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Post deleted by soccer40

Chico,
My comment concerning a 'politically correct promotion' of CESA's successes was another one of my very poor attempts at biting sarcastic wit. I am all for CESA promoting, in whatever fashion they desire, their spectacular accomplishments to date. And in the spirit of competitiveness and club pride CESA has the right to display the comparison of us v. the rest. Maybe the rest need to be awakened from their soccer slumber and work harder to be more competitive club-wide within the state.

Very effective illustration - you know the club's priorities right up front.

One interesting thing in looking at the Bridge, CESA, and CUFC web sites is that Bridge and CUFC went with Demosphere. I think that Carolina FC in Spartanburg also went with Demosphere. Several years ago, when I last looked at Demosphere, I thought it cost on the order of $1000+ per month which I thought was a little high even though the technology was nice.

Is anyone in the state using Blue Sombrero? I think these guys do the CASL web site (among others.)

I forgot who SCYSA went with but remember from the SCYSA meeting notes that it seemed like they had a good bit budgeted for the web site as well. Then again, the SCYSA did a great thing in also moving to the electronic publications which I believe was costing them something on the order of $30K per year -- so whatever they spent on the new web site seems worth it given the lack of quality of the old one and the electronic newsletter format.

Anyone out there know if that's correct or if my memory is (once again) failing me?

The new website looks great. Up to date and very informative. The "red & black balls" versus the "white & black balls" is a very creative illustration and really hammers home the point. Does it elicit a negative reaction from other clubs? Does CESA care? I don't know.

Picture this. On a "down year", another SCYSA club team beats a CESA team for the state cup championship. The winning team goes wild on the field. Players are bouncing up and down on the CESA logo at the center circle. The parents run to the goals and tear down the nets. The team gathers beneath the scoreboard for a team picture under the scoreboard which reads Us 1, CESA 0.

How do the CESA parents, coaches and administrators react? Do they say "look at those @$$holes...jumping up and down like fools."? Do they become angry? Are they upset at this display which they may interpret as being "anti-CESA"? Is the winning club out of bounds for acting like they just won the World Cup?

Seems to me that a lot of clubs will take satisfaction in knocking off Big Red. CESA, by the very acronym of the three words that now appear at the bottom of their new logo, is the 900 pound gorilla.

And everybody gets a kick out of it when David slays Goliath.

Hurst66: From what I understand, we're already living in your scenario. I was told that when the CESA U16G team lost in the state championship, that the behavior ran along the same lines as your description. That's not a criticism of any other club; I just think that the victory is "extra sweet" when it's against CESA. I was also at some younger games this year in challenge league where CESA was beaten by a South Carolina team and you'd have thought that the team had just won the world cup.

As you say, I think it's natural for most people to cheer for the underdog. I never have -- I've always cheered for the team I perceived as working harder in practice and in games (note: another of my biases is that I love hard-working character-oriented people/teams more than relatively less hard-working people/teams.) But I think I'm in the minority on this.

In any case, I personally think it's smart of CESA to do what the other clubs do and promote their success. The fact is that in South Carolina right now CESA typically is the target for other teams/clubs. CESA trying to ignore that fact won't make it go away. And while there is added pressure on CESA due to the attention, it's a relatively small thing versus what their ambitions truly are -- to be consistently ranked as a top national team.

I'm hoping that here in the Columbia area that CUFC will continue to promote itself (e.g., web site, billboards, etc.) as club for elite players. I hope that CRSA and LCSC will continue to promote their results for their top teams in challenge league play. I hope that CESA-Columbia will continue to grow their relationship with SOAR and other recreation clubs to get more kids involved in soccer. And I hope Lower Lexington just increasingly grows!

Chico,

I agree 100%. All successful competitive clubs toot their own horn and promote their own acheivements because there's no one else to do it for them. It's the nature of the beast.

When Nick Finotti had his run at Northwestern his team (and school) received tremendous press coverage the weeks of the state final. If Nick wins a USYSA national championship with a CESA boys team, he would never see the same coverage in the Greenville paper. It's safe to say he would receive much more coverage in the Greenville paper for just reaching a state final with Riverside than he ever would if he won a national championship with a club team.

CESA, and all clubs, have to self-promote. Stacking up the balls to show "Us vs. Them"....that's creative, but some might take it as a slap in the face.

SCYSA uses Demosphere for the league portions of the site.
I do not know who is hosting the main site

CFC and Bridge I believe also use Demosphere which is anywhere between $1000-1500.

As far as the bulls eye on CESA's back..... why not???, to me it was earned and actually shows up as a sign of respect (with loathing and jealousy included). Not everyone likes to see the Dallas Cowboys win...or Chelsea or whoever...this is part of sports.

As far as going wild on the field, it depends... if the win was at a state playoff game why not (although Hurst's example is a bit extreme).

From first hand account, I know many CESA players, coaches and parents, some are models of sporting behavior some are horses *sses. And I am certain that other clubs have the same. So people in glass houses should not throw rocks.

Lastly, I am all for pointing out to the world how good we are and think the website's choice to show the history is great. Why not, it is true... no lie or skewed numbers. This world is gotten too politically correct.

You play the game to win, I expect to win and I want to win. CESA should not pull the graphic, the rest of us should look at it every day and try to figure out how to make the white balls columm get bigger. On the boys side, the last couple of years has shown a little change, time to work onthe girls side.

Chico, Demosphere costs $150 / month. There are additional charges that are incurred when members use a credit card to register online, but the added service is worth the (relatively small) cost.

Carolina FC used Blue Sombrero for one year, and whilst it did not work out for us, I believe they are on the right track. (CFC was one of their first clients, and we basically proved to be a testing ground for them!)

Holy poo!—I was out of town during this thread—at a TEACHER'S CONFERENCE—

So—You can't award teachers for improvement BECAUSE:

(1) any test is always a test of everything that a student has experienced up to that test (blaming any one teacher or awarding any one teacher is a false award, therefore)

(2) if a teacher has very bright students with high achievement it is natural NOT to see improvements BUT low achieving students can show HUGE improvements while still having an absolute score that is far below the hypothetical high achieving students

(3) I am not comfortable with the teacher analogy BUT I have to concede that soccer licenses and teacher licenses share one thing—they don't ASSURE expertise—

And—finally—I like the CESA site—and the many references in this thread about horror movie music themes—Nice stuff—

Now—who is the best player in the state. . .

[And, Chico, any comment about consolidating soccer clubs as that compares to consolidating school districts?]