SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP SSC and Bridge?

Reality is that as far as the lowcountry is concerned...the alliance is only going to be two clubs. The coastal district that we are in does have other members...Hilton Head and Coast FA come to mind...If there were more clubs within the alliance then when such issues as this with SSC and Bridge came up..If a club decided to leave the alliance would still be intact...meaning you cannot have an alliance with one member..Proactive approach...What do we have to do to obtain and keep members within the alliance?

Chantman is correct that the Bridge is attracting players from Mt. Pleasant as well as other clubs in the area. The U14G & U15G teams are predominantly made up of girls not from Summerville or James Island, but from Mt. Pleasant and Charleston United.

The question is can the Bridge continue to grow in order to compete with CESA and Columbia United. I would argue that the decision to form an alliance instead of a single club (like CESA) will hinder it. In this current set up, the Bridge is depending on other clubs to develop young talent and feed it to them. These clubs own their own facilities, whereas the Bridge is in the position of depending on these clubs for fields to use. As long as there is the us against them mentality that being in an alliance brings, there will always be this issue. CESA and Columbia United offer recreation level (2000+ kids in CESA rec),the academies as well as classic level teams. It is the ideal set up to develop challenge/premier teams and grow a club.

In my humble opinion, the Bridge, Summerville and James Island should use this time of evaluating how to move forward to rethink the alliance concept. Why not form the Bridge Futbol Club? James Island and Summerville could stay at there respective facilities for recreation teams. The classic and challenge teams could pull from both, as well as others that come over from other clubs. This would also help with the current situation of the DOC for the Bridge also being the DOC for Summerville (You can not serve two masters). Most Summerville parents feel the DOC focues most attention and resources to the Bridge. A DOC over all of this would help with this perception.

Do I seriously think all will get together to form a club? I think not; however, it definitely an option that should be considered.

My my, how perspective paints this discussion. From the Mt. Pleasant side,I have heard that Bridge is losing steam in the lowcountry and that the Hungryneckers are feeling very good about their current status. They are patiently, patiently waiting for the upcoming implosion.

Rabbit,

You have to stop listensing to those folks in the Jones Center.

Bridge announced 60+ ODP players recently; almost double the number that CUFC had and surprisingly close to the number that CESA had. When you denominate by the number of challenge and above teams fielded, Bridge had the highest percentage by far of ODP players of any club in the state.

Bridge absolutely had a sophomore slump in terms of SC challenge league championships; however, Bridge is also clearly increasingly the club of choice for highly ambitious players if you limit your selection to the low-country clubs.

Chantman,
Just a little bird round 8 mile.

Most of the parents I know from Mount Pleasant--who, mind you, have younger players who are almost at the cusp of being able to play select--have mixed feelings or are split on the idea of playing with Bridge.

I know a couple of families on one of the boys academy teams were upset because they were contacted and felt like they were being essentially "recruited" by the corresponding Bridge coach in the middle of the season. Having spoken to them, they were upset because they felt like it was unethical, to a certain degree and that he should have waited until post-season rather than try to take the players midseason. I have no idea what was actually said on these occasions, but it was the general consensus from the families who say they've experienced this.

Another group of the parents don't really feel either way about Bridge and are pretty content with MPSC and the final group are the parents seriously considering a move to Bridge, either due to frustrations with their current club and/or the presence of older siblings in the Bridge program.

I think a lot of the decisions regarding the Mt. P players have to do with the particular team they'd play on at MPSC, how they feel about the local club (good experiences or bad ones, etc), and whether or not they would get more chances with Bridge versus with MPSC whose presence in the limelight isn't quite as bright as it was back when it fielded the old Hungryneck teams like Fury and Ice and the boys teams who I don't remember.

Maybe we should start a MPSC/BFA thread. Some MPSC familes were contacted during the Spring 06 season to see if they were interested in additional training. It was then decided to enter the Aiken tournament.

MPSC were not asked to joing BFA until the tryout session in May. Many kids went to MPSC and BFA tryouts. I know the MPSC DOC felt like his kids were being recruited, bot other parents were thankful that they were presented with options. Nobody was forced to join a new club.

I don't see what the big deal is. At the end of the deal, my kids interests are with me, not the DOC for MPSC or the Bridge.

Just to throw this in the mix, does anybody know of a SSC Board Member trying to recruit a Bridge FA team over to Charleston United. I know it sounds crazy, but a friend of mine received an e-mail about this. What is going on?