Location vs. Finances,
Hurst is right in that most High Schools are located close enough to an established club that participation is possible, but perhaps not probable.
According to the poverty index attached earlier in this thread, Ft. Mill was ranked 3 or 4 out of all schools, meaning simply that money is not a problem. TL Hanna is ranked 30 out of all schools, again meaning that for the most part, money should not be a problem.
W&E mentions that Westside, Gaffney, and other schools ranked in the lower tier, Westside is listed as 94th, have programs that are debiliated due to the situation at home. Good point. At Westside, of 34 players, 21 of mine come from single parent or broken homes.
Hurst then states that "if you are building a foundation and starting from scratch...now you have a problem." Again I agree, and, like he says, someone looking to make a buck mining soccer talent in one of these areas is not likely to surface.
I don't think this makes initial success impossible in these "non-traditional" schools, it simply creates an entirely different growth curve. The head coaches at TL Hanna and Ft. Mill are both dedicated coaches that train their kids well and stress the importance of club. Both teams have posted successful seasons over the last few years, and I imagine club participation, or higher level participation is up for both squads. But neither coach is seeking to make a buck mining talent, they simply want to build a program the girls can be proud of.
A coach at a "non-traditional" school can endeavor to do the same thing, but he or she will be required to do a lot more leg work than the other coaches as far as recruiting, finding funds for kids, convincing parents that club is affordable if money is budgeted, etc. Their job is an entirely different beast than that of a coach at a school with a low poverty index, but I don't think one is harder than the other. Each takes vision, good programs come with fans that have expectations, bad programs do not, W&E and I know the difference of this firsthand.
I don't know why the extra practice time allotted High School soccer is not more effectively utilized by coaches. Perhaps it's that soccer coaches have a bit of an elitist mindset about their craft, and feel that running off-season practices like other sports is beneath them.
