Girls HS needs 4 divisions

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Excellent response...although the poster is misinformed about the RI successes, I do agree with their point that it is important to be recognized amongst their peers/friends/classmates, since most will not attain the levels of success you correctly pointed out. The "ignorant" casual observer (parents and ball hog players) only pays attention to goals scored with high school ball, and many of the quality players are overlooked for their contributions simply because they are not able to be capitalized on by supporting casts that are simply not capable.

All of the above is why college coaches don't bother with high school soccer when recruiting.

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I agree, which is why we end up with the farce of an all conference system where 50+ kids make it, including multiple kids from horrible teams. The worst is when coaches only submit their seniors, when everyone knows that for girls in the public schools, once you have a strong premier player they are probably your best player even as a freshman up on through.

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couldn't agree more...coach puts up some senior for awards because parents are on a booster club or some garbage like that! probably 1/3 to 1/2 of top players are seniors

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I agree, which is why we end up with the farce of an all conference system where 50+ kids make it, including multiple kids from horrible teams. The worst is when coaches only submit their seniors, when everyone knows that for girls in the public schools, once you have a strong premier player they are probably your best player even as a freshman up on through.

No. Wrong. Guarantee the poster is the parent of a frosh.

Actually wrong on two counts. First, very few freshmen make a meaningful impact on a D1 team in RI. Most may function in the scheme of 11 girls on the field, and look like they are in the flow and involved, but very few really effect the outcome towards victory. I have only seen one Frosh make All-State in the last couple of seasons and that seemed a bit of a stretch.

Second wrong is that it is not about the Seniors, it is about your Juniors. The best teams usually have a strong Junior class, Seniors can be very hit or miss, there is a lot going on in their lives. But I never recalled a team being 'Great' in D1 because of it's Frosh class. Ever.

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No. Wrong. Guarantee the poster is the parent of a frosh.

Actually wrong on two counts. First, very few freshmen make a meaningful impact on a D1 team in RI. Most may function in the scheme of 11 girls on the field, and look like they are in the flow and involved, but very few really effect the outcome towards victory. I have only seen one Frosh make All-State in the last couple of seasons and that seemed a bit of a stretch.

Second wrong is that it is not about the Seniors, it is about your Juniors. The best teams usually have a strong Junior class, Seniors can be very hit or miss, there is a lot going on in their lives. But I never recalled a team being 'Great' in D1 because of it's Frosh class. Ever.

Barrington made a huge jump in D1 last year due to its freshmen players last year including 5 starters, and the leading scorer and all-center center mid. Dropped back down this year partly due to the fact they lost those 2 freshmen to GDA this year as sophmores (plus their starting center defender to prep). To say that freshmen can't have an impact in D1 is ridiculous. I hear they have another strong freshmen group coming up again next year, so my prediction is that they'll jump up to a playoff team again next year ... all due to the freshmen.

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Barrington made a huge jump in D1 last year due to its freshmen players last year including 5 starters, and the leading scorer and all-center center mid. Dropped back down this year partly due to the fact they lost those 2 freshmen to GDA this year as sophmores (plus their starting center defender to prep). To say that freshmen can't have an impact in D1 is ridiculous. I hear they have another strong freshmen group coming up again next year, so my prediction is that they'll jump up to a playoff team again next year ... all due to the freshmen.

Did Barrington win a playoff game last year? No. Barrington High School currently sits 1 Win, 8 Losses, 1 Draw in 2017. Powerhouse.

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Did Barrington win a playoff game last year? No. Barrington High School currently sits 1 Win, 8 Losses, 1 Draw in 2017. Powerhouse.

Last year the mighty Fab5 of Barrington finished 9th out of 17 teams and lost 4-1 in the opening round of playoffs to the 8th seeded NK team who then got smoked by Cumberland in the quarter finals 4-0. So educate me ... with your 5 GDA/PDA/ECNL wonder women, how exaxtly did they impact the team to a meaningful victory that a bunch of ham and eggers Juniors could have literally accomplished the same thing. Enjoy the basement.

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Did Barrington win a playoff game last year? No. Barrington High School currently sits 1 Win, 8 Losses, 1 Draw in 2017. Powerhouse.

I think you missed the point. Sorry that went right over your head. Their record last year was a lot stronger no? Why not post that. They sucked the year before last too. Then got a strong freshman class last year, started five of them, two were high impact players, and they made the playoffs for the first time in years. They then lose a few of those impact players, and they drop back down to the basement again. That is my precisely my point, the freshman class last year had a huge impact. Which was what the OP was saying does not happen in D1. And mark my words, another strong freshman class next year, will improve on this record quite a bit. Strong freshmen can and do impact D1 teams.

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Last year the mighty Fab5 of Barrington finished 9th out of 17 teams and lost 4-1 in the opening round of playoffs to the 8th seeded NK team who then got smoked by Cumberland in the quarter finals 4-0. So educate me ... with your 5 GDA/PDA/ECNL wonder women, how exaxtly did they impact the team to a meaningful victory that a bunch of ham and eggers Juniors could have literally accomplished the same thing. Enjoy the basement.

