would love for NCSL to merge "travel" and "rec" divisions

[Anonymous]

I am a rec team dad coach. I can say our most of our families don't want that level of commitment or competition. Most of our practices, only half the team shows up. Some consistently late. You ask them to rsvp to games and most don't, so forget about trying to put together a gameday plan/roster. Some show up wearing the wrong color jersey on game day, so now we're scrambling to find something for them to wear to play. A percentage of the players don't attend away games, so we're lucky we have a dedicated core that shows up to everything or we would forfeit. A lot of people just don't care that much; they are just happy their kids are doing something. And yes, we are taking our core group and they are playing travel next year. They were good enough to get offers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a rec team dad coach. I can say our most of our families don't want that level of commitment or competition. Most of our practices, only half the team shows up. Some consistently late. You ask them to rsvp to games and most don't, so forget about trying to put together a gameday plan/roster. Some show up wearing the wrong color jersey on game day, so now we're scrambling to find something for them to wear to play. A percentage of the players don't attend away games, so we're lucky we have a dedicated core that shows up to everything or we would forfeit. A lot of people just don't care that much; they are just happy their kids are doing something. And yes, we are taking our core group and they are playing travel next year. They were good enough to get offers.

This is basically the most accurate overview of rec even down to having kids qualified for travel but it took a qualified coach who cared to take the initiative to provide the opportunity and force the issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a rec team dad coach. I can say our most of our families don't want that level of commitment or competition. Most of our practices, only half the team shows up. Some consistently late. You ask them to rsvp to games and most don't, so forget about trying to put together a gameday plan/roster. Some show up wearing the wrong color jersey on game day, so now we're scrambling to find something for them to wear to play. A percentage of the players don't attend away games, so we're lucky we have a dedicated core that shows up to everything or we would forfeit. A lot of people just don't care that much; they are just happy their kids are doing something. And yes, we are taking our core group and they are playing travel next year. They were good enough to get offers.

Thank you for your candid honesty! This is 100% accurate. I hope your DC and company enjoy their new experiences at travel. My DC loves it and will never look back. At the same time we appreciated our time at rec, but any kid with a desire to play more seriously has to move beyond the limitations of rec. And before some loud mouth chime in and say, "There are amazing rec player!!! Bla Bla Bla" ... yes, we know. The point is that Rec player could have been greater in travel.

[Anonymous]

Good rec players can definitely be better in travel because of the players they are up against, before anyone starts crying that rec coaches can be good. They can. Many (most?) aren't, and not all travel coaches are great, but the level of competition pushes players to improve.

[Anonymous]

There is a reason there are both rec and travel. Price, commitment, desire to train year-round- all of those are factors. There is a place for both of them.

[Anonymous]

^100%. If we want to grow the game here we need to embrace all levels and encourage pickup games without structure. It doesn’t matter where the kids play as long as they love the game and want to play.