SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP South Carolina club soccer is decadent and depraved....

with all apologies to HST......

Can the state of soccer in SC be any worse or any more boring? Not so long ago.......state cups were up for grabs for the St Giles and GFC's and CSC's and NECSA's and Mount Pleasants and Lexington's....with every once in awhile a once a decade team popping up in an Aiken or a Rock Hill.

Then consolidation started.......first with GFC-St Giles, then Bridge, then Columbia United. Then the Academy program started....which indirectly led to the merger, for lack of a better word, of Bridge and COlumbia United.

So what is left in SC, competitively? CESA wins every state cup, in every age group, in every gender. Kids from Mount Pleasant, Columbia, and York County going to Greenville to play. Which maybe wouldn't be so bad......if the net result was a collection of dominating teams. But thats really not the case. Take the u17 boys.....to win State Cup, CESA had to beat SCU's 2nd team, 3rd team, and then their own 2nd team. Every game......a 1 goal game. Not just that age group.....everything seems to be sliding towards mediocrity.

Where are the rivalries? Where is the pride and good natured smack talking on this forum? Most everyone would agree that competition......is the catalyst for the processes that result in improvement. The desire to win, the desire to avoid losing, the burning for championships.....is what fuels the hard work and the passion and the sacrifices....that ultimately forges winners.

In my opinion, that has all been lost in the last couple of years. Which begs this question: if a state cup is played and no one knows, did it really happen?

Ali had Frazier. The Yankees have the Red Sox. The Steeler have the Ravens. Northwestern has Irmo. Oops, IRMO.

Where are those rivalries in SCYS? And are we not poorer, without them?

You left out FMHS has NaFo!

Well, on the boys side we have finally beaten you now. So maybe there's a rivalry. Could be 2011 will be the year the NaFo girls go viral too.

Back to club.....best thing for SC would be for CESA to go Academy. State cup would be interesting then.....and CESA and SCU could start hating each other again.

Ah....I would love that!!! All the clamor and discord. Now that's America!!!!

Well we have three levels of play why not have three levels of Cup! Seems unfair to tell challenge teams to play at one level all season then bring in the premier teams to show them up. Each cup should only be for team at its level and below.

As for the Girls side.... Naaa not seeing it but you already know how I feel about the FM (former GHMS) girls!

Very interesting...that a year or three ago, the constant clamor was for consolidation, and anyone who wasn't in favor of it was not only un-American but simply didn't understand the needs of South Carolina Youth Soccer. The only way to create competitive teams was to consolidate and concentrate what was touted as a "small talent pool," as though competitive players were some sort of finite natural resource like fossil fuels or diamonds, beyond the effects of human means of culitivation and fertilization. To be competitive, many said, meant gathering all of the best under the same banner, in the same uniform, on the same side of the pitch.

Now that the consolidators have most of their wishes and the banners are large but few, now we have those proposing the rather radical idea that in order to produce truly competitive teams, we need, surprisingly--competition. Meaningful, challenging competition, on a daily basis, with wins and losses and pride and honor at stake to hone the edges of skill and keep the best at their best and challenge the rest to catch them. A measuring stick for that elusive concept of "player development," where the challenge is to take the local blue-chip players past their limits and train a supporting cast to form an end-to-end solid team, while the opposing coaches work to do the same, with the title in the balance.

A paradoxical concept, needing the competition to be capable of beating you in order to be your best...but truth is, there's not much fun in being the biggest, baddest kid on the block if there's no one there to truly challenge for the title...and there's certainly not much motivation to work hard to get even bigger and badder.

Until, of course, you run into the kid from the next block...but by then it might be a bit late.

so, do we want competition at the intra-state level or at the national level or at both? seems to me that the majority in these forums lament the fact that we, (sc), get our collective @$$es kicked when we go out of state.

you can't beat demographics.

For the highest level.....I love consolidation. But consolidation to me was CUFC, CESA, Bridge, and locally...the YC teams.

In the old days......the very good CESA 93 Premier team had their hands full with the even better 93 Bridge Gold team. And late...CUFC Elite came on. Academy has pulled those kids out of SC play. Plus....the dynamic of CESA being the only game in town for non-Academy......means that more and more kids leave their "local" team to play at CESA, which diminishes the competiton further.

Consolidation, yes. What has happened.....no!!

So a soft, non-competitive in-state season schedule for a consolidated team does exactly what to prepare players to be at the top of their games for region competition?

I don't totally understand your point. A team either plays instate or they play in the regional league. The two don't cross paths during the same season.

First, I'm assuming the consolidated sides would be playing R3. Second, based on State cup scores.......things are a little tighter than one would presume. Not sure calling it soft is the right perspective.

Soccer is an interesting sport. Fairly easy if the team is disciplned and well coached for a less talented team to play a style that keeps them in the game and keeps them competitve with a superior opponent.