I see all the post about the DA or High School if my son had a choice it would be DA but lucky for his High School there is not room on the DA for him. There also is another problem for players like my son. He is a good player but has not been selected for the DA. He trains and plays at a high level but the problem lies with this. As the DA grows with only one DA team in SC, they select players from different clubs to build the team that the DA coaches feel would be the best options to field a strong competitive team. As the better players usual are pulled from the premier teams which in essence waters down the premier team. When the premier team loses one to two players the team could survive if they can find players to replace the lost talents which is a hit or miss. However if the same premier team gets hit year after year and losing some of the best players to the DA then the Premier team would be left with few options for the remaining players that were not selected for the DA. He could continue to play club but if his team is pulled apart to the point they would not be competitive even at a lower level of play what would you do? He could play up an age group that he could handle but if he was playing in the U18 bracket then what would he do the following year when you would be back to square one. He could change clubs but that would mean driving great distances to practice during school nights. Not play club and join the Adult leagues until college. The options are not looking really good.
DA is as highly competitive soccer that our youth will ever see and I feel that if a player wants to take their soccer to the next level it's a path that should be looked hard into. I just wished that our state could have more than one team but our talent base may not be there just yet to support that but its coming I hope but too late for my son or so it seems.
So bottom line if a player would like to choose HS over DA let us know for my son would gladly fill the empty slot and forgo HS and his HS coach would support my son all the way which he already has stated many times!