Trapped 8th Grader Advice

[Anonymous]

I’d appreciate recommendations for a trapped 8th grade player. My son plays for a small club (one team per age group) where most players will be 9th graders in the fall. It’s unclear if the club will have a fall season for the small number of trapped kids left behind. Even they do, I worry that the 9th graders will (understandably) no show for practice and perhaps skip games since they are also playing high school soccer. Practicing with the younger age group team is probably an option but seems less than ideal for development.

I recall seeing some larger clubs form an 8th grade team for the fall season with trapped players from various teams across different levels of the club. Any experience with those teams and whether they are open to outside players for the trapped fall season?

Any general advice on how best to navigate the trapped 8th grader situation as we approach spring tryouts would be appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Very few 9th graders make the JV soccer teams at our large public. I'm assuming your son plays on a crazy high level team, for you to be worried about this? You could drop down to a weaker team with kids who definitely won't make their HS teams..

[Anonymous]

The silver lining will be in 1-2 years when he can go to college showcase events as a 9th and 10th grader and get a jump on college selection process. He will have a much better grasp of this compared to the rest of his younger classmates.

In the mean time, this spring season will likely face some challenges. I would talk with the Tech Director, Director of Coaches or Club GM to help you find sufficient practices for your player. At our club, they make sure kids have access to other practices so kids are not left out. Now is a really good time to have those conversations with your club.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The silver lining will be in 1-2 years when he can go to college showcase events as a 9th and 10th grader and get a jump on college selection process. He will have a much better grasp of this compared to the rest of his younger classmates.

In the mean time, this spring season will likely face some challenges. I would talk with the Tech Director, Director of Coaches or Club GM to help you find sufficient practices for your player. At our club, they make sure kids have access to other practices so kids are not left out. Now is a really good time to have those conversations with your club.

Good luck!

Fake silver lining is gone when school year age cutoffs kick in for fall 2026.

Next spring will be the season for your kid to find a top team as they will be classified in an age group a year younger. Switching to often is tough, wait until next year.

You can view your kid as getting only half a year of soccer next year so time to take a break but overall will gain a year of youth soccer.

Good luck also.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The silver lining will be in 1-2 years when he can go to college showcase events as a 9th and 10th grader and get a jump on college selection process. He will have a much better grasp of this compared to the rest of his younger classmates.

In the mean time, this spring season will likely face some challenges. I would talk with the Tech Director, Director of Coaches or Club GM to help you find sufficient practices for your player. At our club, they make sure kids have access to other practices so kids are not left out. Now is a really good time to have those conversations with your club.

Good luck!

Fake silver lining is gone when school year age cutoffs kick in for fall 2026.

Next spring will be the season for your kid to find a top team as they will be classified in an age group a year younger. Switching to often is tough, wait until next year.

You can view your kid as getting only half a year of soccer next year so time to take a break but overall will gain a year of youth soccer.

Good luck also.

Allegedly there will be school year cutoffs in 2026

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d appreciate recommendations for a trapped 8th grade player. My son plays for a small club (one team per age group) where most players will be 9th graders in the fall. It’s unclear if the club will have a fall season for the small number of trapped kids left behind. Even they do, I worry that the 9th graders will (understandably) no show for practice and perhaps skip games since they are also playing high school soccer. Practicing with the younger age group team is probably an option but seems less than ideal for development.

I recall seeing some larger clubs form an 8th grade team for the fall season with trapped players from various teams across different levels of the club. Any experience with those teams and whether they are open to outside players for the trapped fall season?

Any general advice on how best to navigate the trapped 8th grader situation as we approach spring tryouts would be appreciated.

The first thing I would do is to cry about the lost 3 months that he will just never get back in his life. The developmental gains those players getting their HS season in while your kid simply rots on the vine and forgets all of the last 10 years of soccer will be irrecoverable. Simply put, its over, he will never be the same player again and will be forever left behind because of those three months.

Or, you could chill out, enjoy the rest, do something else and let his body recover. I don't think I could eye roll this post harder if I tried. So much silly, misplaced worrying over nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d appreciate recommendations for a trapped 8th grade player. My son plays for a small club (one team per age group) where most players will be 9th graders in the fall. It’s unclear if the club will have a fall season for the small number of trapped kids left behind. Even they do, I worry that the 9th graders will (understandably) no show for practice and perhaps skip games since they are also playing high school soccer. Practicing with the younger age group team is probably an option but seems less than ideal for development.

I recall seeing some larger clubs form an 8th grade team for the fall season with trapped players from various teams across different levels of the club. Any experience with those teams and whether they are open to outside players for the trapped fall season?

Any general advice on how best to navigate the trapped 8th grader situation as we approach spring tryouts would be appreciated.

The first thing I would do is to cry about the lost 3 months that he will just never get back in his life. The developmental gains those players getting their HS season in while your kid simply rots on the vine and forgets all of the last 10 years of soccer will be irrecoverable. Simply put, its over, he will never be the same player again and will be forever left behind because of those three months.

Or, you could chill out, enjoy the rest, do something else and let his body recover. I don't think I could eye roll this post harder if I tried. So much silly, misplaced worrying over nothing.

The saddest part about these paranoid trapped player parents, is the fact that they have multiple options for their DC to get in quality development work over the 3 months that's much better than what the HS kids are getting.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for the helpful ideas and suggestions. In response to the prior post about alternative development options, I’d appreciate any constructive suggestions. Private training outside of the club? Just honestly trying to find a good fit for a kid who wants to play and is worried his fiends and teammates will be elsewhere this fall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for the helpful ideas and suggestions. In response to the prior post about alternative development options, I’d appreciate any constructive suggestions. Private training outside of the club? Just honestly trying to find a good fit for a kid who wants to play and is worried his fiends and teammates will be elsewhere this fall.

Hi OP, let us know what area you live in?

At your son's age, he should be driving the motivation bus and it sounds like he is ready to get to work!

Hopefully, some suggestions will trickle through to hope out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d appreciate recommendations for a trapped 8th grade player. My son plays for a small club (one team per age group) where most players will be 9th graders in the fall. It’s unclear if the club will have a fall season for the small number of trapped kids left behind. Even they do, I worry that the 9th graders will (understandably) no show for practice and perhaps skip games since they are also playing high school soccer. Practicing with the younger age group team is probably an option but seems less than ideal for development.

I recall seeing some larger clubs form an 8th grade team for the fall season with trapped players from various teams across different levels of the club. Any experience with those teams and whether they are open to outside players for the trapped fall season?

Any general advice on how best to navigate the trapped 8th grader situation as we approach spring tryouts would be appreciated.

Consider moving to a larger club that will have multiple teams at his age group. This happened at our club and they combined the different tiered teams to practice together because the high schoolers rarely showed because of games or HS practice.

[Anonymous]

I'm in MD and none of the games for our area were on the weekends, so my 9th grade son did both his club and high school team games, without an issue. He also did double practices and would just take it a little easier.
The practices were lighter in terms of attendance, so a club with multiple teams might be better if you want a huge number of kids at practice. He's at a club with 1 team per birth year.