CESA is Deep. But I am sure all big clubs are deep and many parents feel the same way as you at bigger clubs.
As far as your analysis of the 1st round state cup game, yeah, the score was only 2-0, but shots had to be 15 or 20 to 1. I saw the game and the u14 premier team dominated possession and chances. Also, the challenge team comes to play with nothing to lose and the premier team's mindset coming off a disappointing r3pl season probably was "Why did we put ourselves in this position?". Maybe their play against their challenge brothers was their motivation to win state cup? And everyone says the CESA challenge teams are red-headed step children. The challenge team does have a good back line (it looked like some of the best players were in the back). I personally only saw two or three players from challenge team that could possibly go up. Then the question is, whose spot should they take? The score really only means that the U14 age group at CESA is probably "recruiting" finishers for all levels of teams - lol
There is a good book out there that parents of all kids who play competitive sports should read - "Outliers". The premise of the book is that youth players whose birthdays are just after the cut-off date have the best chance to succeed (i.e. be on the premier/elite teams) because they are physically bigger, stronger and faster than kids whose birthdays are later. This is a generalization, but for the most part, I believe to be true. Case in point, the U14 CESA premier team. If you look at their roster, all the kids have 95 birthdays with only 3 or 4 exceptions which have 96 birthdays. I am sure they are looking at or "recruiting" (if you will) some bigger, stronger, faster, kids to replace those 96 kids even as we discuss it. I personally know one kid's family they asked to come play and he is a big (maybe would be the biggest overall on the team), strong kid who is a 95. Cannot blame the coaches for wanting to make their teams better and generally this means maturity/physical size. Not to say there are not very good small kids out there, but only so many Messi situations.
Good luck with the volunteer asst. coach thing at CESA. I am sure they have a U7 rec team that needs a coach. If that is what you want to do, you need to take your kid to a smaller club. It used to be that at CASA, those asst Clemson coaches that had club teams to supplement their incomes were gone recruiting so much a dad had to take over coaching training and/or games. At least it sounds like you are much more qualified. However, I am sure the parents would complain about you to.
When it comes to your kid, or your allegiance (club or school), the one thing this message board should teach us is that we are all biased - but it sure makes for some great banter
