Tom, I believe your analysis of the U-16 teams to be pretty accurate, however let me offer a perspective from the individual player. For the player that wants to play at the highest level and possibly play college soccer the best opportunity for exposure to college coaches is in the Premier League and quality tournaments. For the U-16 boys in SC only St Giles and CSC offer that opportunity. It will be the same again next year at the U-17 level when most of the players will be in 11th or 12th grade, the years they need the most exposure. If they adopt the wait to next year mentality it would be 12 months before they would have a chance to make the state finals and 21 months before they would play their first premier match. So for the individual player the decision is to increase their chances for college exposure or remain at the status quo.
