'07 High School Soccer #2

I think dominance is the wrong word. The middle of the pack teams are better in the ISL than the middle of the pack teams in public high school.

This is simply an unsupported assertion from an anonymous poster and should be treated as such. :)

I think you're right. AB for instance might be able to give an ISL team a good game without too much imbarassment.

AB Boys Varsity played BBN in a well officiated regulation time pre-season scrimmage on BBN's turf a couple of weeks ago. BBN scored only once - on a penalty kick (handball in the box) late in the game after AB had scored twice - once on a shot during the run of play and a second time on a header off a restart. BBN had a very large bench and four coaches. WOW - ya gets what ya pays for!

Didn't embarrass AB to win at all and it was great since all the AB players got a lot of playing time.

Is that what you meant?

[Cujo]

[Onthree kept the roster smaller which I think ties into the cohesive group comment above. Adjustments for team chemistry can count as much as tactical adjustments on the field. In addition, the younger players have stepped up.

I have noticed the smaller roster seems to have added a better dimension to my daughter's HS team as well... the cohesiveness factor I guess. Any others have this observation or thoughts on ideal roster size?

I always had around 16 to 18 on my varsity roster and about 20 at JV level. Of the Varsity 8 rarely came off the field and I usually had another 6 that got various amounts of playing time depending on what system of play I was using or what my game day strategy was. As the year wears on injuries disrupt those plans and you have to do some shuffling.

Where do you coach Cujo?

Do you think it makes a difference how strong the program is? For example the Varsity and JV roster of a very strong program might be smaller because the players are fitter, more experienced, etc. In a weaker program there may be more need for subs for fitness alone and therefore a larger roster necessary - similar to the differences you seem to have with Varsity and JV numbers.

I coached at a now defunct D3 parochial and my talent got pretty thin after my top 6 or 7 players, the rest were good athletes (and a lot of fun to work with) but had limited soccer experience. One thing that I learned though is that if you have a motivated athletic player they can pick up any sport fairly quickly. If I had a quality MAPLE freshman coming in to my program they saw plenty of playing time right away. I expected my players to be capable of playing a full 90 minutes without subbing. Some of my weaker players spent 2 years paying their dues on JV and turned out to be pretty good players but by and large the JV squad was more rec soccer than anything else.

I think dominance is the wrong word. The middle of the pack teams are better in the ISL than the middle of the pack teams in public high school.

This is simply an unsupported assertion from an anonymous poster and should be treated as such. :)

I assume you are referring to your own reply?

Qualifying for HS State Tournament

What does it take for a HS team to be eligible for the post season State Tournament? Is it based on a point system since teams can have a lot of ties in some leagues? I know in basketball you have to win 50% or more of your games but there are a lot of tie scores in soccer. Can someone explain how qualifying for the post season works in soccer

I'm pretty sure the AB vs. ISL comment was with tongue planted in cheek. Boys or girls. If not, we should all just read it as such or go watch either AB team play (especially the girls).

Yeah - maybe - the snotty tone of so many of the pro ISL posts just got to me.

And I attended boarding school for four years myself - on scholarship - so maybe that's the source of the chip on my shoulder.

No, I think it's source of a lot more in your case.

It's clear this ISL clod is a prankster. You all have taken the bait. Lets move on.

Good Idea. Any surprises so far this season? Any good match-ups coming up?

Not to mention they could have missed baseball!

I think you're right. AB for instance might be able to give an ISL team a good game without too much imbarassment.

AB Boys Varsity played BBN in a well officiated regulation time pre-season scrimmage on BBN's turf a couple of weeks ago. BBN scored only once - on a penalty kick (handball in the box) late in the game after AB had scored twice - once on a shot during the run of play and a second time on a header off a restart. BBN had a very large bench and four coaches. WOW - ya gets what ya pays for!

Didn't embarrass AB to win at all and it was great since all the AB players got a lot of playing time.

Is that what you meant?

Of note, BBN has 7-8 starting sophomores, a very young team...

To answer the ISL - public debate is certainly on the girls side it is not all one way in favor of the ISL. I would estimate that the top couple of teams in every conference (or 25-30 teams) are of the quality to compete with the ISL. The main difference is that ISL teams never play poor teams, whereas a solid public team will play as many as 8-10 games a year against weaker competition. My experience is that this parity is eveolving and the ISL teams are improving as a greater recruitment emphasis is placed on soccer. The big difference is that even the top ISL teams of 7 or 8 years ago would feature some real quality diversity on the roster(three or four great players but a bench loaded with JV talent). Today's teams are far more solid from top to bottom. So on the North Shore teams like Masco, Newburyport, Peabody, Danvers, Billerica and Andover are every bit as good as Phillips, Governor's or Brooks and better than Pingree. Five years from now that may not be the case. As for the tourney, it iworks this way: 2 points for a win one for a tie. If you play 18 games you need 18 points to qualify.You also qualify if you finish first or second in your conference (regardless of points) and there is a special rule for D3 teams that play lots of D1 teams (you basically don't have to count games against teams a double jump ahead of you - like Weston in the DCL).

I think dominance is the wrong word. The middle of the pack teams are better in the ISL than the middle of the pack teams in public high school.

This is simply an unsupported assertion from an anonymous poster and should be treated as such. :)

I assume you are referring to your own reply?

No, I was referring to the quoted post, of course. Where are the win-loss records to support the poster's assertion that middle-of-the-pack ISL teams are better than their public-high-school counterparts? Until s/he supplies them, her/his opinion remains an unsupported assertion. :)

I think dominance is the wrong word. The middle of the pack teams are better in the ISL than the middle of the pack teams in public high school.

This is simply an unsupported assertion from an anonymous poster and should be treated as such. :)

I assume you are referring to your own reply?

No, I was referring to the quoted post, of course. Where are the win-loss records to support the poster's assertion that middle-of-the-pack ISL teams are better than their public-high-school counterparts? Until s/he supplies them, her/his opinion remains an unsupported assertion. :)

Hello fellow anonymous poster,

The opinion comes from watching several hundred high school games (ISL and public) through four kids: Two in ISL schools, and two in public schools. As ISL schools generaly only play public high schools in meaningless pre-season friendly scrimmages, no accurate direct comparisons can be made. So after watching hundreds of games, I go with what my eyes tell me. Last year's two teams that finished in the middle of the ISL standings, Middlesex School and Roxbury Latin would beat the middle teams in virtually any public high school league in the state.