For travel soccer, why do parents have to help?

[Anonymous]

We're on a low level team and have team manager, treasurer and social chair. I wonder if the ECNL team in our club has the same....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

OP here. I'm good with paying $1K more to have a team admin and no parent involvement. Parent involvement in the administrative / team management roles is what makes travel soccer cliqish which needs to be eliminated. Not only is the club taking your money but taking your time as well. Club's need to figure out how to operate without player parent involvement. Only thing parents should doing is schlepping the kids around and standing on the sidelines cheering them on.

Our club does exactly that and pitches no parent involvement as a feature. Parents must stay off the field during training and games and will get talked to if they are joysticking their kid during games. No direct communication between coaches and parents, to talk with staff you schedule a meeting through the admin and age group TD. It works pretty well.

Can you share the club name? That is a great feature!!

Barca Academy NoVa

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're on a low level team and have team manager, treasurer and social chair. I wonder if the ECNL team in our club has the same....

does the social chair host mixers with the other clubs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is there a classroom parent role in schools? Aren't we paying for the teachers with our high taxes? Why can't the teacher or the principal organize the field trips and class parties?

The reality is there is a bunch of grunt work to do to make the team operational--outside of just the games. Do you want your coach doing that grunt work or coaching your players?

I am on a team that has 5+ parent volunteer roles and am so thankful for that. Just doing the tournament administration is a job in itself. Hoisting it on one team parent is insane unless that person has a ton of time to devote. Many hands make light work...

If you wanted clubs to hire an admin for every team your fees would be much higher. If you wanted your coaach to do this, your player would have less coaching.

The classroom parent role is there to keep parents busy so they bother the teachers less. You weren't under the impression that it benefits the children or the teacher were you?

Are the parent volunteer roles in soccer the same?

Yes. They are. They filter crap so that the coach doesn’t have to deal. Can you imagine a coach getting 28 texts on whether a practice is canceled due to rain or which color shirt to wear?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If parents are paying for travel soccer, why do parents have to help run the team? Clubs look for parents to be the team manager, the treasurer, the tournament coordinator, uniform coordinator, etc.?

First, at the club my DC is on we pay roughly $2500 for the annual club fee's + all the other travel related expenses when traveling out of state (gas/flight, hotel, etc.) which can be close to or more than $6K+ annually. Personally, I wouldn't mind paying $1K more so parents would have no involvement in the team.

Second, when parents do volunteer it seems their kid gets better treatment from the coach which is unfair. Parents should have no involvement in the team's management, finances and/or coordination as it creates too much of a bias. I've always felt the DC should maintain their status on the team based on their own accord. Having parents involved in the team creates bias.

As parents, we already have busy lives outside of our DC's travel soccer and we pay good money to have them play travel. The only involvement we should have us to stand on the sidelines and cheer them on.

Thoughts?

Ah, you’ve discovered the joys of Loudoun $occer. Congratulations. You can now rep the red on social media. That alone puts you levels ahead of anyone else in life.

Dude. You’re late to the program. Now it’s LoudounAdvantage.


if you say it in front of the mirror three times you magically increase your soccer skills by 180%.

[Anonymous]

We only have a Team Manager and a Team Treasurer who handles the Team fees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're on a low level team and have team manager, treasurer and social chair. I wonder if the ECNL team in our club has the same....

does the social chair host mixers with the other clubs?

Ha! Sorority days popped out. No just within the team gir the kids to get to see each other outside of games, brings birthday treats, etc.

[Anonymous]

That's why we left BRYC Girls program a few years back. All the U9-U12 teams are coached by player's parents. And you can guess where their kids played

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're on a low level team and have team manager, treasurer and social chair. I wonder if the ECNL team in our club has the same....

does the social chair host mixers with the other clubs?

DP. The social chair for our team is mainly responsible for coordinating group meals when we are at out-of-town tournaments, and getting a team photo to slap on some end-of-season cupcakes.

[Anonymous]

Team Treasurers deserve thanks from parents vs gripes on this Board. It’s a PIA job to collect and chase people who are delinquent in team fees, tournament fees or other items that are shared costs.

You are lucky you have a parent volunteer (or multiple) who do this job so you don’t have to. And no, their kids don’t get more playing time. They do it because somebody has to in order for the team to function.

Of course the club could always contract for with a collections agency and charge back to all parents all the costs when 1 parent is late.

I for one don’t want to pay out of pocket because other parents can’t pay on time...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're on a low level team and have team manager, treasurer and social chair. I wonder if the ECNL team in our club has the same....

I'm on an ECNL team - no idea whether the same club or a different one. We have a team manager, a treasurer, and a social media person. I think we used to have a travel coordinator too - but maybe the team manager does that as well now. We don't have a social chair - or if we do they haven't done anything this year .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Team Treasurers deserve thanks from parents vs gripes on this Board. It’s a PIA job to collect and chase people who are delinquent in team fees, tournament fees or other items that are shared costs.

You are lucky you have a parent volunteer (or multiple) who do this job so you don’t have to. And no, their kids don’t get more playing time. They do it because somebody has to in order for the team to function.

Of course the club could always contract for with a collections agency and charge back to all parents all the costs when 1 parent is late.

I for one don’t want to pay out of pocket because other parents can’t pay on time...

I was a team treasurer for a while. I just held up a big sign at a game with the names of all parents who were late paying. I only had to do it once and then I never had any more problems.

[Anonymous]

I am the video guy of the team (volunteer), save about $1500 a year ($50 x 30 games) for the team, to record and host game videos with my own devices.
The club should have better resources for the task but does not care.

[Anonymous]

I'm generally the team manager for my son's team, and we have an equipment manager for benches etc. It's not that much work.

In terms of favoritism for kids, I do think that my kid gets slightly more playing time because the coach knows that I have to put up with a lot of crap from other parents, other team managers etc. about scheduling, random nonsense. Not a ton, but a bit. I will say that one year, another person was the team manager, and their kid was a weak player relative to other kids on the team, and their kid did not get anything extra. So I think that at the margins, it can help, but not beyond that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Team Treasurers deserve thanks from parents vs gripes on this Board. It’s a PIA job to collect and chase people who are delinquent in team fees, tournament fees or other items that are shared costs.

You are lucky you have a parent volunteer (or multiple) who do this job so you don’t have to. And no, their kids don’t get more playing time. They do it because somebody has to in order for the team to function.

Of course the club could always contract for with a collections agency and charge back to all parents all the costs when 1 parent is late.

I for one don’t want to pay out of pocket because other parents can’t pay on time...

I was a team treasurer for a while. I just held up a big sign at a game with the names of all parents who were late paying. I only had to do it once and then I never had any more problems.

LOL