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Post by youthsoccerdad on Jan 18, 2024 13:53:13 GMT -5
But then I think there are too many kids playing club who should be playing rec--probably not a popular opinion. The kids who really compete or want to compete at a higher level is probably just a few hundred in the whole Metro Atlanta area and could make up really strong top teams and second teams. Honestly big thumbs up on your post, I really liked the two lines above the most. It is slightly different but I tell people all the time, there there are probably only about 200-300 kids in Atlanta that should go to college, the rest are not serious enough academically and elite enough with IQ to warrant that type of investment. Honestly parents are just delusional, recently we had some friends whos kid was struggling in "on level" math and they got a tutor. What a waste of money! Our son is taking college math because he is just better than all the other kids at his school, we told those parents that were getting a tutor, that is really dumb your son is should just drop out of high school and take an online course. I mean, if he is not going to an Ivy league school - what is the point? An education is just watered down today, having to send my kid everyday to be surrounded by such mediocrity is ridiculous.  |
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Post by atlantagray on Jan 18, 2024 14:00:00 GMT -5
based
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Post by atlnoleg on Jan 18, 2024 14:10:37 GMT -5
Hey, I did qualify with "probably not a popular opinion". Sorry if jimmies were ruffled.
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Post by bogan on Jan 18, 2024 14:22:15 GMT -5
I like Mayochup on my hamburgers.🤷🏻♂️
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Post by newguy on Jan 18, 2024 14:51:37 GMT -5
I like Mayochup on my hamburgers.🤷🏻♂️ I think finally now we are getting into people trying to get a reaction with their absurd comments. You’ve gone too far… |
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Post by bogan on Jan 18, 2024 14:55:20 GMT -5
I like Mayochup on my hamburgers.🤷🏻♂️ I think finally now we are getting into people trying to get a reaction with their absurd comments. You’ve gone too far… I think we passed that point in the thread a while back. But I appreciate your feedback… |
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Post by mightydawg on Jan 18, 2024 15:05:01 GMT -5
There have been several national champs from the SE so not sure that I buy the argument that SE cannot compete with west coast and other areas of the country. If there is statistical relevant data to suggest otherwise, I would attribute more to the soccer calendar than anything else. Having club in the fall and HS in the spring is a huge disadvantage to SE teams v. teams that have HS in the fall and club in the spring when the tournament is played over the summer. SE Region teams sometimes win national championships. And SCCL and ECRL teams sometimes beat GAL and ECNL teams. There was not a single SE Region team who made it to ECNL nationals last year. Do you buy that? That is simply not true. In an admittedly down year for the SE compared to more recent history, there were several SE boys teams that made ECNL Finals. NTH U14 and U16. There were also several that made it Regional League National Finals--U13 GSA and U14 NTH. ECNL national finals and regional finals are the final 8 in the country. Anyone who makes it is can compete. If you expand to making the knockout stage, CESA had 3 teams (2007, 2006, 2005); Platinum had 2 (2010 and 2005); NTH had 3 (2009, 2007, 2005); SC Surf had 1 team (2007). That is 9 teams to make the knockout stages. On the girls side, Concorde Platinum was a semifinalist at 2005. Since U18/19 do not go to national finals and instead finish up at ECNL playoffs, that is still a SE team in the final 4. When looking at knockout stage, CESA had 1 team make knockouts (2008), Florida Premier had 1 team make knockouts (2013); UFA had 2 in knockout stage (2009 and 2007). |
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Post by youthsoccerdad on Jan 18, 2024 15:38:07 GMT -5
Hey, I did qualify with "probably not a popular opinion". Sorry if jimmies were ruffled. Dang it, I am sorry. No apologies needed. I wasn't upset, I thought it was maybe a bit ironic or whatever to apply the same logic to academics. I think it makes the argument that kids should play rec sound silly if they can't be on the top team, but not from a ERRRRRR I am mad point of view. I could have spent more time making my post more soft around the edges. |
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Post by newguy on Jan 18, 2024 16:28:25 GMT -5
I think finally now we are getting into people trying to get a reaction with their absurd comments. You’ve gone too far… I think we passed that point in the thread a while back. But I appreciate your feedback… Yeah, I guess my earlier comment needed to drip with a little more sarcasm. |
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Post by bogan on Jan 18, 2024 16:29:59 GMT -5
