Reply to ISO coaching advice regarding my 8G girls team

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[quote=Anonymous]Fellow rec coaches – I’ve got a question I want to run by you. I coach an 8G girls team. We are a good team (relative to the other teams in our division), but we have extremely weak goalkeeping. We have a keeper with zero athletic ability, and who is scared to use her hands -- she thinks that contact with the ball will hurt, even with gloves on -- so she almost exclusively uses her feet to stop the ball, and doesn’t even do this very well. About 50% of shots (even weak shots) end up reaching the back of the net.

Obviously, the sensible option is to put another kid in goal. We have done this in a few games, and the positive effects are immediate. Every kid I’ve tested in goal has performed much better than our primary keeper. However, the primary keeper (let’s call her “Susan”) takes great pride in being our goalie and is visibly upset whenever I replace her with somebody else. Moreover, Susan has a lot of trouble in school, where she is bullied and teased by other kids. She struggles to make friends. I find her difficult to interact with – she is not an easy-going person and seems unable to govern her emotions. She has very poor listening skills. She resists efforts to coach her and to help her improve. When a coach tries to teach her proper technique, she sometimes argues with the coach, convinced that she is a talented keeper and that she needs no help – yet she is the worst keeper I’ve encountered in my 7 years of coaching.

This brings me to my question for fellow rec coaches: what would you do in this situation?

Obviously, removing her from goalie will improve the team’s chances to win games. But I worry about her mental state, and I worry that stripping her of the keeper position will lead to more emotional suffering. This is a kid who is having a very hard time socially. I don’t want to make her struggles even worse, but this situation isn’t good for our team. Keep in mind, however, that Susan doesn't have an accurate view of herself as a goalkeeper. She believes she is really good, and takes pride in her role as keeper. I have never punctured this strange bubble -- I'm never been honest with her (about her goalkeeping) because I have no interest in making her life worse. This leaves me stuck between a rock and a hard place. 
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