SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP Youth $occer is an eliti$t $port

"I have to say the time we spend together as father and son is more valuable than any costs associated with the game.
He and his teammates over the years have embraced and enjoyed the experiences of high level competition, travel and the comradery as a major part of their youth. Events near and far have been attended by friends, associates and relatives. The game has been one of the joys of our immediate and extended family over the years."

I wish the above was true for our team, but is totally the opposite.
The girls team that attended Seattle for the ECNL event were accompanied by 2 chaperones and a coach. So much for spending quality time with our children. A majority of the families on our team had to car pool to R3 premier events and ECNL, mainly because a majority of the families couldn't afford it. If the parents were required to attend these events their would not be a team.

gbdawgs:

When it came time to get my daughter involved in sports we started looking at options that were available in our area (FL). Since my wife lived in Palm Beach at the time Polo was something she wanted to inquire about. After stopping by at the local Polo grounds and gathering the info she came home and showed me the figures. I decided that moment Polo was something that we simply couldn't afford.

Just to get started, so you can play in the lowest level tournament(see, it's just like soccer) you will need the following:
4-8 Polo Ponies(not polo horses) @ $15,000-$30,000 each
1-Pick-up truck $15,000-$45,000
1-Horse trailer $10,000-$50,000
Club fees $8,000.00 year
USPA dues $250.00
Saddle $3,000.00 X 4-8 depending on number of ponies
Boots $500.00
Helmet $300.00
Mallets $500.00
Shoeing $150.00 per ponie per month
Vet $1,000.00 per year per ponie
Stabling $1,200.00 per ponie per month


So from a low of about $200,000 a year to a cool half mill you can get your kid playing competitive Polo.

How dare CESA charge $3,500.00 to play Competitive soccer for a year.

My point is tongue in cheek, no one is putting a gun to your head to play competitive soccer nor is it a birth right for everyone to be able to afford to play a sport whatever it is.

which brings us all back to the original post of a yth soccer lic for the ridiculous price of $575...no matter who its for.
as a professional, in my real job, i do annual cpe for less than that.
yth soccer is still chugging along like its the high flying days of 2005. imagine the volume of kids that might get involved if it was somehow more of a grass roots less expensive endeaver & the willing parent coach wasn't squeezed out or frowned upon.
probably wouldn't have to travel as far for tough competition...again no offense to the great programs/coaches around the state.

Manchester I understand your point, but the two summers we went to Tenn and Michigan. Yes it was fun, I am able to look back at is as a great time in my life, but with that said when my best friend turned 16 and a got a car I was home when he showed up for us to enjoy our first taste of freedom. Or hanging out on the summer nights after I was done with my crappy job trying to pick up girls with my friends. I think when these kids get involved in national travel they may enjoy it but they are still missing out on events that you and I did not and while they may seem trivial in nature they are a part of growing up. The kids I coach are all friends of my son and the parents have all grown close over the past two years. We will go to some out of town tourneys this year for the first time and while I hope we play well I also hope that everyone has alot of fun with it. Lets face it, of all the kids playing youth sports, less than 15% will play in college and less than 1% will play pro. So everyone should keep that in mind. So I can live with being a coach of team that plays locally and once a year or so we'll travel and we'll let the kids be kids and just enjoy the moment and let them worry about the bigger picture when they join the real world.

And I also agree with the original post. Getting certified should not be an arm and a leg. Let's identify the people who want to coach let's get them trained up, let's share ideas with one another and then we'll be be doing the kids and the parents a real service

So I looked up that National Youth License and it has nothing to do with what is required to coach in South Carolina. The NYL is more of a psychological/developmental license (it appears) for training young kids age 6-12 and a sort of "conference" supplement to a license a coach already has. A lot of feedback says it's specifically great for DOCs and people looking to start clubs. And you already have to have a "D" license to even take the course. It is NOT required for coaching.

If you want to coach in SC, depending on the level, you have to have a Youth Module, "E" or "D" License.
Youth Module - coaching through U12
$25 for 3 hours of training

"E" License - all rec and classic through U13
$60 for 3 days of training

"D" License - all youth soccer at any level, though "C" is preferred for U14+ classic
$125 for 6 days of training

A lot of times, clubs will lower or pay for the cost to get their coaches licensed if they hold the actual course. I think I paid a low amount for my "D" License with MPSC years ago compared to the out of town coaches who came in for it.

At any rate, getting indignant over the YSL being $525 is a little unnecessary as it's not required or needed to coach...and it's not even directed at the part-time volunteer coach.