I think we passed that point in the thread a while back. But I appreciate your feedback… Yeah, I guess my earlier comment needed to drip with a little more sarcasm. 🤣[Sarcasm Font :ON].🤣 |
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Post by GameOfThrow-ins on Jan 18, 2024 18:23:52 GMT -5
Atlanta teams could compete better if they hired coaches that were actually quality talent evaluators. Having moved here from NY years ago and having had two sons that played DA, the biggest difference on the boys side between Atlanta and the Northeast clubs (DC through Boston) is that the the top northern clubs really focus on technical ability and strategic on field vision rather than raw athleticism. The NE teams have plenty of smaller technical players....they don't have to have sprinter speed or NBA/NFL size to succeed. The top NYCFC and Union kids are not huge....but you won't find any Maximo Carizzo's, Zidane Yanez's or Gio Reyna's here....they would all be kicked to the curb as "too small" I would only say there are certain positions where size might matter if all else is equal between two players, but there is no substitute for speed. Not track star, straight-line speed, but speed of the game, speed of footwork and technical ability, speed of decision making, off the ball speed. Most players have technical ability, but if you’re not executing that ability at speed and under intense physical pressure then you’ve only got a career making tik tok videos ahead of you. |
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Post by atlnoleg on Jan 19, 2024 7:18:04 GMT -5
Hey, I did qualify with "probably not a popular opinion". Sorry if jimmies were ruffled. Dang it, I am sorry. No apologies needed. I wasn't upset, I thought it was maybe a bit ironic or whatever to apply the same logic to academics. I think it makes the argument that kids should play rec sound silly if they can't be on the top team, but not from a ERRRRRR I am mad point of view. I could have spent more time making my post more soft around the edges. Thanks for clarifying. I love that kids play....whatever. My kids don't play at the highest level--they'd be in the several hundred or number I pulled out of my butt. I could have made my point clearer too. I wish there was a more robust rec, what I remember from my youth, before "club" was a thing. Pretty much every kid that liked sports (and some who didn't) played little league baseball or pee wee football or the soccer//basketball equivalent and you had a wide variety of skill and talent that competed at least through middle school ages. Our experience with rec for my kids was pretty sad. It felt like the only option was to join a club. It wasn't until they were at their first club that I realized, oh, this is where all the kids who played rec when I was growing up play now. I was intimidated at the idea of my kids playing "club" before then, lol. |
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Post by soccerlegacy on Jan 19, 2024 12:20:44 GMT -5
Dang it, I am sorry. No apologies needed. I wasn't upset, I thought it was maybe a bit ironic or whatever to apply the same logic to academics. I think it makes the argument that kids should play rec sound silly if they can't be on the top team, but not from a ERRRRRR I am mad point of view. I could have spent more time making my post more soft around the edges. Thanks for clarifying. I love that kids play....whatever. My kids don't play at the highest level--they'd be in the several hundred or number I pulled out of my butt. I could have made my point clearer too. I wish there was a more robust rec, what I remember from my youth, before "club" was a thing. Pretty much every kid that liked sports (and some who didn't) played little league baseball or pee wee football or the soccer//basketball equivalent and you had a wide variety of skill and talent that competed at least through middle school ages. Our experience with rec for my kids was pretty sad. It felt like the only option was to join a club. It wasn't until they were at their first club that I realized, oh, this is where all the kids who played rec when I was growing up play now. I was intimidated at the idea of my kids playing "club" before then, lol. Now... ^^ THIS ^^ I can totally relate to. IMHO, its sad to see that kids don't seem to have as long to explore other sports (and within a reasonable proximity to home) as when we were in our youth. Unfortunately, it seems the reality is that of 'keeping up with the Jones kids". Kids today get specialized so early and play year round, with parents forking over so much money with personalized training and out of town play. Obviously, I'm not immune to having to play along because.. "IT IS, WHAT IT IS...", and I had those same realizations when we went our first "club (i.e. academy)" level. |
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Post by mightydawg on Jan 19, 2024 16:41:05 GMT -5
Private clubs have pretty much replaced the parks and recreation departments. It is true is pretty much every sport. High schools are really the only thing that continues to offer multiple sports, close to home. With the exception of football, recruiting for college is almost entirely at the club level.
