Playing Down in Youth Soccer...what's legal?

[Anonymous]

^nah. I played Varsity as a Freshmen and we won State that year. I think it’s a bunch of adults that want a trophy using ringers. There is a lot of animosity amongst the 6 teams and , frankly, most kids on the B team think the A kids are a bunch of assholes—which they can be with their prima Donna attitudes and annoying parents. Bringing 2 of them down would destroy the team chemistry.

I have no problem with teams playing up or kids playing up age groups. It sends a wrong message to have kids playing under their potential so the Club can rack up points.

If a kid is struggling and she’s sent down which makes room for a strong player to guest with the team above that’s different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^nah. I played Varsity as a Freshmen and we won State that year. I think it’s a bunch of adults that want a trophy using ringers. There is a lot of animosity amongst the 6 teams and , frankly, most kids on the B team think the A kids are a bunch of assholes—which they can be with their prima Donna attitudes and annoying parents. Bringing 2 of them down would destroy the team chemistry.

I have no problem with teams playing up or kids playing up age groups. It sends a wrong message to have kids playing under their potential so the Club can rack up points.

If a kid is struggling and she’s sent down which makes room for a strong player to guest with the team above that’s different.

There's no way you can generalize without knowing the specifics of every situation. Our son plays on a B team and we had a guest player from the A team at a recent tournament. He was with us because his best friend plays on our team and they wanted to play together. I think he's one of the best players on the A team (our boys practice with them and scrimmage against them all the time), but not sure everyone would agree. He's a really smart, skillful player, but tiny and gets knocked off the ball frequently.

We played so much better with him there. He always plays the ball to the right place, and the rest of the team learned a lot about making runs in anticipation of his passes. They kept this up when he was subbed out (and hopefully will remember in the spring season). A couple of the parents on the team we beat in the championship came over afterward to compliment our players on their passing, and one of them was asking our guest player's dad what he did for extra training. I was thinking about how much different this was from the reaction we saw with guest players when my oldest son started in travel soccer years ago when the reactions were almost always hostile, along the lines of what you and OP are saying.

I'm sure it was a great experience for our guest player as well since his style doesn't always mesh with the way the more athletically advanced kids on his regular team play.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^nah. I played Varsity as a Freshmen and we won State that year. I think it’s a bunch of adults that want a trophy using ringers. There is a lot of animosity amongst the 6 teams and , frankly, most kids on the B team think the A kids are a bunch of assholes—which they can be with their prima Donna attitudes and annoying parents. Bringing 2 of them down would destroy the team chemistry.

I have no problem with teams playing up or kids playing up age groups. It sends a wrong message to have kids playing under their potential so the Club can rack up points.

If a kid is struggling and she’s sent down which makes room for a strong player to guest with the team above that’s different.

There's no way you can generalize without knowing the specifics of every situation. Our son plays on a B team and we had a guest player from the A team at a recent tournament. He was with us because his best friend plays on our team and they wanted to play together. I think he's one of the best players on the A team (our boys practice with them and scrimmage against them all the time), but not sure everyone would agree. He's a really smart, skillful player, but tiny and gets knocked off the ball frequently.

We played so much better with him there. He always plays the ball to the right place, and the rest of the team learned a lot about making runs in anticipation of his passes. They kept this up when he was subbed out (and hopefully will remember in the spring season). A couple of the parents on the team we beat in the championship came over afterward to compliment our players on their passing, and one of them was asking our guest player's dad what he did for extra training. I was thinking about how much different this was from the reaction we saw with guest players when my oldest son started in travel soccer years ago when the reactions were almost always hostile, along the lines of what you and OP are saying.

I'm sure it was a great experience for our guest player as well since his style doesn't always mesh with the way the more athletically advanced kids on his regular team play.

Best reply on this thread! Friends and supporting the B team, plus A kid gets to feel good about the fit of his skill set.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you consider it as bad sportsmanship if a top A team player decides to join the B team because he/she likes the coach better?

I don't think picking a lower team because you like the coach is a bad thing. It just depends on what you want your child to get out of it... competitive sports or fun socialization?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you consider it as bad sportsmanship if a top A team player decides to join the B team because he/she likes the coach better?

I don't think picking a lower team because you like the coach is a bad thing. It just depends on what you want your child to get out of it... competitive sports or fun socialization?

That seems like the losers way out of tough competition. Just saying. What exactly are you teaching your kid?

[Anonymous]

you are talking players going from A team to B team. Now imagine all these "fake" teams of academies like futboltech or EJE7, etc who put together teams of super players to score tournament points. I would not care, just play the game as long as the ages match.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:you are talking players going from A team to B team. Now imagine all these "fake" teams of academies like futboltech or EJE7, etc who put together teams of super players to score tournament points. I would not care, just play the game as long as the ages match.

Agreed but I think you should play to your level. That’s why we separate rec and travel.