>>[Coach Chass] I think you just vocalized something that I've been sort of dancing around on this thread for a while now. The choice that your family made may not be for everyone, but it IS a great thing that the choice exists.
If all of the Lowcountry clubs unite their competitive teams under one banner (regardless of how many teams they field in each division)it would almost certainly create opportunities that were not available before, provided it were properly managed. It would probably result in more competitive teams that could gain more state and national attention. At the same time, if everyone "put aside their egos" and stopped trying to offer alternative, competing teams, it would also eliminate a lot of what many people value--choice.
I believe it's important to create the best possible opportunities for our young athletes--such as giving them the chance to unite under an organization that they trust and believe in, if they so choose--but I don't believe in forcing them to take those opportunities by eliminating their other choices.<<
Respectfully, again, I think that you're offering up another straw man. You are equating a "big club" with "a single club" -- they are fundamentally different concepts.
There are a lot of reasons for clubs -- for kids/parents who value convenience or social soccer over competitive soccer, for example. But going back to the way this thread started, people were asking for one large competitive club. If I've misread this, and there's a belief that the right answer is to create a forced monopoly in an area -- then I'd disagree with that. But then again, trying to force a monopoly is pretty dumb -- because it's relatively easy to start yet another club.
CESA didn't drive out Foothills Premier or CFC or the other clubs in the upstate just as CUFC didn't drive out LCSC or CRSA. What these clubs did was offer an increase in choice in that more kids in more age groups and genders were able to play highly competitive soccer -- if they chose to.
