SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP Isn't competition good?

Most people who ascribe to at least a basic belief in capitalism agree to the basic premise that competition is good. That the comsumer benefits with less expensive, better quality, better technology products....when there is
competition.

I know I'm painting in extremely broad brushes, so bear with me. But how does that basic concept work for youth soccer in South Carolina, which I'm finding to be a very non-competitive state soccer wise? I'm not talking about how our best teams fare when competing with NC or GA. I'm talking our leagues.....I'm talking about why in my sons age group there are only 8 teams and 3 of them come from CESA.

You could take virtually every age group in the State.....and the story is the same: Bridge and CESA. With the odd age group here or there you get a Mount Pleasant..a CUFC, thats about it. Where is the depth?

Yes, but leadership for the smaller clubs is hard to find. It is easier to get 15 players to play then it is to find a coach and board members willing to put in the time. Parents would rather pay the bills, run their mouths and drop off their kids then to take responsibility for things. Just a fact....

No. Not always. Narrow assumption of capitalism.

what age groups and levels are we talking about?

U13-U18 Challenge / R3PL

Just kidding.....a little. Look at the '92 girls/'93 girls;
92-93-94 boys.

By my count, there are 31 92/93 girls select teams playing from/in SC this season. Here is the breakdown by club:

CESA – 5
Lexington – 4
CUFC – 3
Bridge FA – 2
CUSC - 2
CRSA – 2
Carolina FC – 2
Aiken – 2
Coast FA – 2
SAA
Mt Pleasant
N. Augusta
Summerville
Blue Crab United
ASA
USA

Predictably, 24 of the 31 (77%) are based in the 3 largest metro areas:

Columbia/W Cola/Lexington – 9
Greenville/Spartanburg/Anderson – 9
Charleston/Summerville – 6
Elsewhere - 7

Note: These numbers include only 92 and 93 teams. They do not include the 94 teams that are playing up.

Coach P,

I bought an HP computer a few years ago. Not long after that....I bought a generic computer for my daughter from a friend who decided to start building PC's as a hobby.

I wouldn't think HP or Dell would consider my buddy a competitor, even tho both sold me a computer that worked pretty well.

Top 2 U13 girls teams? Bridge and CESA. Top 2 U13 boys teams? Bridge and CESA. Top 2 U14 boys teams......Bridge and CESA. Top 2 U14 girls teams.....Bridge and CESA.

Anything can always happen.......but the odds of anyone winnning a State cup outside of that group is slim and none, with the maybe exception of U13 girls, seeing as CESA is playing at U14.

The breadth and depth of competition is lacking.....in the U13 boys challenge 3 of the 8 teams are CESA. Mount Pleasant and Bridge make up 2 more. Outside of Charleston and Greenville in this whole state.....there are 3 teams?

BD,
To go beyond your last post,in the 13 boys you have the 5 teams you mentioned along with Spartanburg and Coastal. That leaves one Columbia team which is currently winless. What gives in Cola.?

Big Daddy,
Not disagreeing, just listing the make-up of the teams. The most competitive teams are the ones that have comsolidated the best talent, for the most part, from across one of the 3 largest metro areas. That consolidation has not happened as well in the Columbia area for these 2 age groups as it has in Charleston and Greenville. At these girls' age groups, the top talent in the Columbia area is spread out over 3 clubs. For the older age groups, it is more consolidated which resulted in Columbia area girls teams making it to 3 of the 4 Challenge Cup finals in December.

A trend that I have seen over the years with girls in the Columbia area is that the younger teams tend to be locally oriented. (This may be true for boys, as well, but my familiarity is with the girls’ side.) The players who live in the Lexington or West Columbia areas tend to play for CRSA or LCSC while those from the other areas play for Columbia United. My observations on this are that it is for the convenience of the parents who don’t want to drive across town for practices. As the girls get older and can drive, the better players migrate toward the better teams regardless of where those teams are based. The Columbia United merger has done quite well in consolidating talent from the Columbia areas outside of Lexington/West Columbia, but there is still quite a bit of talent dilution due to the isolation of that part of the metro area.

To illustrate this point, I believe there are only two girls out of over 45+ playing U13/U14 for Columbia United who are from the Lexington/West Columbia area. On the older teams there is a much higher percentage of Lexington/West Columbia players, particularly at the U17 and U18 levels.

Apparently CESA and Bridge have come closer to overcoming this location/convenience issue at the younger age groups than has been done in the Columbia area.

>>[Big Daddy] Where is the depth?<<

Without blaming anyone or any organization, the fundamental problem is that South Carolina does not have enough youth soccer players, and the numbers over the last few years are not promising.

According to the SCYSA (kudos to them for publishing this information), its total number of players from 2005-2006 dropped by 2.3%. The upstate was the only district that grew at a rather small 1.8%; the midstate lost players at a 3.41% clip while the lower state lost players at a 7.35% clip.

According to the SCYSA board reports I've seen over the last few years, the number of SCYSA-affiliated players has dropped from north of 18,000 to approximately 14,400.

Kids, Familes, AMERICANS, love competition. Take away that element too much in place of "Development" and you'll start to loose interest and players. Keep the competitive nature high and winners will come and stay. It's really very simple!

Gotta be more specific Chico. I don't think any of the rec leagues around here register their kids with AYSO or SCYSA or anyone.

The problem isn't getting 4-7 year olds playing, because they are.....by the bushel basket. The problem is in keeping 8-11 year olds playing. Particularly the talented ones.

An example for solving the problem is the CESA Academy program. You want to increase your U13 challenge teams by 50%? You better find a way to keep U8-U9 kids playing at an appropriate competitive level. Good training, good competition, etc.

Instead of SCYSA worrying about fields.....they need to figure out how to FIELD teams outside of Greenville, Charleston, and Columbia.

Otherwise.......not sure exactly what it is that the rest of the state offers Bridge and CESA. Looking at the creativity of the CESA folks.......if I were SCYSA I'd be worried about them developing an alternate competitive model outside of the status quo. Then what?

Can we all say Sandlapper?

>>[Big Daddy] Gotta be more specific Chico.<<

I'm going to let you and others carry the torch on this for a while.

I'm getting bored with myself for endlessly talking about the shortcomings of some of the organizations responsible for promoting and developing youth soccer; thus, after a few postings tonight to clean things up I'm going to take a sabbatical from that subject for a while. I'd rather put more time and energy into helping the organizations making a positive difference.

Don't disagree with anything you said above, however.