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Post by tmurray387 on Jan 22, 2024 8:05:42 GMT -5
There have been several national champs from the SE so not sure that I buy the argument that SE cannot compete with west coast and other areas of the country. If there is statistical relevant data to suggest otherwise, I would attribute more to the soccer calendar than anything else. Having club in the fall and HS in the spring is a huge disadvantage to SE teams v. teams that have HS in the fall and club in the spring when the tournament is played over the summer. SE Region teams sometimes win national championships. And SCCL and ECRL teams sometimes beat GAL and ECNL teams. There was not a single SE Region team who made it to ECNL nationals last year. Do you buy that? SE Region teams sometimes win national championships. And SCCL and ECRL teams sometimes beat GAL and ECNL teams. There was not a single SE Region team who made it to ECNL nationals last year. Do you buy that? That is simply not true. In an admittedly down year for the SE compared to more recent history, there were several SE boys teams that made ECNL Finals. NTH U14 and U16. There were also several that made it Regional League National Finals--U13 GSA and U14 NTH. ECNL national finals and regional finals are the final 8 in the country. Anyone who makes it is can compete. If you expand to making the knockout stage, CESA had 3 teams (2007, 2006, 2005); Platinum had 2 (2010 and 2005); NTH had 3 (2009, 2007, 2005); SC Surf had 1 team (2007). That is 9 teams to make the knockout stages. On the girls side, Concorde Platinum was a semifinalist at 2005. Since U18/19 do not go to national finals and instead finish up at ECNL playoffs, that is still a SE team in the final 4. When looking at knockout stage, CESA had 1 team make knockouts (2008), Florida Premier had 1 team make knockouts (2013); UFA had 2 in knockout stage (2009 and 2007). |
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Post by futbolhero on Feb 19, 2024 11:21:31 GMT -5
Concord Premier beat Platinum this year in 07 boys. I’m pretty sure that’s the exception not the rule. There are examples of platinum RL teams beating premier ECNL teams as well. |
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Post by diamondmid on Feb 19, 2024 13:03:03 GMT -5
Concord Premier beat Platinum this year in 07 boys. I’m pretty sure that’s the exception not the rule. There are examples of platinum RL teams beating premier ECNL teams as well. Since the teams change every year to some extent, not sure what you can take from any score- but this year Premier seems to have gotten the best of Platinum: 09s 1-1 D 08s 1-1 D 07s 2-1 W Premier 06/05s 4-3 W Premier |
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Post by southernsoccer on Mar 25, 2024 3:20:27 GMT -5
I could use some input to settle a debate between me and my daughter. We're discussing the combined age group for the upcoming season (07/06s). With 30 girls vying for 18 spots (players who can dress out) on Platinum, and assuming the current 2006/2025 players on the team stay, that leaves 21 girls competing for 9-12 spots. My daughter firmly believes that many players are "Platinum or bust" and would rather leave the club altogether than play Premier. However, I'm inclined to think that many players who don't make the top team would be happy to drop down to Premier to continue playing ECNL. The gap seems to shrink at the oldest age group but I don't know if that's consistent or just this year. I'm genuinely confused about how this process unfolds each season and I'm being nosy!
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Post by oraclesfriend on Mar 25, 2024 6:55:30 GMT -5
I could use some input to settle a debate between me and my daughter. We're discussing the combined age group for the upcoming season (07/06s). With 30 girls vying for 18 spots (players who can dress out) on Platinum, and assuming the current 2006/2025 players on the team stay, that leaves 21 girls competing for 9-12 spots. My daughter firmly believes that many players are "Platinum or bust" and would rather leave the club altogether than play Premier. However, I'm inclined to think that many players who don't make the top team would be happy to drop down to Premier to continue playing ECNL. The gap seems to shrink at the oldest age group but I don't know if that's consistent or just this year. I'm genuinely confused about how this process unfolds each season and I'm being nosy! There will be several who are platinum or leave and some who will stay. I don’t think it is 💯 in either category. I don’t know what her view of “many” players is, but she could be right. You are correct that the gap shrinks but frankly that is true of everything as they age. Gap between ECNL & ECRL shrinks, between ECRL and SCCL or SAPL or E64 or whatever the third team is and the same goes for GA and DPL and so on. Look at it this way, that year everything compresses. There are players that have been on the top team that are 12-18 that get pushed down and not everyone deserves that so they move, displacing those 15-18 elsewhere but then the 12-18 might have been dropped anyway so now you have 9-10 that might get dropped so some move and so on. It basically elevates the whole age group across all leagues. I also believe the difference between levels at the high school level shrinks anyway due to the decreased time each player at the highest level spends playing with and against the best since they spend half of the year with their high school teams. Here they play with and against players on lower level teams. The converse is true of the lower level players. They now play with and against higher level players. They learn from them. Plus you have younger players playing with bigger, stronger and faster older players who are forced to try to keep up. I have seen this in the high school team that I work with and also I have a child who aged out. |
