SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP That was quick....

I agree that a club coach may use it as a recruiting tool. ODP has always been a means for a player to be seen by college coaches so if a college coach uses it as a recruiting tool then fine. Like someone else said it is ok as long as they focus on all players while they are coaching a team. I'm sure the coaches of the Region teams are using it to recruit the players they want. Why would a region coach not take a player they want to recruit and why take one they are not planning to recruit. Wouldnt be smart for a college coach to coach a team and not recruit from it.
Still the purpose of my original post was who coaches? Some want club coaches and some want college coaches. I still think that change for SC ODP needs to come from the top down. Needs a clean sweep of how SC ODP is set, run and is now. I thought with the new group that took over they had planned all these changes but it seems like we still have the same old arguments. M aybe its like the presidency. Need to give it 4 years before we judge them. Problem is we have not vote in who runs SC ODP.

The whole program needs to be changed in my opinion. As a first year parent at the 00-01 developemental level I went in very open minded and not judging what I've read in here in the past 1-2 yrs. After going thru evaluations and fall training I am seeing examples of every negative post I've read on here. The pools for the 3 parts of the state we were told would be 25-30 players at this age. A team has been cut down to 12 on the girls side apparently and then the coach resigned. Players from the coaches home club showing up for training for the first time after 4-5 training sessions already have happened. Training dates are not posted at all on the website and emails come at the last minute with training date and location. Evaluations started late and ended early after a small sided activity and small sided scrimage without mixing the players up at all.

Most of us sit around during training discussing how unorganized the ODP Program is and asking who will even come back next year to try out. SC should be so much better in ODP but they can't seem to get it together at the top to do it right and be on the same page with the coaches.

Not all members of a SC Region III club team are talented enough to make the SC ODP team. As a matter of fact there are many SC residents who play club in NC and GA who are more skilled and better soccer players than some of the SC Region III team members. So, I would disagree with just putting someone on the state team because their club team is Region III. Not to mention all the politics that can go into to being a member of that club team. The SC ODP team should be the best players in the state period! Unfortunately, our system over the past year or so has moved away from that.
Also, as far as college coaches looking for SC players...don't get me started...You can research my previous posts on that one.
My 2 cents to anyone interested in revamping the system would be to get back to putting whats best for the player first. Put a system together that focuses on that and it will all fall into place. And finding a way for the truly talented players in our state who cannot afford ODP to do it. For this may be their only way of getting a college education...

The administration/organization should go back to the Bynum days-it was much more structured and organized. The program has been very coach specific, if you had a quality coach who was excited and had high energy, the experience was great. If not, the program could be poor. The solution is something that was in the works but got side tracked. Develop a statewide age specific ODP curriculum, developed by the best soccer minds in the state, that builds as the players grow through the program. Different skills, different aspects of team play etc is introduced as the player moves year to year through the system. This would minimize the coach specific experience as the coach would be teaching the curriculum. In addition, the year to year building development program would entice players to continue to be involved- to be trained at a higher level and to learn all aspects of high level soccer. College coaches should be the ones to teach the curriculun as it takes out the club conflicts and also introduces the players to college level training/behavior.