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Looks like Tega Cay and CESA Premier pitched shutouts vs the competition this weekend. 6-0 and 4-0.

Just remember....Tega Cay is finishing no better than 5th this season.

I know.....I read it on their locker room bulletin board.

They have a potent offense and are capable of beating anyone in the league.

Bridge FA Red posted a shutout against Mount Pleasant White as well 1-0. Not sure why MP hasn't posted the results.

>>[Big Daddy] Why is this so hard for you to understand?<<

I'm sure it's just my lack of intelligence.

It's fascinating you raise NC as a model. Kids from Raleigh don't have much choice besides CASL; and CASL's statistical domination of state championships make your argument...well, not too compelling regarding parity throughout the state. Of course, if you travel 90 miles you can play at Greensboro...but there is really only one competitive club there. Now...we have Charlotte...with multiple clubs that have in the last decade gone from being competitive to being fortunate to field a competitive team every now and then.

The realities are that South Carolina has three metropolitan areas over 500K; then they have a lot of smaller areas. The three over 500K are going to have a tremendous demographic advantage in the state; of course, this advantage is nothing compared to the advantages that 1M+ areas in North Carolina not to mention the 4M Atlanta area.

What I think I missed in your previous arguments was the blinders you were using to view South Carolina soccer separate from being competitive in soccer within Region III. I understand now; thank you for helping me see your point of view.

Chico,

You are obviously a bright person so don't go down that road. I just think you are highly partisan.

Having said that....your analogy is ridiculous. Besides CASL....the Raleigh area boasts really good Clubs like Goldstar, Fuquay Varina, TFC, Triangle United. A Triangle parent does not have to go to Greensboro to have exhaustive choice.

Charlotte has a couple of clubs (CSC-CUFC at the least) that can compete age group to age group with CESA-Bridge, so don't kid yourself. The really good Bridge '93 team got beat by CUFC Gold at Jefferson Cup last year, and Gold is less than half of their top kids.

You raise a great point tho. Is the objective to raise the level of play throughout SC? Or is the objective to be as competitive as possible within the region? Two different answers with two different paths.

If you want to build teams to go beat Texas or Georgia or Florida within the next 2 years.....superteams/superClubs are the way to go.

If you want to raise the overall level of play and create synergies between CLubs and districts with the intention of long-term building teams to go beat Texas or whomever......I would argue against it, given where SC currently is.

First build the pool, then narrow it to a Super team or 2. But the foundation precedes the roof.

>>[Big Daddy] You are obviously a bright person so don't go down that road. I just think you are highly partisan.<<

I may very well be partisan, but if so I am partisan to an idea rather than a club. I'm partisan to the idea of South Carolina offering its youth services on par with any other Region III state.

Having said that, there are only two clubs at this time that I respect for trying to do just that: CESA and Bridge.

>>Having said that....your analogy is ridiculous. Besides CASL....the Raleigh area boasts really good Clubs like Goldstar, Fuquay Varina, TFC, Triangle United. A Triangle parent does not have to go to Greensboro to have exhaustive choice.<<

It's funny -- your definition of a good club in North Carolina is not the same as your definition of a good club in South Carolina. CASL dominates their highest-level state cup competition; these other clubs are fortunate to rarely win a few. The upstate has clubs that are equally or more competitive than these clubs -- and yet you want to believe that somehow a kid in Raleigh has more choice than a kid in upstate. Strange...

>>Charlotte has a couple of clubs (CSC-CUFC at the least) that can compete age group to age group with CESA-Bridge, so don't kid yourself. The really good Bridge '93 team got beat by CUFC Gold at Jefferson Cup last year, and Gold is less than half of their top kids.<<

CUFC may very well field a team that is competitive now and then, but the club has not been successful across genders and age groups. CSC has been declining since 2000. I realize that everything you're saying is colored by your pride for your child, but in order to make these arguments you actually need to look at the entire club and not just an age group.

>>You raise a great point tho. Is the objective to raise the level of play throughout SC? Or is the objective to be as competitive as possible within the region? Two different answers with two different paths. <<

Fascinating that you believe that doing one doesn't do the other. The Bridge web site actually sites CESA in the discussion of its founding.

There is a tendency toward people to embrace either a "best-practice" culture or a "all work together" culture. It's a false dichotomy. South Carolina has for years been mired in the theory that if somehow we all work together things will get better. They haven't. Then we had one club take major steps to get better. That seems to have caused more change in South Carolina soccer in less than two years than in the preceeding decade.

>>If you want to build teams to go beat Texas or Georgia or Florida within the next 2 years.....superteams/superClubs are the way to go.

If you want to raise the overall level of play and create synergies between CLubs and districts with the intention of long-term building teams to go beat Texas or whomever......I would argue against it, given where SC currently is.

First build the pool, then narrow it to a Super team or 2. But the foundation precedes the roof.<<

Your analogies continue to stretch logic. Here's the bottom line: you want to ignore the fact that in the last two years the emergence of several more regionally competitive clubs in South Carolina has caused more change than in the preceeding decade.

But what I find particularly amusing is that you want to "create synergies between clubs and districts" but are arguing against an agreement between CESA and CRSA to do just that and also are arguing for stronger district boundaries.

But I guess a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds, right?

Sorry, but whats your definition of a good Club? If by good you mean competitive....uh, besides CESA in the upstate who is there?

The Raleigh Clubs I mentioned are pretty successful and in some age groups superior to CASL.

The rest of it....dang man, this small mind needs to go to bed. Another day Chico san

Sometimes it's easy to forget the magic of being on a team and getting a chance to play. This is truly unbelievable video footage of an autistic high school basketball student manager who finally gets his chance to play.

The coach lets the boy suit up for the last game of the season and then actually decides to let him play the last four minutes of the game. The rest...well, if you don't get weepy and get goose bumps at the same time...

Cheers to all!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBYPaNc57Ik

Great story, ESPN ran it this morning. The kid is not severely autistic...he's on the X-C team and is involved in student government.

My question is.....why didn't the coach play him earlier in the season? It's not like the kid hit one basket. He scored 20 points in LESS THAN FOUR MINUTES!