not sure why anyone would look at it from a "state" point of view. both odp and academy were created for us to improve as a country, to identify players for the national team. i doubt that any player's ultimate goal is to make the "state" team.

maybe in your mind, this "gap" group of players "could have/should have been the incumbent group for the U18 academy" but that is assuming a lot. assuming that there would be no new players from the lowcountry other parts of the state, or new players from outside the state. you are assuming that the players currently on the u16 academy team are the only players that would normally make up the next year's u18 team. does cesa normally use that type of logic when preparing for a new season?

do you ask that "but for" question with everything you do? that's kinda like always asking "what if." i could do that all day long – what if mt pleasant had joined the bridge, what if ssc and bridge were still buddies, what if i had bought stock in microsoft all those years ago. just not sure what the purpose is.

so, with your "leap of faith" comment, you are now questioning the abilities of a coach, who apparently has been fairly successful so far, the abilities of the largest soccer club in the state, which has been fairly successful so far, and the abilities of a group of players (most of which you are assuming will be on this new team), whom have been, according to you, "arguably one of the best teams in SC history." whether you meant to question those or not, you were.

the last part, i gotta say i'm shocked about – you know more details about more soccer-related stuff than most people on this board. yet, it took me approximately 2 minutes to find the org chart for soccer in the united states.

it is located here: http://www.ussoccer.com/about/soccer/index.jsp.html

now, maybe you just didn't want to assume anything about the intricate legalities of the relationships, but i've always been taught that these charts usually go from top to bottom, which, by the looks of it, us soccer is clearly above both usys and us club.