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Post by randomparent on Mar 25, 2024 9:50:03 GMT -5
I could use some input to settle a debate between me and my daughter. We're discussing the combined age group for the upcoming season (07/06s). With 30 girls vying for 18 spots (players who can dress out) on Platinum, and assuming the current 2006/2025 players on the team stay, that leaves 21 girls competing for 9-12 spots. My daughter firmly believes that many players are "Platinum or bust" and would rather leave the club altogether than play Premier. However, I'm inclined to think that many players who don't make the top team would be happy to drop down to Premier to continue playing ECNL. The gap seems to shrink at the oldest age group but I don't know if that's consistent or just this year. I'm genuinely confused about how this process unfolds each season and I'm being nosy! There will be several who are platinum or leave and some who will stay. I don’t think it is 💯 in either category. I don’t know what her view of “many” players is, but she could be right. You are correct that the gap shrinks but frankly that is true of everything as they age. Gap between ECNL & ECRL shrinks, between ECRL and SCCL or SAPL or E64 or whatever the third team is and the same goes for GA and DPL and so on. Look at it this way, that year everything compresses. There are players that have been on the top team that are 12-18 that get pushed down and not everyone deserves that so they move, displacing those 15-18 elsewhere but then the 12-18 might have been dropped anyway so now you have 9-10 that might get dropped so some move and so on. It basically elevates the whole age group across all leagues. I also believe the difference between levels at the high school level shrinks anyway due to the decreased time each player at the highest level spends playing with and against the best since they spend half of the year with their high school teams. Here they play with and against players on lower level teams. The converse is true of the lower level players. They now play with and against higher level players. They learn from them. Plus you have younger players playing with bigger, stronger and faster older players who are forced to try to keep up. I have seen this in the high school team that I work with and also I have a child who aged out. Sure you would agree this totally depends on where your kid is as it has to vary by school as some schools are loaded with top players and are led by respected club coaches. I can see how it may appear the levels shrink, but I really don't think the difference is that they shrink as much as they were never that big for the majority of players as you suggested. On the boys side, the biggest driver of the "shrinking" is lack of upward/downward movement at the club level. So when you get to HS, all of a sudden kids that had the label ECNL/RL/SCCL are at the same practice and competing against one another. Some players get exposed when they are not surrounded by their club teamates. I have seen players jump a league level at their club after their freshman year not because they learned something from the other players, it is due to HS giving players an opportunity their club hasn't given to them the 2-3 years prior. For many players though that are the top half of RL or top half of SCCL, they are never able to jump to a higher league unless they move clubs and drive. Which is why, when they mix them all up in HS and put them on the field you see more parody in performance. |
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Post by southernsoccer on Mar 25, 2024 16:21:52 GMT -5
There will be several who are platinum or leave and some who will stay. I don’t think it is 💯 in either category. I don’t know what her view of “many” players is, but she could be right. You are correct that the gap shrinks but frankly that is true of everything as they age. Gap between ECNL & ECRL shrinks, between ECRL and SCCL or SAPL or E64 or whatever the third team is and the same goes for GA and DPL and so on. Look at it this way, that year everything compresses. There are players that have been on the top team that are 12-18 that get pushed down and not everyone deserves that so they move, displacing those 15-18 elsewhere but then the 12-18 might have been dropped anyway so now you have 9-10 that might get dropped so some move and so on. It basically elevates the whole age group across all leagues. I also believe the difference between levels at the high school level shrinks anyway due to the decreased time each player at the highest level spends playing with and against the best since they spend half of the year with their high school teams. Here they play with and against players on lower level teams. The converse is true of the lower level players. They now play with and against higher level players. They learn from them. Plus you have younger players playing with bigger, stronger and faster older players who are forced to try to keep up. I have seen this in the high school team that I work with and also I have a child who aged out. Sure you would agree this totally depends on where your kid is as it has to vary by school as some schools are loaded with top players and are led by respected club coaches. I can see how it may appear the levels shrink, but I really don't think the difference is that they shrink as much as they were never that big for the majority of players as you suggested. On the boys side, the biggest driver of the "shrinking" is lack of upward/downward movement at the club level. So when you get to HS, all of a sudden kids that had the label ECNL/RL/SCCL are at the same practice and competing against one another. Some players get exposed when they are not