SoccerInTennessee

My comment was made simply to say that you can't compare teams now and then because the playing field has changed. Not to mention talent levels are never the same. Typically, region 3's powerhouse states are Florida, Georgia, Texas, and NC. Those states all have multiple academy teams now, meaning they are not sending the best team in the state to a regional tournament. The same goes for a national tournament. Across the country, ECNL weakens typical club soccer. If you go through the best in every state and lose in the semis or finals, that may be just as good or better a team that plays and wins a weaker tournament. Obviously it is still a great success. I know they go and play teams from the southeast in friendlies and beat them but it's not the same as winning a tournament featuring the best team from every state. Great player and certainly very successful team that both represent TN well!

Really interesting reading some of these posts, but just wanted to add a few things. As someone who played high school soccer and Division 1 college soccer, I believe high school can be helpful to a player's development. Now is it for everyone? No. Can it be helpful? Certainly. High school soccer is the first time many players have the opportunity to play in front of their peers. How players handle the ups and downs of this can really help them. Scoring a goal against your rival high school in front of a thousand people, and the next morning getting high fives up and down the hallway sounds pretty cool. The same goes for making the mistake that cost you that game, dealing with it, hearing heckling from other fans. It is all part of the game that you will experience at a higher level that you don't get with club and really can be unprepared for at the next level. It is also the first time you play with players 2 and 3 years older than you are, which happens in college. This presents different challenges. With that being said, it is 4 months or so a year break from training at a higher level. If my kid was going to be a professional or had a chance to play on a national team, I would really think about it. Over the course of 4 years, you are looking at almost 2 years of training at a decreased level. Club coaches always tell you about how bad high school is but no one ever talks about the benefit of high school, to which there really is. I dont know how far back records date, but to say that is the best team in the state of Tennessee is probably a stretch. The playing field is not the same, so just because they reached a national final doesn't make them the best. There are academies which put a damper on club soccer. There was a men's team from Memphis that I believe had Ross Paule, Richard Mulrooney, Carey Talley all of whom played MLS and had a few NT call ups and I believe reached a national final as well although I am not positive. Hard to believe her team is better than that team, although things are still to be written. Maybe women's, but I am unfamiliar with Parlow's club team. I have seen her (the girl from Ravenwood) play and she is very, very good, but these comparisons are better made further down the path of her soccer career, not a semester out of middle school.