SCHSSCA Members -
This won't be a popular post, but it's something that needs to be said and read by the membership of the South Carolina High School Soccer Coaches Association.
A great group of volunteers work extremely hard every year to recognize graduated seniors with the two All-Star matches, the North-South Soccer Classic and the Clash of the Carolinas.
Being Summer events, there are naturally some obstacles such as vacations, trips, camps, jobs, early collegiate enrollees, etc., that have been planned in advance of the SCHSSCA selection meetings during the Spring. However, many of you know that part of our professional commitment to our organizations, SCHSSCA and SCACA, is to ensure that selected players and coaches can participate in these respective games.
Sadly, that has not happened in 2018 and a bevy of last-minute dropouts and replacements has taken place this week. In all, there are only 108 graduated seniors that can be honored between the two events (72 @ NSSC and 36 @ Clash). Since Wednesday, June 21, there have been six players that have vacated their positions in the North-South Soccer Classic: two on WED and four on FRI. That is unacceptable!
One player opted to play in Club Regionals at Greensboro, N.C. Another chose to train with the Charleston Battery. Unfortunately another player picked up an injury by stepping on a nail but didn't report the injury to his NSSC coach until Wednesday. Lastly, three players have provided no reason for their absence in Anderson, S.C.
Fortunately, three players have filled those vacated spots, but that means three others have cheated this opportunity from others. To me, that is plain selfishness! If, in the future, you as a coach have any trepidation of nominating a player then don't do it. We go through this ordeal annually, but it really needs to stop. It's not only rude to dishonor an initial commitment but just gives this generation of young adults an excuse that it is permissible to believe the world revolves around them.
This is not intended as a rip-fest, but something has to be addressed and it's going to take our entire Association to hold each of us accountable for our duties as coaches of these young people. And, there should be no need - except for something out of the ordinary - to chase down players at the last minute to fill spots.
Please post any replies to this message in this thread. Hopefully, we as the SCHSSCA, can remedy this situation in the future and continue to honor outstanding student-athletes through these All-Star events.
I can only say as a high school coach, that I had 3 players that would have loved to play in the NSSC. I took them to the Senior Showcase, let everyone know they wanted to play, and told them to keep the weekend free in case they were contacted. I told them this since kids dropped out the year I coached as well, and some replacements got contacted very late in the process.
I am not sure what the answer is either, but the conversation needs to happen. If there are kids that make it and don't want to play and kids that want to play that don't get a chance, we are missing something.