What DB you are. First off, yeah no one said they were a powerhouse last year. The point was whether freshmen can make a big impact on a D1 team or not. MKM aside, because she's an extreme and singular rare case, it is my contention that yes, a strong group of Freshmen can make a big impact on a D1 team. I watched it with my own eyes. I saw the team struggle to score goals and win more than a few games for years, and then a strong freshmen class with a few top talents come in, and they win 8-9 games in one season ad make the playoffs (yes, barely, but the improvement was still huge). This would not have happened had they not played. Sorry to the older girls (of which mine is one), but no "ham and egg" juniors were taking that team to the playoffs last year. Especially since two of the freshmen were responsible for about 75% of their goals/assists. Forget Barrington, I think Lincoln is another good example of a team being impacted by a strong Freshmen class too. I'm just calling BS on the whole idea that strong freshmen make no impact.

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I think you missed the point. Sorry that went right over your head. Their record last year was a lot stronger no? Why not post that. They sucked the year before last too. Then got a strong freshman class last year, started five of them, two were high impact players, and they made the playoffs for the first time in years. They then lose a few of those impact players, and they drop back down to the basement again. That is my precisely my point, the freshman class last year had a huge impact. Which was what the OP was saying does not happen in D1. And mark my words, another strong freshman class next year, will improve on this record quite a bit. Strong freshmen can and do impact D1 teams.

I'll give you that but they were 7-7-2 last season and my point is that a team with seasoned Juniors & Seniors who don't play PDA or ECNL will get you that every day of the week. Earlier in the thread a poster was lamenting that coaches unfairly recognize upper class men for awards because often a Frosh is the best player, and my point is that very few frosh are ever that good in High School where they effect a game so regularly that they are all-state. If Barrington had 5 players THAT GOOD, they would have contended for a title but they didn't. They were simply middle of the road who may have gotten better because last year (fall 2016) had 3 teams came up from D2 and the schedule went from 3 divisions (playing 2 games against each division foe) to a table schedule (playing everyone once). All of sudden Barrington didn't have to play Mt. Hope & Portsmouth twice and got cracks at teams like Pilgrim and Toll Gate. I would make an educated guess that is why Barrington went from a crappy 3 win season to less crappy 7 win season.

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Interesting back and forth here, please keep it civil because you both are making valid arguments. IMO, this comment was a very astute observation

"last year (fall 2016) had 3 teams came up from D2 and the schedule went from 3 divisions (playing 2 games against each division foe) to a table schedule (playing everyone once). All of sudden Barrington didn't have to play Mt. Hope & Portsmouth twice"

I tend to agree with that comment. For some teams not playing the elite teams twice garnered them an additional 2 or 3 wins alone.

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The Barrington argument is interesting because missing those girls is completely killing them this year. I watched a few of their games last year and the freshmen striker scored a bunch of goals having to share time with a senior who wasn't nearly as good. The Yale commit is a center back for her club and will play that position in college, but for some reason played the midfield. I'm not a Barrington parent, So I don't know why she played out of position. As a coach, it's difficult to sit a senior or junior, particularly a popular one, for a more talented frosh. Can be a chemistry problem on the field and in the stands as well. So coaches opt to play upper class to avoid that problem.
I know you are entitled to your opinion, and you made some good points, but to suggest that last year's frosh Allstate selection was a stretch, was quite frankly way off. There were not 10 better field players. Not by a long shot. I think the BC offer shows that.

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exactly the original points that freshman can contribute, even in D1; and strong ones absolutely have the chance to be solid four year players in D2 and D3

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not a fan of lasalle being allowed to play publics, but talent is talent and that girl absolutely was more talented than the others.

perhaps the whiny parent of an obviously upper grade level child knows more than major college program coaches...she didn't get a ride to uri there bunky, she got invited to the big time!!!!

[Unregistered]

Interesting back and forth here, please keep it civil because you both are making valid arguments. IMO, this comment was a very astute observation

"last year (fall 2016) had 3 teams came up from D2 and the schedule went from 3 divisions (playing 2 games against each division foe) to a table schedule (playing everyone once). All of sudden Barrington didn't have to play Mt. Hope & Portsmouth twice"

I tend to agree with that comment. For some teams not playing the elite teams twice garnered them an additional 2 or 3 wins alone.

Yes, grains of truth in the various recent posts and that reflects on the overall thread. Goodness, it wasn't difficult to say TG, Pilgrim, Bayview, and EWG would be at the bottom; they should be in D2. You can't have 15-16 team leagues and expect any kind of normal distribution of results.

As an earlier poster said, you'll have LSA and then the two or so teams that have a decent cohort (or 1-2 special players who haven't been taken by LSA or now the DAs) while 4-10 will bounce around mediocrity and 11-15 will vie for the bottom. Until you make smaller leagues and allow for some fun NL matches, that's the way it will be -simply not enough talent around the state, especially when you have privates.

RIIL could do something like VT/NH; invite the D1 first and second teamers along with D2/D3 first teamers to a one day camp and field a select 22 team and play an early summer tournament against a VT/NH squad. have unaffiliated coach(es) pick the team.

If that's too hard, have an "inter-RI" scrimmage with teams made up of those D1-D3 first teamers and D1 second teamers..have the D1-D3 coaches of the year coach the game as a charity event for something like a Maddie Potts (and others - she is just on the mind) fund.