Coach Pelton, to try and answer your earlier question as to what might be the enticement for staying in the Academy for a high school sophomore who has already committed to a particular college; I would say if that high school sophomore wanted to keep his scholarship money (assuming he has been offered some amount) and/or wishes to still have his name on that team's roster come freshman year at that college, then that's (some of) the enticement he's looking at. Any offer from a college to a high school player I would assume has to be dependent on that player continuing to develop until they enter that college.

The following is of course an extreme example, but let's say a high school sophomore has verbally committed to college X, and the coach of college X has verbally committed to giving this player a half-scholarship to his school. Now let's say this player figures, "heck, I am IN, why should I keep busting my tail?" He then quits is regular team and joins rec league. (my apologies if anything in my example is considered any kind of violation)

Not knowing exactly what kind of situation you were thinking about, maybe you were thinking of a kid who was not playing Academy at the time he committed to this college, and you're asking what would be the enticement to start playing Academy. I do know of one player who committed to a Division I school whose coach basically told him he would be playing Academy his senior year in high school. There is another who is also committed to a Division I school who was "highly encouraged" to play Academy (to what extent, I'm not sure, but he is currently playing Academy). Not sure if that answered your question or not.

Coach DeLong, regarding your comment "You can't tell me that Wando kids didn't benefit more from winning 20+ they did versus playing in an academy league in which they have a .500 or losing record." How much do you think these players benefitted from a 5-0 win over James Island, an 8-1 win over West Ashley and a 9-0 win over Goose Creek? I would think not a whole lot. The second and third stringers probably got a good bit of playing time in those games, though.

IH, regarding your comment about player development, and "do you really get any better playing a bunch of scoreless draws?" The U16s have had no scoreless matches this season, while the U18s have had 4 (out of 23). Three of these were against IMG, CASL Chelsea and Concorde Fire, all very good squads. And, as my son is a defender, if we can keep those teams to zero goals, I am perfectly happy with that.

Coach J, keep in mind that this season, the SC United FC Academy team will play 28 matches. Using the low end of Happy's estimate (40%, although he is talking minutes, while I am using games) that is 11 matches, which is the number of matches the cesa 92 boys played in their entire regular season of premier league.

Coach DeLong, I'd be more than happy to share with you my experiences with the Academy over the past three years; all you have to do is ask. And if I bump into you at Montreux again sometime, I'll even buy the next round.