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What happened to the Bridge Gold 92 team? They don't appear to be in league play. The team in U14 appears to be a U13 team playing up.

Bridge 92 Gold girls are not playing in the league this season. They are only doing tournaments in preparation for the R3PL in the Spring. They won the Gold division of the Carowinds tournament last weekend.

I posted this on another thread with no response. I'll try again here.

According to the schedule on the league website, the U14 Girls Challenge Division started last Saturday with a match between LCSC Burn and CESA Challenge, but the results are not posted yet. Anyone know the score?

I don't know that I can agree with not playing in the league...I do understand the whole quality of competition being better at tournaments (in therory). But not seeing or playing against teams you will face at state cup leaves you at a disadvantage.

It didn't work out so well for the MPSC U-14 team last season

SoccerPOP9194: I know that MPSC has a short history of questionable decisions regarding playing in leagues (choosing not to play in RIIIPL-East one time and choosing not to play challenge league this time.) This has not worked out great for them. However, let me take the devil's advocate position for what they seem to be trying to do here.

MPSC is hours away from the rest of the state. The South Carolina challenge league has a very few good teams, and many average and below average teams. If MPSC's goal is to win the state title and compete regionally, then they might take the position that they'd rather have parents spend their money seeing on average better competition in better tournaments than playing in the challenge league.

Their reasoning could be further enforced by the observation that the last few years, there have been quite a few teams that did not play challenge (i.e., they played RIIIPL-East) that won the state challenge title.

This may be where soccer in our state in increasingly heading. It's not really about "super-mega clubs" or whatever they're called -- it's about small groups of players who are much more serious about soccer than they feel those around them in the state are. While it's great winning 277-0, parents start to grumble when they're paying for gas and playing non-competitive teams.

In any case, that's just another possible side to all of this. On the flip side, you've got the "arrogant" CESA who actually has a team [CESA U18 Girls Premier] that is ranked nationally, won state, is playing RIIIPL-East, and is playing in the challenge league as well -- so obviously there are different thoughts and approaches out there.

Chico,

I agree with your thoughts. If your league games are going to require you to drive great lengths to play "average" competition, then it would be best to invest your dollars in finding competitive tournaments. This is quite a commitment but if the team is that talented and the parents are up for it....go for it, good strategy.

As for your comments on the U-18 Girls, the "A" in CESA does not stand for "arrogant" (but the "E" in CESA may stand for "elitist")!

;>)

Hurst....you certainly help me make my point. See other thread regarding the Carowinds Tourney. There are many theories and philosophies. I am baffled by some of the decisions.....are these coaching decisions or are these a combination of parental and coaching decisions. We had a league game today (#2 team for CUFC U17 girls and lost 10-0) guess what? We play the same team again same day. I discussed this with my daughter and she was and is extremely frustrated knowing that this Bridge team is so much better. That is okay because they truly are awesome and I used this opportunity to discuss lifes lessons and explained to my daughter that you can hang your head or you can try even harder in the 2nd game. Oh well, thanks for helping me make my point!!

Big difference between "elite" and "elitist"—with the group Chico ref'd, "elite" is fair since the group has achieved quite a bit—including a great start to premier this season. But this discussion is an interesting consideration of how teams can be successful. It seems that playing weak competition is NOT the key so choosing other avenues besides a realtively weak league (based on a specific team being stronger than what the league can offer) could make sense. I would add that in the past I have noticed that playing too FEW matches (possibly caused by avoiding weak teams) may be more harmful than playing weak teams. I am just guessing, but the CESA U18 girls may have an ambitious fall schedule just for that reason. I think each team has to make these judgments—no one formula is out there. . .

Coach P,

Don't know if you've already found the answer to your question, but I've been told that CESA Challenge u14G beat the Lexington u14G 2-0.