surrounded by their club teamates. I have seen players jump a league level at their club after their freshman year not because they learned something from the other players, it is due to HS giving players an opportunity their club hasn't given to them the 2-3 years prior. For many players though that are the top half of RL or top half of SCCL, they are never able to jump to a higher league unless they move clubs and drive. Which is why, when they mix them all up in HS and put them on the field you see more parody in performance. It's funny I never considered high school as contributing factor because my kids teams are not that good 😆 To clarify we were looking at the big gap that exists between the 2007 girls premier and the 2005/2006 girls premier. Now that I have looked more closely it seems that the 2007 girls did better than what their record suggests. A lot of their games seem to be close losses not counting a huge loss to AFU. I'm going to assume something super weird happened that day! But you're right the gap is not as big as I originally thought. A 3-1 loss against Platinum for the 2007 age group is pretty good. With new coaches coming for I'm assuming all 4 teams for u17 & u19 it will be interesting to see how much of it's players and how much of it's coaching! |
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Post by soccerlegacy on Mar 26, 2024 13:34:17 GMT -5
Sure you would agree this totally depends on where your kid is as it has to vary by school as some schools are loaded with top players and are led by respected club coaches. I can see how it may appear the levels shrink, but I really don't think the difference is that they shrink as much as they were never that big for the majority of players as you suggested. On the boys side, the biggest driver of the "shrinking" is lack of upward/downward movement at the club level. So when you get to HS, all of a sudden kids that had the label ECNL/RL/SCCL are at the same practice and competing against one another. Some players get exposed when they are not surrounded by their club teamates. I have seen players jump a league level at their club after their freshman year not because they learned something from the other players, it is due to HS giving players an opportunity their club hasn't given to them the 2-3 years prior. For many players though that are the top half of RL or top half of SCCL, they are never able to jump to a higher league unless they move clubs and drive. Which is why, when they mix them all up in HS and put them on the field you see more parody in performance. It's funny I never considered high school as contributing factor because my kids teams are not that good 😆 To clarify we were looking at the big gap that exists between the 2007 girls premier and the 2005/2006 girls premier. Now that I have looked more closely it seems that the 2007 girls did better than what their record suggests. A lot of their games seem to be close losses not counting a huge loss to AFU. I'm going to assume something super weird happened that day! But you're right the gap is not as big as I originally thought. A 3-1 loss against Platinum for the 2007 age group is pretty good. With new coaches coming for I'm assuming all 4 teams for u17 & u19 it will be interesting to see how much of it's players and how much of it's coaching! To be even more clear, the 2005/2006 girls game between the Platinum and Premier was also not indicative of the gap between them based on their record. Platinum wound up #1, Premier #5, out of the 16 teams in the SE region. Not saying that the Platinum team isn't better and loaded with D1 Power Five players and some national/international team players, just that they are closer than the one game indicates (chalk it off to a bad day that every team has once in a while). |
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Post by southernsoccer on Mar 27, 2024 14:18:32 GMT -5
It's funny I never considered high school as contributing factor because my kids teams are not that good 😆 To clarify we were looking at the big gap that exists between the 2007 girls premier and the 2005/2006 girls premier. Now that I have looked more closely it seems that the 2007 girls did better than what their record suggests. A lot of their games seem to be close losses not counting a huge loss to AFU. I'm going to assume something super weird happened that day! But you're right the gap is not as big as I originally thought. A 3-1 loss against Platinum for the 2007 age group is pretty good. With new coaches coming for I'm assuming all 4 teams for u17 & u19 it will be interesting to see how much of it's players and how much of it's coaching! To be even more clear, the 2005/2006 girls game between the Platinum and Premier was also not indicative of the gap between them based on their record. Platinum wound up #1, Premier #5, out of the 16 teams in the SE region. Not saying that the Platinum team isn't better and loaded with D1 Power Five players and some national/international team players, just that they are closer than the one game indicates (chalk it off to a bad day that every team has once in a while). Yeah that's what I figured. Sometimes games just get away from a team! I'm curious, assuming you're a Premier parent, are all players given a fair shake during the recruiting process? Like does the club do things to promote all players? It seems like because the gap isn't that big, that there would be a more even spread of Premier and Platinum players who are able to make Power 5 rosters. Maybe not an even spread between who could make UNC or UCLA but surely the gap gets closer and may even be nonexistent between the best Premier players and some of the Platinum players who are making "lower level" Power 5 rosters. I've always wondered how and if players are affected by the 'Premier' and 'Navy' labels. |
