Recreational Soccer 1; Academy 0

This year my husband decided to take on the challenge and coach my daughter’s soccer team.

Let me back up.

Over the last couple of years, my daughter was playing academy soccer. Playing academy means you’ll have to practice 3 days a week for an hour and a half, travel to different soccer fields on Saturday and Sunday for games. But here’s the ugly part often times it requires you to drive out of the state or a minimum of an hour. Wait, that’s not the ugly part… the parents are the ugly part!

Keep in mind these are 10-year-old girls. Parents are arguing, and after a long hard stare across the field, they are on the brink of fighting each other. Men fighting men. Men fighting with women.

I actually overhear parents saying;

“Why did the coach put that girl in? She’s not as good as my daughter, and she can barely run”.

“If the coach wants to win, then he better keep my daughter in because she’s the top scorer.”

“Don’t let her beat you to the ball; you’re faster than her”

These are the nicest comments I can share with you all and these girls are only THEY ARE 10!

BUT I told my husband that our daughter wasn’t ready for the academy experience, nor were we. She’s too young and should stick with rec for a couple of years. All the girls on the academy team, except for maybe 2, will play in college. So in my eyes, being in that environment is a waste of time, money, and effort. To me, academy should start when the kids are in 7th or 8th grade. But I know the soccer organizations are drooling at the number of kids that will join so the parents can cough up $2500-3000 per year. They are selling you a dream, and making all these parents believe that this price and time wasted is worth it.

Here’s what really gets me. When you are on the top team, which she was. You will have to go to Disney during the entire week of Thanksgiving break and stay at a hotel while the girls have tournaments. So this means passing up on family traditions, cooking, and having holiday fun so you can sit in a dusty Disney hotel room and eat take out.

Don’t even get me started on how much money you will waste so that your little girls or boys can play soccer (insert major EYEROLL). Families are spending 1,000’s of dollars on this tournament. And if you have a family the size of mine with kids that are giants, you need at least two hotel rooms. Oh, and mind you, Disney DOES NOT give discounts for this darn event!

That will never be my family! Holidays mean everything to me, and being with my family is my number one goal. I refuse to have take out and eat with soccer parents for a whole week that I barely know. And I really don’t like them, so I’m not looking to get to know them either.

So my husband took all of this into consideration and decided to coach our girl’s team. The field is so close we could walk… we don’t, but we could. The option is definitely there if we’re feeling spunky. And so far they have a winning season. We only have one parent that should consider laying off the morning caffeine. I’ll talk about him on this Saturday’s post.

But other than that all is well in the world of recreational soccer.

You could have chosen any blog to read, but you chose mine, and I’m honored!

~Belladonna~