced 2) now, more revenue with four more teams per age group AND 3)an age group was added at U14 not long ago. In short, money is a factor.

Congrats, CESA U17G, for a successful season, though it fell short of what you all hoped for. A third-place finish in PLIIIE (with a shot at the #1 spot in the last match), fewest goals allowed in PL, state championship, and a quarter finals loss (1-0) to the #1 team in the nation. Heart breaking at the end, but a joy to watch this ride.

I would like to see a group such as the scsoccer.com super22 train and play together as a team someday. Any thoughts on how such a group might fare in Region play? How might these kids stack up given enough time to actually become a team? (Would this just be ODP without politics?)

>>[purpleandyellow] Congrats, CESA U17G [...]<<

Something kind of interesting. This CESA U17G team lost in the Disney finals to Spirit United Gaels [PA]. Just saw that the Gaels won the region 1 championship and are going to nationals.

CESA's U17G team has been ranked as a top 20 team nationally for a while now...seems to be just a break or two away from being a top 4-5 team.

>>[Beezer] 1) Are we moving toward achieving more regional finalists and champions faster than the other states or are we falling further and further behind?

Response: Very slowly forward but with a limit. Individual clubs are doing great, like CESA and in time Bridge FA. However, they need competition from the entire state not just every fourth match every two weeks. Even Premier League is 10-12 matches, over months, which in the development picture isn't enough.<<

Very difficult to disagree with your point here...it seems spot on.

My only comment would be that what I'm beginning to see is that at least at CESA there's enough "critical mass" so that most teams can get really good scrimmage-level competition from other teams within the club -- with the exception probably being at the oldest boys age brackets. And what I'm seeing are the formation of informal inter-state club alliances that lead to more scrimmaging among more top teams in the region.

However, "more better" soccer in SC is absolutely needed.

>>2) What I saw yesterday before I left Little Rock was a SC team that played the #1 ranked nationally ranked team.

Response: Soccer is soccer. A SC will play well here and there against the best. We need day in and day out teams and, more importantly, players competing like this.<<

Again, agreed...great point.

>>3) On the other hand, I read your post and wonder what your agenda must be to disregard the improvement that SC appears to be making.

Response: By no means am I disregarding SC soccer, I live here, coach here, recognize attempts (like CESA, Bridge) and want to help as much as anyone get kids the opportunities some kids are getting in top states/regions.<<

Absolutely understood...

>>4) So, taking your "argument" at face value -- and I agree with your premise that SC wasn't good enough in June to be in the national pool and has never been with only a few incredibly rare exceptions -- what is your prescription for improving the performance of SC in future "June's"?

Response: My prescription is to have 1) a committee of top soccer coaches (club, college) to 2) appoint a full-time DOC and then 3) serve as his technical group and work closely in making all soccer/development decisions like league formation, training environments/curriculum and, of course ODP restructuring.

In addition, I believe the ODP pools, in this state, should be year round teams that play under a club (or maybe a SCYSA-formed Columbia club just for that matter) and play Premier League and/or US Club. Does the mean seperating and catering to the elite? YES. Decisions for the majority doesn't develop the minority, the best! You can still have SCYSA leagues for the other clubs/teams and they'll only play one another in State Cup. If the elite teams win, then it should (CESA is now almost doing that). If the elite teams don't win then things are advancing maybe. But this way the best players are guaranteed to play and train together with top coaches.

The most important thing is the top players train, at least, 3 times a week in Columbia (central location) and move around on weekends when there's not matches. With so few top, top players, they need to be in the same environment constantly.

I know this all seems drastic and different, and there's probably a better chance of seeing SCYSA brass (like Mary Bynum) juggling 3 times, but it's needed. Get rid of administrators making soccer decisions and allow that to the best soccer people. South Carolina needs thorough and wholesale change!<<

I will say that while I don't have the expertise to critique this...what I really like is that it recognizes that change is needed for SC to offer its best players more opportunities and services.

