The topic is club tryouts:
Initial post:
Pointguard
posted on 4/4/06 at 11:23 AM
hi, y'all,
i'm going to be sacreligeous and say something a lot of parents i know are thinking.
my daughter's a pretty fair player, likely to get on one of the stronger U-13 teams down here for the coming year. first season of challenge, we're happy with the coaching, we're in the correct division this spring so the games have all been close, most of the parents of the other teams have been a lot of fun -- aisde from that little town that has the parents who yell directly at your kid as she runs past and a biter on their team (we didn't know she bit someone every week until we started comparing notes with parents from other teams).
being as how we're down here in charlotte, we're paying some astounding amount of $ in club fees. no prob, i figure in a few years inflation will explode and we'll pay back the debt at pennies on the dollar. (insert rueful laughter here)
what we have issues with is the travel, and the almost complete lack of anything between rec and classic soccer in these parts. we -- and our daughter -- have come to seriously question the wisdom of spending, say, 7 hours on a saturday taking a trip to asheville (where everyone's extra super nice to be on the sidelines with) for an 11 - 12 year old kids soccer game. we wonder whether, as parents, it might not be our duty to say, hold on, this is excessive unless its your kid's ONLY talent. i look at our daughter and her teammates and see that of course it isn't, but other talents -- talents that last a lifetime -- are going un- or underdeveloped for lack of time. as parents, we're charged with making the decisions that DON'T indulge our fantasies, and DON'T pander to the wanna instead of the shoulda.
reading this thread reminds me that what we're all in is an arms race, and the craziest and most exploitative people are setting the pace. want to be on your middle-school soccer team? better play classic soccer! those girls are, you'll get left behind. wanna make the HS team? better try out for Super-Y, you'll get left behind. can't afford the fees? your parents better borrow the money, because there your kid'll be, sad and alone in 5 years, wishing you'd made her give up the school play and the piano lessons and the academics so she could be out on that field with her friends. better get on it -- the other parents are! one weekend in DC, the next in Florida? get after it -- they will.
we would cheerfully pay the same amount of money for the same coaching and a league that's local. everyone who thinks that your kids are super elite athletes, maybe they are. and maybe, to some extent, they're on a playing field self-selected by affluent or irresponsible parents and driven by unscrupulous, self-aggrandizing organizations with NO sense of social responsibility and NO qualifications to be molding children.
and we're happy with our club. at least they don't pretend to care about the kids.
PS: my son dated a girl who scored over 100 goals in HS, something like 85 of 'em on headers. (and an even better person too). she had a full ride from Ohio State, and blew out her knee playing lacrosse after her senior year. OSU, to their credit, would've honored the offer, but she went elsewhere. i'm sure the glory was great, but what must it be like to put all your eggs in one basket, then have that basket snatched away?
tell me where this goes & i'll move it from here to there. i dread -- DREAD -- tryout week. we completely fear the possibility of the kid making the "A" team. their goals are beyond rational for 13 year olds.
does that make ANY sense to any of y'all? whoever the guy is with the wonderful challenge team, i envy you and your players experience.
REPLY:
Tornado66
posted on 4/4/06 at 11:35 AM
What I want to know is who is holding the gun to your head to participate in something you seem to have such disdain for ?? If you are unable to use the phone and need us to send the authorities to your house, just type 911....
