Coaches Tournament voters have a tough task

There is one poll remaining that will determine the participants in the 16-team South Jersey boys' and girls' Soccer Coaches Tournaments, and the voters have their work cut out.

Voters select a Top 20 each week, and the first 16 in both boys and girls will be invited to compete in the single-elimination Coaches Tournament, which will start the weekend of Oct. 17. If a team in the top 16 declines an invitation to the Coaches Tournament, the next team in the poll would be invited.

That is why the voting is so crucial in this final poll.

This reporter has voted in both polls for a number of years, and it has been a head-scratching endeavor because there is so much parity.

It's not too hard to pencil in St. Augustine as the top boys' team at this point or Lenape in the girls. Of course, anything can change between now and the games played on Saturday.

There should be plenty of difficult choices.

For instance, one school that hopes to make the voting difficult for both girls and boys is Moorestown.

The boys' team lost early games to ranked teams Cinnaminson and Burlington Township, but recently tied another ranked team, Rancocas Valley, and beat formerly ranked Clearview.

In the most recent poll, Clearview is No. 13 and Moorestown is No. 16. Head-to-head matchups should play a big role, especially when the teams don't have a lot of common opponents.

As for the Moorestown girls, they also started slowly, losing five of their first six, all to quality teams. The Quakers then beat Holy Cross (ranked No. 13 in the Coaches) and tied Clearview (No. 18).

What happens if Moorestown beats Cinnaminson (No. 10) on Wednesday to avenge an earlier 1-0 overtime loss? Would that be enough to get the Quakers in the Top 20?

At the least, it should make the voters think hard.

The Haddon Heights boys' team is one that really helped itself, especially after Monday's 2-1 win over previously unbeaten Haddon Township, ranked No. 7 in the Coaches poll. Heights is No. 15.

Whether right or wrong, this voter places a high emphasis on prestige wins. That is why there are five teams from the Olympic Conference and four from the Burlington County Liberty Division in the newest Inquirer South Jersey Boys' Top 10.

It's why seven of The Inquirer's Top 10 girls' teams reside in the Olympic Conference.

In both instances, they are, in a figurative sense, beating each other up, putting their record on the line each game. In essence, those teams are playing a mini Coaches Tournament to qualify for the real thing.

That doesn't mean there aren't talented teams that are undefeated or have one loss, but one has to ask a simple question: How would they fare playing Top 10 teams on a weekly basis?

One indisputable fact is that the Coaches Tournament is a great concept, in which schools of all sizes can compete.

The smaller-enrollment schools have nothing to lose, and also couldn't ask for a better way to tune up for the state tournament.

The Coaches Tournament champion has to win four games, a true grind, and the high degree of difficulty makes the championship mean so much.

Then again, nothing should be easy, whether it's qualifying for the tournament, winning a game, earning the championship, or from a personal standpoint, voting in the final poll.