National Poll: a travesty!

Bloomingdale was robbed...

The National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCA) winter soccer poll came out recently, and it was a shock: for the second consecutive year, boys and girls teams from the same school sat atop the national poll. Congratulations go to Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas for another brilliant season, topped by dual state titles in boys in girls soccer.

However, anyone who saw the state finals in Tallahassee could tell you that the St. Thomas boys weren't nearly the team they were a year ago. Neptune Beach-Fletcher was every bit their match, and, in my opinion, Largo was better than both teams. Of course, St. Thomas won its regional final over Largo in a shootout and again in the state final over Fletcher in a shootout. Good teams find a way to win.

The truth is, however, that the Class 6A teams in Florida were much stronger than 5A this year. Valrico Bloomingdale and Hialeah American were the top two teams in the state, with (Class 4A) Tampa Jesuit probably a distant third.

Consider if you will: If American went into the state finals as the top-ranked team in the country, and Bloomingdale went in with just one loss (to American), and Bloomingdale beat American in the state tourney, then why isn't Bloomingdale the national champion? There is no explanation for this.

To be fair, the St. Thomas girls team was probably one of the strongest that I've ever seen. They certainly deserved to be ranked first nationally. But the St. Thomas boys were not good enough to be national champs. They were good, but not great.

Here is the final NSCAA boys poll, for what it's worth. If you want to gripe about it, call 1-800-458-0678.

NSCAA Winter 1997-98 Boys Soccer Poll

Go here to see the rest of the poll information.

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