Quote:

If your friend has a hat trick and you have zilch, what HS kid isn't going for it? If you have nevery scored a goal and you have that opportunity...what is stopping you? I just don't think we can assume that HS kids have the desire to pull off themselves. Too many factors in play.



I don't know about most HS players, but I can vouch for the one who wrote that post above. She's one of mine, and I watched it happen. We were playing last year against a developing team, and although they had spirit, the goals were coming pretty easily. Now, anyone familiar with my school knows that my players don't get a whole lot of opportunities to score goals; we've been on the bleeding end of the blowout from time to time, but to say my girls were goal-starved might be an understatement. I was rotating players out after they scored and giving some girls a chance who hadn't had any PT yet that season...at halftime, I told my keeper I was going to rotate her out into the field to get some ball touch time; she's actually a pretty talented forward and outside mid, but we need her in goal, so she doesn't get much chance to dribble, much less take a shot, any more.

Before I had a chance to say another word about scoring restrictions, she just looked at me and said, "Coach, I'll go in...but I won't score."

Nobody else on the team gave in to the urge to plant one in for the rest of the game after that either; we had a good sesson of possession practice, counted passes, and ripped one wide now and then rather than pointedly dribbling up to the keeper and turning around.

I don't think anyone left that game mad.

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