Regardless of CPL anger or a belief in future clubs ability to take their spot as the home for the strongest teams, let’s look at some facts:
Before DSC pulled out for NPL/ ECNL, before SCUFC pulled out for ECNL, before USA/MP pulled out for NPL- USA/MP won all but 1 State Championship on the boys side ( Fall 2018 - Spring 2019 ). They were one of 2 clubs in our entire country to have a boys team in every age group of National League ( not Piedmont league - actual National League ). The only other was Scott Gallagher. USA/MP sent 2 boys teams to the National Championship & have even won a National Championship in the past two years.
Hate em or love em.. the staff at USA/MP have more experience at the top of our state & region then any other LC staff. The fact that they pulled their top teams out of the piedmont league to play in the NPL says it all.
GPS NASA who are up & coming did the same thing. Think they would be doing so to play in a second tier region league? That ones easy- they wouldn’t.
Its not that simple. Remember, the Piedmont, in this case is TEAM based. The NPL is CLUB based. The advantage for the NPL clubs is obvious, they get a seat at the table at every age group. In the USYS system, each team is in based on its own merit. Therefore, a weak team for a club may not make it.
I believe GPS Lexington SA 04 Gold was the only team from SC in the National league last year.
USA/MP NPL teams would likely have done better in the Piedmont than the teams they sent, but if these are the teams that will move to SCCL next year, anyone that thinks that league will automatically be superior to the Piedmont cannot be taken seriously.To summarize how their teams did in the much easier Piedmont:
U13 No team entered
U14 second to last (#9 of 10)
U15 Last place (#10 of 10)
U16 Last place (#8 of 8)
U17 Last place (#8 of 8)
U18 No team entered
U19 Last place (#10 of 10)
It is what it is.
