fungodude wrote:Spazsdad wrote:fungodude wrote:All kinds of doubt about CA 96.
Then I guess you haven't seen how they have been playing over the last couple of months.
For the record, I think the CA '97 team is kick ass. And obviously the '95 team won state and is a favorite in Alabama. But the '96 team is not "without a doubt" one of the top 2 '96 teams in socal. There are other teams on that list (and some that aren't, like the Firecrackers) that are stronger contenders.
That said, we won't really know what's what until next year.
What makes the Firecrackers or other '96 teams "stronger" contenders? Their name? Their tournament wins? What? Considering most of the so-called "96" teams will have to re-tool their teams after their '95 players move up, and who knows how many players will be lost after Summer... For some reason, the CA'96 team just doesn't get respect, even though they played an awesome 2-run game at State against OC Impact their FIRST GAME, took 3rd in a 14U tournament just a few weeks back and won the Tracy qualifyer two weeks ago, and earned a ligit berth to Alabama and they continue to play stronger each week -- too many people keep saying the team is breaking up, they are going to be desimated, lose players or whatever other rumors are out there (started by disgrunted old players' parents I am sure), when in fact it is just the opposite - they are BUILDING a team and will have open tryouts (in mid/late August) to continue to build. While these other teams are banging their chests because they started out stronger (most were stacked with '95s), CA'96 continues to improve and keeps getting better and with a positive coaching style - go figure!