state of Div I

[goat]

looking back over the last seven years it is pretty obvious that Div I has been dominated by dist.9 and dist. 3. dist 9 has 5 titles and dist.3 has two. the same two dist. will battle it out for the 8th title again this year. not only have the same two dist. battle it out but there have only been 4 teams to play for this title durning the same time period. BM, jesuit, acadiana and lafayette. what does this say for the state of Div. I soccer.

i think it all goes back to the youth and select programs in new orleans and lafayette. that is where it all starts. what i'd like to know from everyone is 1. how long will this continue. 2. who will be the dist. and team to break this pattern.and 3. why is it like this to begin with.

just something to think about.

[lasocrfan]

Good post, Goat. I definately feel it is the result of the rec feeder programs that result in these two districts dominating. Those districts both have QUALITY COACHING as well. I have to feel that the next district that will win a state crown, other than districts 3 & 9, is the northshore district. This district will be competing with districts 3 and 9 for years to come - it will no longer be a two district state. Mandeville already has a state title in Division I, won sometimes in the mid nineties, and St. Pauls has titles from when they were in Division II. Northshore had a good year and Covington was in the semis last year and would have had a decent shot at returning there this year. There is a good rec program in Mandeville at Pelican Park, and in Covington. Other than those 3 districts..... The north Louisiana district is still a few years away. Teams like Capt. Shreve and Caddo Magnet need to start playing a more competitive schedule in order to improve. You get better by playing the best. They need to enter some of the top tournaments on a regular basis.

[goat]

i think the northshore dist. will have a shot but the team that i think many have the best shot is catholic of baton rouge, they are well coached and i think are returning many of their starters including their very good keeper. hey mcsruff what do you think?

[Bish]

I don't think any team in the northshore district stands a chance at a championship the next 4 years at least. While most of the teams in that district are good teams, they still lack what it takes to win a championship. They seem to have an even spread of talent, rather than one team dominating the others.

[ShreveDad]

Great topic. I agree with everything that been written. The Lafayette and New Orleans area have quality rec programs, premier programs, and quality coaches. You need all three to have a top notch high school teams year after year. While it may be possible for a team or two to get on a run and make it to the finals or even win one, D3 and D9 will rule the roost for years to come.

The rec program and premier programs in Shreveport have gotten smaller in the last few years. Lacrosse is making major inroads in the high schools and middle schools up here. Magnet and Loyola were always the top programs up here for years. Most of the top players went to those two schools. Shreve's class of 2003 changed that as they went undefeated in their senior year. Magnet's class of 2004 was the last one where they got most of the premier players in town. The class of 2005 mostly went to Shreve. The class of 2006 split between Shreve and Loyola. This years Freshman class was a weak one with Shreve, Magnet and Loyola each getting 1 very good player who were impact players as freshmen. Those three and most of the sophomores that are top players coming up all play for the SFC U16Boys. Next year there is not much coming up to the high schools. I see Shreve and Loyola having the top teams up here for the next two years. I can almost guarantee you that Shreve will be playing down south a lot over the next two years. I hope Loyola does, but for some reason they have chosen not to play a competitive schedule in the past couple of years. Shreve's best shot to go deep in the playoffs will be next year. Just have to wait and see.

[savonarola]

I am glad to hear from ShreveDad that his Gators will not be content over the next few years to run up a +100 goal differential against District 1 teams and rest on their laurels. Next years juniors and seniors represent the best core of players at a Shreveport High School since that group that was at Caddo Magnet in 2000/2001. I hope a similar fate does not await them. I agree that the way to avoid this is to play more down south, and in East Texas.

I wish I could have filmed the Shreve/Sulpher game from where I was sitting so that the Shreve coach could assess his defense from the perspective that I saw it from. I really thought he had the horses on the field-a splendid group of players that I had underestimated greatly before the season began.

ShreveDad is also right on the money about the decline of youth soccer up here. Unfortunately, I am not optimistic about that changing anytime soon. There are some good young players being developed, but both premier clubs seem to be teetering. Maybe by attrition there will only be one club soon, then at least that problem will be solved. The new president of Cabosa did a great job when he was head of little league, so maybe he can work some magic at Cabosa too.

[ShreveDad]

The Caddo Magnet bunch Savonarola is referring to was the core of an SFC team that was invited to Dallas Cup their senior year. The blew everyone away up here, had state title visions dancing in their heads, then promptly got beaten by Carencro 3-0 in the first round of the playoffs.

[goat]

i went to that game shrevedad. i was doing a lot of work in shreveport at the time and got to watch that team play about 6 games that year. they were real good, but i think you are right they went into that game way over confident. i spoke to a few of the players at the magnet STM girls game held up there a few nights before the cro game and they were already looking at who they would play next. i told them they better not over look cro and all they did was laugh at me.

that team (when the played thier game) was probably good enough to go real deep in the playoffs.

[maddie86]

looks like dist 3 wins this year