For travel soccer, why do parents have to help?

[Anonymous]

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?

[Anonymous]

Great idea. Make it more expensive to PRICE everyone out of an already overpriced market. Let's make sure that only top earners can afford it. Thanks, DCUM.

[Anonymous]

I actually don’t know which clubs require so much volunteer work. Ours certainly doesn’t.

[Anonymous]

I agree with you and my kid only plays rec soccer. I don’t want to be an assistant coach or snack organizer. I don’t think they even need a snack when they only play for an hour but I do provide one because it’s easy to do. I’d rather pay more too to not have the pressure of helping.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually don’t know which clubs require so much volunteer work. Ours certainly doesn’t.

Ours doesn't either. There is one team manager and that's it. Team manager may ask people for help on occasion to set up field.

Rec has volunteer coaches so it makes sense that they'd ask people to help.

Weird that they'd ask people to act like it's a team or something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with you and my kid only plays rec soccer. I don’t want to be an assistant coach or snack organizer. I don’t think they even need a snack when they only play for an hour but I do provide one because it’s easy to do. I’d rather pay more too to not have the pressure of helping.

Rec soccer is affordable for the community so everyone can participate. It doesn't run without volunteer coaches, assistant coaches, etc. (And no one is doing snacks this season due to Covid...)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually don’t know which clubs require so much volunteer work. Ours certainly doesn’t.

Same here. We have one team parent. That’s it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually don’t know which clubs require so much volunteer work. Ours certainly doesn’t.

Ours doesn't either. There is one team manager and that's it. Team manager may ask people for help on occasion to set up field.

Rec has volunteer coaches so it makes sense that they'd ask people to help.

Weird that they'd ask people to act like it's a team or something.

OP here. Yeah my DC's travel team has like 5 or 6 roles that parents volunteer for. Way too much parent involvement in the team. Is it a coincidence that the team captain's parent is also the team manager? Captain was chosen after the parent's filled team mgmt roles.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Our team manager mom is great and has a damn good player too, so I have no gripes about that. Only other thing that parents in our club do is field marshal games for the club's own tournaments. That involves holding a radio and contacting the trainer if someone gets hurt. Not a big deal. They used to have us tend the scoreboard for futsal too, but not anymore.

[Anonymous]

I have three kids in travel soccer and I have never noticed the favoritism you and others mention. Never. I have been on teams where the manager's kid doesn't start. I have a manager friend who's U14 kid has never advanced past the B team. I really haven't seen it ever over the years. What I see consistently across all the coaches and teams is that defenders come out a lot less than others players, sometimes not at all. I manage my youngest's team and he pretty much never came out of games when he was younger and played centerback. Now he's a midfielder and rotates with others.

My kids are on two different clubs. One has a much larger overhead and fewer volunteers. The other has very little overhead and parent volunteers do almost everything. Smart managers delegate but sometimes one person does it all. We have a few roles on the team that I manage but it is still A LOT of work and a lot to keep track of. I don't mind most of it and I like the feel of this club more than the other. I will say that the absolute worst part of being a manager, hands down, makes me want to quit it all, is dealing with certain parents: especially the ones who sit on the field with a timer and then come and complain to ME about their kid's playing time.

[Anonymous]

Why are they complaining to you about playing time? I mean your the team manager not the coach?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have three kids in travel soccer and I have never noticed the favoritism you and others mention. Never. I have been on teams where the manager's kid doesn't start. I have a manager friend who's U14 kid has never advanced past the B team. I really haven't seen it ever over the years. What I see consistently across all the coaches and teams is that defenders come out a lot less than others players, sometimes not at all. I manage my youngest's team and he pretty much never came out of games when he was younger and played centerback. Now he's a midfielder and rotates with others.

Same with our team. Our CDM and CBs rarely come out. Usually only if their hurt or late game if we have the game in the bag or get stomped.

[Anonymous]

My child’s travel club has no parent volunteering or team manager. It’s all handled by the paid coaches and admin staff. That’s probably why it costs $3100 but honestly I’d rather pay a little more to avoid all that. No parent involvement also cuts down on politics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are they complaining to you about playing time? I mean your the team manager not the coach?

I guess some think I am an intermediary or something? Like I have access to the coach and that I'll represent them? Or maybe they want advice on how to talk to the coach. Sometimes maybe they want some kind of moral support or me to agree that it is unfair. Obviously none of that is my job. It is incredibly awkward and I always try to cut it off as soon as I can and say you should talk to the coach and I have no say or knowledge about any of these decisions. But every year there is some of this.