Looking at the SCYSA board minutes for the last few months, it appears that they are looking at spending a great deal of money to build facilities in the Columbia area. As someone that lives in this area, that sounds great to me -- although I do wonder what all of the paying members of the SCYSA not in the Columbia area think. In any case, perhaps SC only has enough money to offer a single centralized training facility for ODP (unlike Georgia, in which there are distributed training centers run by the state.) That's a problem for drawing in economically disadvantaged kids -- but any change to try to do better would be welcome. What I hope is that the SCYSA can get in and enact better services for its members as quickly as possible.

>>[Beezer] U19 Aiken? If they are the original team, my bad. I just figured, like all over the country, U19 teams are usually teams where former players bring back new college teammates for one last run. I don't know U19 Aiken that well so if I spoke out of turn, apologies to them.<<

Sorry...sometimes I assume that everyone knows about the Aiken Fire -- one of two teams that have ever won regionals from SC. Every kid I saw on the U19 Aiken team I recognized from earlier Aiken Fire teams. This is a great example of a one-off group of kids, parents, and coaches who have done a wonderful job of getting their kids what they wanted from a soccer perspective and they've all built a great team.

>>Money-making? Adding a quarterfinal round and a U14 age group was more enticing for the host city/state association due to extra teams and nights of hotels/income for a bigger kick-back, which host cities/associations do get.

x: You're right. It was 12 teams (just State Cup winners) with 3 group winners and a WC. Still, 1) only 33% advanced 2) now, more revenue with four more teams per age group AND 3)an age group was added at U14 not long ago. In short, money is a factor.<<

I tend to look at money first because of my background. And I do think money is a factor (I'm still honestly trying to figure out where the $40+ a night per player for a hotel room went over and above the hotel's normal rate.)

However, it's my humble opinion that while a factor, the primary reasoning for having two go through per group and adding a younger age bracket was demand from players (and their parents) and a desire to give more teams a chance. But then again, I might just be an optimist here...

>>[who_me?] I would like to see a group such as the scsoccer.com super22 train and play together as a team someday. Any thoughts on how such a group might fare in Region play? How might these kids stack up given enough time to actually become a team? (Would this just be ODP without politics?)<<

The core problem with the Super 22 as an ODP alternative is that it's selected from the perspective of high school play. Please don't get me wrong -- I'm sure that all of these players are wonderful -- but the selection criteria isn't the same as ODP or any other open tryout-based group.

There are truly gifted players -- and I would argue players that are among the top 22 in the state -- who are not on the Super 22 -- either because they play outside of a SC high school league while living in SC, because they chose not to play high school and instead focus on college competition, or simply because their high school teams are not competitive enough.

I keep reading about the "politicization" of ODP and I have to admit that I just don't get it. In my experience, on the girls side, the ODP coaches do a pretty credible job of selection. Yes, you can argue about the girls on the "bubble" (what I consider to be the lower 1/3) as you can with any selection process, but it's really hard to argue with the players that constitute the majority of the team.

Do the best players play in ODP? While there are clear exceptions, from what I've seen the answer is typically "yes" -- again, on the girls side.

I'd personally rather see us do a better job of training within the ODP structure and making it more open in terms of financial aid as a first priority rather than spending a lot of time and energy changing the selection process. But again, I understand that this is just one person's opinion...

Chico My question was badly worded. Your point on the super22 is taken, it was just a list I had been looking at a few minutes earlier. What I was trying to ask for was peoples opinions on how a team comprised of our top SC players with enough time together to play as a team would fare. Are SC top players on par with other states?

Re: Politics (if any)in ODP. I think the perception of a problem stems from there not being a lot of people who know how teams are formed. Add to this that some club coaches are not supporters, others are. Money is also an issue. I don't think there are any back room deals being made, but several posters have implied that we may not be fielding the strongest teams we could. I don't know. I would just like to get to the point a few years from now where kids from Texas are nervous about playing a SC squad.