>>Chico, I have no bias against CESA or you. We have sparred over the years but it seems that you took it very personal at some point. I apologize to you and your family for anything that I may have said that you felt harmful enough to always attack me before trying to understand the context of what I am writing. I feel that information is good for the greater community but being attacked at every turn makes it hard.<<Very, very, very respectfully...what follows is a short list of statements you've made in this thread which are factually incorrect or appear to use hypotheticals to advance an agenda (I've used a bold font to highlight specific sections of these statements.)
- You really only have 2 coaches with the CESA-Columbia group; Eddie and Chris. All the others listed are just names to put on the site.
- And finding fields and coaches in Columbia is always a problem, which will happen if CESA-Columbia grows to just 5-6 teams.
- The greatest strength at CESA and St. Giles before that was that they could have 2 quality teams at any level and train them both as the Elite team.
- CESA-Columbia is a fully independent club that has its own by-laws and board members or at least is suppose too.
- CESA managers will have put a lot of time and money into CESA-Columbia by the time it finally gets past the one or two teams.
- The entire club, all 16 teams could merge with CUFC and there is nothing CESA could do about it. This is a very big difference, especially if CESA seeded CESA-Columbia with a lot of money in order to grow the program, purchase fields and add lights. Then all that goes to CUFC during the merger.
How do I indicate to you that you are factually incorrect or are using hypotheticals to advance some agenda in a manner which will meet your criteria for an open and honest debate regarding the issues you raise? Is in the fact that I question your motivations? Heck -- let's question my motivations...more on this at the bottom of the page.
Let me again ask specific questions -- and I don't mean these questions personally -- I mean them as respectful questions in a debate on ideas -- and the questions arise directly because of your posts on this thread...
- How much time do "CESA managers" put into CESA-Columbia? How much money?
- When was Columbia "unfractured" from your perspective? Is the Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson metropolitan statistical area "fractured" or "unfractured" from your perspective?
- Do you know anything about the CESA-Columbia board structure that leads you to the conclusions you reached concerning CESA-Columbia potential mergers?
- Do you have specific information regarding CESA seeding CESA-Columbia with a lot of money, or any money at all? Or are you simply hypothesizing? If this is simple hypothesizing, what is your motivation for doing this? Why are you posing hypotheticals about one club but not another?
My guess is that you're not going to answer these questions...although I really hope you will in the spirit of an open and honest debate given the subjects that you have raised. Now, you can ascribe my even asking you a question, or calling out a factual mistake or a hypothetical that seems to advance an agenda, as something "personal" -- however, you might want to ask yourself if I'm the only one -- or even in the minority -- in taking what you write and wondering if the factual mistakes and club-specific hypotheticals are indicative of some unstated motivation.
With respect to my motivations and possible biases -- within the Columbia area, although I don't have a child that plays in that area, I support with my time and resources two clubs: CRSA and CESA-Columbia. I support these two clubs with my time and money because I believe in what they are doing in terms of their trying to increase the number of kids playing youth soccer and their being "open" clubs that allow all kids to train at the club regardless of what club that kid is rostered on. I don't support these clubs "versus" any other club; I'd gladly support with my time and resources other Columbia clubs if I saw them doing what these two clubs do in that regard.
