Any ways for high school boys to play soccer casually and for fun?

[Anonymous]

I know most parents on his forum are very serious and/ or competitive about soccer. So maybe I should've put this on the general sports forum, but I think many of you will also be able to relate.

DS is a freshman whose main sport is swimming. Throughout elementary and middle school he played rec soccer and was a mediocre player but loved it.

Lately he's been talking about how much he misses a team sport, and the camaraderie of it. Has been asking to get back into soccer, not in place of swimming, but as something to do on the side, for the team feel.

He's definitely not good enough to make the high school team or a travel team, is our only option that he just join something like MSI rec? Most of the kids he used to play with have either gone "up or out "- they either specialized and are now excellent players or they dropped it in favor of other sports (a sad consequence of the competitiveness and specialization going on, but that's another topic).

Are there other good options in the Bethesda /rockville area for good casual teams? Does anyone ever do informal pick up games in the park, that kind of thing? We used to live in NY and saw this all the time, informal games where kids could just join in. Does this happen anywhere?

Thanks for any suggestions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know most parents on his forum are very serious and/ or competitive about soccer. So maybe I should've put this on the general sports forum, but I think many of you will also be able to relate.

DS is a freshman whose main sport is swimming. Throughout elementary and middle school he played rec soccer and was a mediocre player but loved it.

Lately he's been talking about how much he misses a team sport, and the camaraderie of it. Has been asking to get back into soccer, not in place of swimming, but as something to do on the side, for the team feel.

He's definitely not good enough to make the high school team or a travel team, is our only option that he just join something like MSI rec? Most of the kids he used to play with have either gone "up or out "- they either specialized and are now excellent players or they dropped it in favor of other sports (a sad consequence of the competitiveness and specialization going on, but that's another topic).

Are there other good options in the Bethesda /rockville area for good casual teams? Does anyone ever do informal pick up games in the park, that kind of thing? We used to live in NY and saw this all the time, informal games where kids could just join in. Does this happen anywhere?

Thanks for any suggestions.

If he just wants to play for fun, rec is usually the way to go. The high school near us always has a couple of kids shooting on goal but never enough for a game.

[Anonymous]

Thanks. OP here. I'll also repost this thread to the general sports forum, think this forum is more for people who are really serious about soccer and not connected to the rec world.

[Anonymous]

My son’s high school has a Soccer PE class and while a lot of serious players take the class, they enjoy that it’s just fun rather than so competitive.

[Anonymous]

I think rec teams have high school soccer teams. It may just be a 9-12 team.

[Anonymous]

I suggest rec with MSI. They’ll find him a team if he doesn’t know of one. I have a friend whose son chose to play in HS and her husband coached. She said they had a blast. My son is currently in HS but a few years ago he had a friend make the move to rec soccer. He’s since lost touch (different HSs) but at the time it worked out well. Meanwhile, my son is always looking for kids to play with. If he had any friend express an interest, travel or rec level, he’d happily make a plan.

[Anonymous]

There are also club teams that have less competitive second tier teams. My son is on a second level “travel” team — they do travel but it’s like maybe eastern shore or Richmond. Most games are within 30-60 minutes and they practice two times a week. If your son is very fit from swimming and can do a decent sprint he may be able to make up for what he lacks in footwork skills just by being fit and game. But he’s still need to commit to 2x week practices and a game most weekends. Not sure if that’s more than rec.