I don't get it. I don't understand at all.....why you guys are so negative about this. I looked around....and there are over 150 high schools in SC playing soccer. If each school has 15 varsity players rostered thats 2250 boys playing high school in this state.

There are maybe 35-40 kids that this effects. So 35-40 kids out of no less than 2250. This truly effects 1% of the kids statewide.

And I guarantee that any high school with Academy players...the coaches are probably cutting 10-20 kids before the season even starts.

There will be no perceptible drop in the level of high school soccer. And kids who would have beeen roster cuts will get the chance to play. And whats wrong with that?

So whats the problem? Lets be honest with ourselves!!

This is absolutely about choice. So let it be at choice and let the chips fall where they will.

Coach Chass....regarding your proposal.....how do you expect to roster a team when kids may be there and they may not be there? Its like Boris Yeltsin said of Mikhail Gorbachev...he called him his old friend, a lover of half measures. You end up satisfying no one with plans like that.

School football and basketball don't conflict so if a kid wants to do both he can. Club soccer and school basketball DO conflict. Kids that want to do both.....can't, unless at least one of the coaches bends over backwards. 99% of those kids.....have to make a choice.

10 month Academy won't effect 99% of the kids who roster a HS team. Shouldn't even be an issue. For the 1% that it does effect, they have a decision to make. Their decision.

I really don't know what you guys want. Soccer would be wonderful in this country if only.......it were free, the best athletes played, we developed an Amercian model, we copied the best of the European model, kids went pro out of high school, kids went to college after high school, kids had American heroes who were soccer players, the game were on TV all the time, soccer players made NBA level salaries, etc etc.

How about this?

Soccer will get better in this country when more kids play at any level...and when the elite player gets elite levels and quantities of training.

I love it.....when I see more and more classic level soccer and recreational soccer programs in my area. The growth of kids playing in York COunty at this level......is WAY higher than it was 6-8 years ago, and I find that awesome!!!

And I love it....when I see American kids that live and breathe the game.....get the kind of training and repetition that will allow them to maybe...maybe....compete a few years from now with kids from Mexico or Spain or Argentina or Ireland.