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Post by oraclesfriend on Mar 28, 2024 13:03:37 GMT -5
To be even more clear, the 2005/2006 girls game between the Platinum and Premier was also not indicative of the gap between them based on their record. Platinum wound up #1, Premier #5, out of the 16 teams in the SE region. Not saying that the Platinum team isn't better and loaded with D1 Power Five players and some national/international team players, just that they are closer than the one game indicates (chalk it off to a bad day that every team has once in a while). Yeah that's what I figured. Sometimes games just get away from a team! I'm curious, assuming you're a Premier parent, are all players given a fair shake during the recruiting process? Like does the club do things to promote all players? It seems like because the gap isn't that big, that there would be a more even spread of Premier and Platinum players who are able to make Power 5 rosters. Maybe not an even spread between who could make UNC or UCLA but surely the gap gets closer and may even be nonexistent between the best Premier players and some of the Platinum players who are making "lower level" Power 5 rosters. I've always wondered how and if players are affected by the 'Premier' and 'Navy' labels. They are affected in that there are not quite as many coaches watching the second team at showcases as the first team. I can attest that the club name carries weight though. Telling people you are from Concorde or Tophat when playing at your respective showcases matters. As a parent I have experienced this with a child. The gap shrinks as they age, period. The gap is often not as big as people think it is anyway, agreed. High school time changes things. Even top level club coaches coaching high school teams (happens but you see Tophat Navy coaches and Concorde Premier or ECRL, etc more than you are seeing Gold and Platinum coaches) doesn’t make up for the time spent with the clubs. I agree some teams are loaded but all of their opponents aren’t. So this matters too. There are many factors but with the exception of the Jordan Dudley types of players many of the players don’t look as superior to their teammates and opponents as one would expect. Note: I only have experience on the girls side. To the original question of what happens when the age groups combine is that people drop and move and it makes every U19 team much better than it was before except for a few. Funny story: one trainer I respect a lot told me of a girl who had committed to a D1 program who decided for that senior high school year to drop down to an ECRL team because she loved the coach and wanted less travel that last year. She wanted to be there for Homecoming and football nights and time with friends as well as time to do applications for college and enjoy the year with less stress. It worked out fine. |
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Post by soccerlegacy on Apr 8, 2024 11:45:03 GMT -5
To be even more clear, the 2005/2006 girls game between the Platinum and Premier was also not indicative of the gap between them based on their record. Platinum wound up #1, Premier #5, out of the 16 teams in the SE region. Not saying that the Platinum team isn't better and loaded with D1 Power Five players and some national/international team players, just that they are closer than the one game indicates (chalk it off to a bad day that every team has once in a while). Yeah that's what I figured. Sometimes games just get away from a team! I'm curious, assuming you're a Premier parent, are all players given a fair shake during the recruiting process? Like does the club do things to promote all players? It seems like because the gap isn't that big, that there would be a more even spread of Premier and Platinum players who are able to make Power 5 rosters. Maybe not an even spread between who could make UNC or UCLA but surely the gap gets closer and may even be nonexistent between the best Premier players and some of the Platinum players who are making "lower level" Power 5 rosters. I've always wondered how and if players are affected by the 'Premier' and 'Navy' labels. There wasn't much of a "spread" (as you referred to it) for this age group. For instance, the year prior, Platinum vs Premier tied 2-2 in their season matchup. The Premier team was roughly split in half with Seniors and Juniors. Of those Seniors, they had 10 players commit with the breakdown being: 8-DI, 1-DII, and 1-D III by choice because of the college she wanted to attend (think super smart). As stated, the lower classmen still have another year to commit. I would also say that many of the players could swap out a spot on Platinum and they wouldn't miss a beat. It wouldn't be noticeable. Now, the noticeable difference would really be the upper-crust players of the Platinum team, so I will classify them as a "difference makers". Solia Washington (Jamaican world cup team) and Riley Jackson (USWNT) come to mind off this Platinum team. That is what mostly separates the two teams. Those 2-3 players shift the whole dynamic of a game. As for age combining, The 2005-2006 Premier team actually only took on one player from the year before (Platinum player that dropped to premier on purpose for more playing time). Other than that, it was the same line-up as the year before. The continuity of keeping together really can account for performing better as a team. I see this with Platinum, as every year they have the same girls minus maybe a 2-3 girls coming on or off the roster. I also think that college coaches look for the individual player more than the team success. Once you hit 80-90 coaches coming to the Premier teams showcase games, I don't think have any extra college coaches (say 100-120) makes much, if any difference. |
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