As for the cost argument...when I played, the major cost was travel expenses. The solution there is easy: don't let your kid play on a travel team. I loved traveling for soccer and I got a lot out of it, especially the trip we took to Oslo, Norway. Staying in South Carolina gave us MAYBE two competitive games a season, but traveling to tournaments gave us better competition and, when it was started, Premier League gave us consistent, good competition. I didn't travel to get noticed by Coach X at RandomWesternUniversity, I traveled to play good, hard soccer in cool places. Did I miss out on hanging out at home and getting into stupid teenager stuff? Probably. Do I ever, for one moment, regret the travel and the games? Heck no. Did it hurt me to travel and play Premier League instead of stay home and socialize? I'm about to turn 24, I'm in my last year of medical school, and I have a great group of friends and classmates that I spend plenty of time with and I still play soccer in adult leagues. Suffice it to say, I don't think it hurt me much.

There are a lot of reasons to not play travel league soccer, but saying it's because YOU think your kid will regret not being home shouldn't be one of them. Who's to say they won't regret NOT doing it? Let the player decide whether or not that's important to them.

SC is so small as a soccer community, you have to travel out of state to get consistently good competition without playing the same teams all the time. But if you don't want to pay to travel, then don't. Vote with your feet.

the, just get over it defense, got it.
i wonder why there is such a lack of minorities in this sport. i wonder if the soccer community would grow if it was somehow made more inclusive.

The answer is time and money

Neither the money to play or the parent/parents having the time(away from work) to support the time commitment to get the child to training or matches.

Of course the community would grow, the demographics may not support the prices. And that is a whole other topic.

Look, I am the absolute last person to say soccer is perfect. There's a lot wrong with the system and the way things are run, but complaining that travel is stupid and no one gets anything out of it aren't effective ways to find a solution.

My parents practically broke the bank to let me play and I appreciate every penny they spent on me. I've paid my way through college AND medical school and I'm putting money in the bank to save for my little sister's education, so I'm not an upper middle class elitest by any means.

It's hard to say without looking at the exact allocations, but club costs and coaching fees could probably be pared down and there should definitely be a lot of use of scholarships. But travel costs, aren't something you can really pare down without eliminating the travel or having extra income to cover scholarships for all travel. That doesn't mean that travel is stupid or useless or not productive, because it can be wonderful and it can be awful.

Those of you that know me on here know I don't tend to make blanket statements and I tend to dislike them in general. Soccer is expensive and we should work hard to lower the costs, but it is unnecessary to be making blanket statements that x or y is stupid or pointless.

Look, I am the absolute last person to say soccer is perfect. There's a lot wrong with the system and the way things are run, but complaining that travel is stupid and no one gets anything out of it aren't effective ways to find a solution.

...blanket statement alert.
& thanks for putting words in my mouth.

This is a doozey and getting better.

I'm a logical guy so lets see if we can boil this down and confirm the original assertion "Youth $occer is an eliti$t $port"

Let's discount the very top programs USSF Development Academy, CESA premier, etc. Lets put these aside and focus on the remaining 99.92% of playing youth. I think everyone will accept that travel at this highest level is the biggest cost and it is a choice (as long as parents/players are aware going into the program and I am assuming they are). So let's not focus there, lets step back, breath, and look at a much bigger picture.

According to HapppyDaddy's mid range costs for Rec/Classic/Challenge we can use $930 per year. Is that reasonable or does it create a culture of elitism as asserted initially?

Point 1: To find $930 annually in your pocket, in SC you would need to earn approx $1,600 in gross salary.
Point 2: According to US Bereau of Labor Statistics, average salary in SC is $37,040 (average teacher salary in SC $42,207 - teachersalaryinfo.com)
Point 3: The amount of discretionary income (net pay - food - bills - essentials) for households earning $50,000 is $2,075
Point 4: Over 75% of discretionary dollars in US is held by those earning over $100,000
Point 5: Elite (elitist) describes a group of people who are members of the uppermost class of society and wealth often contributes to that class determination.
Deduction Youth Soccer = Elite Sport

Regardless of coaching license distraction, sandman you are on to something
What do we (clubs, parents, administrators, coaches, everyone) do about it?

Reminds me of golf growing up. English golf clubs would charge so much that only the richest could afford it and made sure of that with absurd rules about membership, types of golf shoes and polo shirts.
We had to hack our way round a field full of cows just to enjoy the sport we wanted to play but couldn't afford and were intentionally kept out. Shouldn't be like this.