Good question, and I'm not sure.
The intent of the thread isn't Academy is better or worse. Its about looking at whats left, after Academy.....and saying, is it healthy for the state to have one club winning every, or virtually every, state cup?
CASL dominates NC, but they don't win every state cup. A lot of them...many of them. But there is always at least one team and usually 2-3...that will give them a legit battle.
But in SC.....you can pretty much set in stone now that CESA will win every state cup. They won them all this year. Pretty certain they won most if not all last year and the year before.
I can't shake the feeling that we've lost something over the last 2 years. Academy is draining off 2 of the metro areas best and leaving GSP and the rest of the state. The CESA kids don't get to compete against the best of the best, meaning they aren't challenged like they should be. Yet when they play the rest of the state....they are simply at a higher caliber. Game might be close.....maybe becasue CESA plays down, maybe because the other team plays conservatively. But to me the more telling stat is CESA's regional record. Outside of 1 or 2 age groups the results are fairly average.
There are differences between NC and SC. Fusion are mentioned....but the pool of kids they're pooling from is like pooling Greenville and Spartanburg. You can't really talk about pooling Charleston and Greenville....or pooling Greenville and Columbia area.....and compare that to Fusion. Columbia-G'ville would be more like pooling Greensboro and Raleigh. Or Charlotte and Greensboro.
Pooling has its limits. You can't realistically train 3-4 times per week and pool kids from 2 hours away.
To me....the issue is that CESA has been left alone at the highest level in this state. IMO its in their best interests for their Premier level kids...to go Academy so they have the compettion they need. The void they leave behind would create interesting State cup matchups for the teams/clubs left behind. If that doesn't happen......then I think the clubs that are losing kids to CESA need to go back to the drawing board and figure out what they aren't doing, that CESA is. So they can hold onto their talent and perhaps compete a little better.
Academy explains the boys........it does not for the girls.
