SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP U-13 Boys Challenge

Chico,

Competition is what makes you better. Whether in sports or building cars. Teams get better by having other teams to benchmark themselves against.

I know......teams get better by making their players better and by adding more good players.

But kids are competitive and they get better because they want to win. To beat the team that just beat them.

If your U11-12 league stinks and you can't draw kids for ODP what the heck is that telling you? Why is it that you think the penetration is so bad? There is nowhere for younger kids to play.

Once past rec....where does a dynamite young 8-9 year old play? CESA is big enough and unified enough to offer a good option for their kids, but unless you go to their tournaments you'll never see them or get to play them.

I'm not blaming them....just saying that part of the reason soccer is so sporadic in the rest of the state might be the lack of cross-pollination.

"Big Daddy is right. You guys got 2 1/2 more years to figure it out.....or he and his posse are gonna come back down here and fix it for you!
Once those boys reach 9th grade....look out CESA and Bridge FA."

Dadgumit Hurst. You need to talk smack about the '93 girls and leave the boys out of it. I've seen the Bridge boys and a dose of humility is in order.

I actually have read the messages in the thread. What I continue to fail to understand is the theory that several clubs trying to consistently offer more competitive teams to players "deny other children the ability to compete against the best?"

Aren't Bridge, CESA, and (hopefully) CUFC actually attempts to offer opportunities for more of our children to compete against the best?

Maybe what's throwing me here are terms. Is it "competing" when we send teams into RIIIPL-East against the best teams in the region and they have goal differentials of -40 or more. Or maybe it's the term "the best" -- what do you mean by "the best?" Is it the best team from Travelers Rest? -- the best team in Dorchester County? -- the best team in SC? -- the best team in Region III? -- or the best team in the United States?

Everything is relative.

At 8-10 years old...competing against the best means kids from Rock Hill playing kids from Greenville or COlumbia or wherever. Doesn't happen today and the fact that it doesn't makes it a lot less interesting for the kid from Rock Hill.

I'm not knocking anyone. But the current model of development in SC only works if you are in 1 of the 3 major areas of population. If you don't live in Charleston, GSP or Columbia you are out of luck.

For sure, NC tends to be dominated by Charlotte, Triangle, Triad areas. But there are more than 1 great option available in each of those areas, plus there are other areas that have fine programs like HFC in Asheville. Plus the programs all play each other. A U9-10 team from Charlotte can play a team from Durham easy. This is not done in SC.....becasue those kids are kept in-house.

Why is this so hard for you to understand?

This age group must be the most incrdible group of kids ever in the history of Sc soccer. I suggest that someone do a quick check of the content of the water 13 years ago so we can duplictae every year... 93 posts for crying out loud!!!

This age group is dear to Big Daddy's heart....94 posts.

Uh, 95 posts?

Yeah it is. Thanks for pulling me in.

Big Daddy,
Speaking of the 24 kids at SC ODP tryouts, SCYSA no longer allows kids to play up a year in ODP. Bridge FA Red has about 6 94's that could have possibly helped the 93 ODP team this year. Not sure why the rule changed. I know that Georgia has 6 94's on their 93 ODP team, and they are very strong. If SC ODP is truly interested in the best players they should at least let them tryout and make a decision based on the tryout before they shut the door on the potential talent pool at that age in SC.

Big Daddy

It still is not done on a state level yet, but I believe there is a sandlapper league at the u10 level. I could be wrong, its been a couple of years since i worked with that group. However, when I was in Columbia, i did work with 10s who played aiken and others. It still has a long way to go, but its getting there.

Secondly, why do areas like aiken, florence, rock hill, the beach, etc all struggle to field teams? I will give you my opinions. First, baseball. In some of the areas I named, it is so big and thats what kids play. Secondly, lack of leadership at the top of clubs. How do you get into these underserved markets as Chico refers to? I dont think that there is one answer for every place. Thirdly, TOO many clubs in a small area. Gville, Charleston, maybe Columbia are all pulling their resources together. In these other markets, there are so many smaller clubs that compete for the same players. You know exactly what I mean here too. Just wanted to throw somethings out there.

Vapor7....good question.