2024 SoCal State Cup Discussion

[NewbieMama]

New schedules posted with updated dates for State Cup. Some age groups playing all the way until the end of March (or beyond?) ... Personally I wouldn't mind if they started State Cup in December right after fall league. Cut out the extra Dec/Jan tournaments.

 

[Grace T.]

New schedules posted with updated dates for State Cup. Some age groups playing all the way until the end of March (or beyond?) ... Personally I wouldn't mind if they started State Cup in December right after fall league. Cut out the extra Dec/Jan tournaments.

Feature not bug. Firstly, the high schoolers can't double play so they are out until the high school freeze ends. It would mean the youngers would go, there's a break, and then the high schoolers, which is hard to turn that machine on and then off.

Second, it's a way of getting year round soccer for the youngers since the way it's set up is pretty much a continuation of league play before tryouts and then summer. The way CalSouth was working is the tryout shuffle was beginning in Thanksgiving while whole teams reorganizing for state cup (stronger teams got stronger, weaker teams wound up having to sit out state cup since they were stuck).

Finally, I like the flexibility with rankings which again goes to why the clubs prefer the SoCal system. Teams with a higher PPG can apply to play up and teams with a lower PPG can apply to play down. It's not so great if you are trying to figure out who really is the true "champion" but after the top tier that distinction just becomes artificial line drawing

 

[NewbieMama]

Feature not bug. Firstly, the high schoolers can't double play so they are out until the high school freeze ends. It would mean the youngers would go, there's a break, and then the high schoolers, which is hard to turn that machine on and then off.

Second, it's a way of getting year round soccer for the youngers since the way it's set up is pretty much a continuation of league play before tryouts and then summer. The way CalSouth was working is the tryout shuffle was beginning in Thanksgiving while whole teams reorganizing for state cup (stronger teams got stronger, weaker teams wound up having to sit out state cup since they were stuck).

Finally, I like the flexibility with rankings which again goes to why the clubs prefer the SoCal system. Teams with a higher PPG can apply to play up and teams with a lower PPG can apply to play down. It's not so great if you are trying to figure out who really is the true "champion" but after the top tier that distinction just becomes artificial line drawing

I see. Didn't think too much about hs ages since I only have Youngers.

It seems like teams are starting reshuffle and informal tryouts are being held right after fall season ends nowadays. Socal can have official tryout days but the only way to make a better team is to know someone or the coach and get an early look. These are all things I've learned just recently and it's not great for new parents who want to just adhere to what to they're told.

Agree the higher PPG/applying up seems to work well.

Not familiar with the prior system and probably no dates for state cup earlier/later will be ideal. Oh well.

 

[dreamz]

If they want to exclude ECNL or any other teams it shouldn’t be called State Cup when it really isn’t

No one is excluded from State Cup. Anyone that wants to enter, can. The issue is the schedule. Teams have to be available to play the State Cup schedule and not need accommodations for scheduling around their league games. Plus, since this is a US Club Soccer State Cup, all players have to have US Club Soccer player cards which ECNL does but GA doesn't.

 

[espola]

Kinda sad. Cal South State Cup still exists but with very few teams - https://calsouth.com/state-cup/

Cal South lost their way. Egos and infighting over a kids game killed the organization.

 

[ColdPizza]

Kinda weird that a SoCal email with pictures had to be sent out to explain the field conditions...
All fields are muddy...over!
They must be getting some hate mail. Aye Aye Aye

 

[Brav520]

Cal South lost their way. Egos and infighting over a kids game killed the organization.

I saw that Wynalda just joined the board

He is an Interesting character for sure

 

[Brav520]

New schedules posted with updated dates for State Cup. Some age groups playing all the way until the end of March (or beyond?) ... Personally I wouldn't mind if they started State Cup in December right after fall league. Cut out the extra Dec/Jan tournaments.

2 years ago when the league started they had initially carved out weekends during the regular season to play the pool games . They scratched that after one weekend I believe , but the regular season also extended into January and they played on Super Bowl Sunday and Presidents weekend. This was coming out of Covid so everything was a bit of a mess

Last year they tweaked it to start In January, no Super Bowl or presidents weekend but some age groups had pool play extending over 3 weekends

This year I think they finally got it right . Pool play games all one weekend , the rain just screwed everything up

In a perfect world I’d like to see it start in November and end before Xmas , but then you are going be asking many of your member clubs to forego having their tournaments , and all the tournaments in Jan whose going attend those with state cup finished ? I can’t imagine the member clubs agreeing to a Nov/Dec state cup