First, let me thank you for weighing in. Second, allow me to post a few thoughts ...
To answer your last question about beating a team 21-0, there is ZERO to gain from this game for either side. I informed the officials upon arrival that this was likely to be very one-sided and to call the game at halftime (both looked at me like, "how do you know it's going to be one-sided?") ... Our starting eleven, only played three minutes and the score was 1-0 when seven of them exited (three defenders and GK remained) ... Three JV call-ups, whom had never scored in a JV match, let alone Varsity ended the night with hat-tricks - there was no one else to play ... We played restriction soccer - had to build wide and serve in with one-touch finish; no dribbling through backline to score, etc. .... There were three own-goals ... To be fair, there was not much else we could do ... The score was 12-0 at half and all starters were bundled in warmups, jackets, blankets and street shoes ... I approached the officials at half expecting the game to be called only to have a fan of the other team lobby the officials to keep playing because he had paid $6 to watch this game ... I was beside myself -- it was cold, our bus had broke down en route and we were hitching a ride back with the softball team who had already won their abbreviated game, and the host team had just cut on the lights five minutes prior to halftime after I had to go in the weightroom to ask someone to cut on the lights because the home team was in all black and we literally could not see them across the field ... The officials yielded to the 'fan' and coach that insisted we continue play.
As for the traditional public school debate ... I have been on both sides .... I witnessed first-hand kids getting off the city bus from Richland One to attend another district's school -- but not for soccer
... We all know countless examples of someone who has property elsewhere and their kids attend, a student-athlete who attends another district school because of IB, culinary, agriculture, etc. classes ... It's a joke and anyone that thinks this is 1980 again, needs to reassess what reality is when it comes to school choice -- whether for band, sports, English, etc. It's here and the toothpaste is out of the tube and not going back in ... I realize that a 'boycott or blackball' of Charter Schools is a 'thing' now and we'll navigate that landscape, but we are just playing by the rules the S.C. Legislature established in the late 1990s -- I was on the 'anti-school choice bill' that the SCHSSCA endorsed back then and went round and round at the State House ... I did not know anything about where my professional future might lie, but know that I got an eye-opening 'what parents want, parents get' lesson from our elected officials and knew change was imminent.
I don't know the answer the question, but would be all for a multiplier that would force Charter/Privates to move up a class, but I'm not sure if that would alleviate the 'forfeits' that come with moving up a division, particularly if the SCHSL won't enforce penalties for this measure. I can remember years ago when a forfeit of any region match for whatever reason, resulted in a forfeit of all region matches, which ultimately meant you were choosing to be 0-8 or 0-10 pending your region and ineligible for the playoffs as a result. Now, it seems you can choose who you want to play even though you are assigned a region to compete in by the governing body.
Another take on this as well is that some of these teams should have to declare that they are going to only field a JV team until they are capable of fielding a competitive or want-to-be-competitive team. If they are going to choose to forfeit it should be clearly stated well in advance so the team receiving the forfeit can schedule in place of that wasted competition.
