Beezer: Actually, I was simply observing the way I tend to look at multi-year (or multi-event) data. I have a tendency to use objective data, i.e., head-on-head competition, state challenge cup finalist/wins, tournament levels and finishes, goal differentials, and so on. I tend not to trust subjective data too much.
I also don't know what the data shows at this age group; it's far outside that that I typically pay much attention to. I don't coach in this age group, nor do I have any relatives that play in the age group.
You appear to have a deep and abiding interest in the gender and age group; I was simply pointing out that you might want to analyze the data not simply for a three year average but also look to see if any trends are apparent. There may or may not be.
Lastly, I'll try to explain using a real-life example of CESA and Bridge. If I take the last two years in the boys group, ages U15 through U18, I could say that CESA was dominant because they won five of eight state challenge cups with Bridge winning only two and NECSA winning one. However, if I look at "accleration" I see that CESA won four of their five in 2004 and in 2005 won only one; while Bridge won two in their first year of existence. Thus, I'd have to conclude objectively that Bridge is accelerating faster than CESA in that group of teams.
Now -- it may very well be that this is a statistical anomoly (e.g., Bridge got lucky, CESA had players with broken big toes, etc.) -- I'm sure these things can be endlessly debated -- but drilling down into data at more than an average level can at least allow one to examine trends to which otherwise one might be blind.
Again...not sure what the trends are in this gender/age...just a thought that springs to mind unbidden any time someone presents multi-year averages.
