Vice President's Report
By the time you get this article it will almost be time to start league play again for the 2008–2009 seasonal year. Region III Premier League will start on August 16th with a College Showcase in Greenville at the MeSA complex. We will have all the U16 and U17 boys and girls from Georgia, North Carolina, Florida and South Carolina playing in these games. We are expecting as many as 50 or 60 college coaches to be in attendance. The schedules will be posted on the Premier League web site at www.r3ple.com. If by then you are hungry for some good games come on out and see what these teams look like.

South Carolina continues to grow in strength and stature in this league. Not many years ago we were just happy to be in the league, and this past year we had 10 teams finish in the top 5. We had 4 of our South Carolina teams make it to the Southern Regionals this year from the Premier League. That gave us a total of 14 teams competing at Regionals this year. Of those 14 teams, 5 made it through to the quarter finals.

From a Risk Management stand point this was a rather quiet year. Our background checks turned up very few people, and we had to turn down few coaches or administrators. But some of the ones turned down you would not want to be around your children. Parents, if you have children playing other sports or with other soccer organizations, ask if they do background checks on their coaches and administrators. We can't be too careful as to who is with them when we are not.

South Carolina has been awarded the Presidents' Cup tournament next June. This tournament is for our Classic teams and will be held in Greenville at the MeSA complex. This tournament will be hosting all 12 states in Region III. South Carolina and the MeSA complex was awarded these games because the MeSA complex has been expanded to 16 full size fields and can now host tournaments of this size. I look forward to seeing you at the Presidents Cup next June.

Barry Bynum
SC Youth Soccer Vice President

Posted 4-JUL-2008