Breezin: Thanks for writing -- I'm actually happy that someone is attempting to take a position defending the club. I admire your courage in taking what appears to be a minority position on this board. I kind of wish I had the anonymous screen name that many do when I get into things that some might say are "heated" -- but at the very least it should encourage me to be careful of what I say. I wrote this and then debated with myself for a long time before posting it -- but I think that the subjects under discussion while specific to the Lexington club could at the very least throw some light on what I see overall in South Carolina as a relatively weak club structure.

As you note, I am disappointed in the Lexington Classic girls club -- not angry, not bitter, just disappointed. I'm obviously not the only one on this board - as someone noted, it seems that Lexington County is demographically a "sleeping giant" with respect to soccer -- but the operative term here is "sleeping".

This isn't personal or spiteful. One of my children was fortunate enough to be on both challenge cup state championship teams the club has earned and she had some truly wonderful coaches in the club. We've never had a playing time, monetary, or any other specific issue with the club in terms of my children.

What I want to do is to take a moment and go through your message step-by-step so I make sure not to miss anything in your note.

>>I know that you are disappointed with the Lexington Classic girls club but the club is truly trying to move forward.<<

I'm not sure what this means. If you mean that the club has meetings and talks a lot about getting better, then I believe you; I'm just not sure how this is different than anyone else and how this will produce a highly competitive club. If mean that the club is taking specific steps to compete at the highest levels at the state, regional, and national levels -- i.e., benchmarking the best clubs in the state and nation and taking hard steps to reach this level -- then I'd like you to spell this out as well.

>>Maybe some of the information that you have received or perceived is not necessary the truth, however you are intitled to your opinion.<<

What you might want to do is to take everything I've said or anyone else has said, and specifically refute it. What you read on any message board is the tip of the iceberg -- you can be certain that when parents get together and talk that you'll only hear more of this type of thing.

For what it's worth, given that I financed their 4v4 league this summer and have provided services from companies I control on a gratis basis -- you can rest assure that if I have trouble perceiving the truth, then others might as well -- so it might be worth the time to clarify any of the many misperceptions that may exist.

I raise my involvement to let you know that I'm not someone who stood on the outside throwing stones -- I've actually tried to help. I hope the club can recover -- but with 4+ years with children in the club, what I see are the same issues keep cycling through.

>>The statement in your post,"even the coaches in the Lexington club send their daughters over to CSC/CFC to play" is very misleading. Of the club's 20 coaches, one Assistant Coach's older daughter plays on a CSC team while the youngest daughter remains with a Lexington team. So you see it isn't "all the coaches".<<

I never said "all the coaches" -- and if I mis-implied that every coach, with every child, did so -- then I apologize. In fact, "daddy-ball" is rampant at the club particularly at the younger ages -- which makes sense given the all-volunteer structure of the club. I have tremendous respect for everyone who gives their time and resources to try to help in this.

At the same time, it's important to note that the coach you're talking about has an older child playing at the college level who went to CFC. It's also important to note that one of the two state championship coaches who left to go to CFC also has daughters there. Finally, one other very good coach left the club a few years ago to go to CFC and took his daughter. I'm also not including assistant coaches who have left and put their children at CSC/CFC. Again -- I apologize if I misled anyone -- but I believe the situation is a bit more dire than the one case which you call out.

>>The Lexington club has taken many steps in reaching their goal. One of which is adding Alan Riches to their coaching staff.
Progress has been slow, however it is moving forward.<<

I think it's wonderful that the club hired an A licensed coach but the club did so only after unexpectedly losing the second of those coaches that won the club its second state championship. Portraying this as a proactive as opposed to reactive move is a bit misleading. However, I sincerely hope that the club will use this resource not just with one team but to help the club restructure its operations from the highest point to the lowest point.

But let's get at the bottom line of your post -- that progress is moving forward slowly but it is moving forward. You could be right -- and I honestly hope you are -- but I and a lot of other folks don't see it. In fact, the club seems to be in a slow motion state of denial about the issues that face it. I've seen many of the better players abandon the club -- and I've spoken to parent after parent who have said the things to me that I'm saying here.

At the same time, I think that the club could salvage all of this by having a clear mission of what it wants to accomplish and then operationalizing it. Look -- it's okay if a club decides it doesn't want to play at the highest level -- I'd have a lot of respect for a club that wanted to win in the classic league only and forthrightly put forward that this was all it was going to do and made it happen. What I want for SC soccer, to be competitive at a regional and national level, is ***NOT*** what everyone wants -- and I completely respect that. But I think that it helps everyone when clubs decide what it is that they do want, and then do what it takes to achieve it -- rather than muddling through.