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[quote=Anonymous]À ton of kids play soccer around here, maybe because we are just a large metro area and you have a lot of kids in general, or maybe because we have a lot of people from other countries where soccer (football) is really popular.

As PP noted we don’t have a strong free play culture here, so most kids’ soccer experiences are in organized settings only. Many volunteer rec coaches do not come from a soccer background and don’t really teach the kids real soccer. And half the kids on the rec teams have zero skills because they don’t touch a soccer ball outside of one team practice a week.  So parents of kids who look halfway good start to feel like they should put their kid on a travel soccer team so they can be around other kids who are decent and coaches who actually know the game.

Once you’ve been sucked into the travel culture, kids are competing for spots within their team or to move up to a higher level team or league. The whole tryout/offer thing is stressful and not to the benefit of the kids. But people feel like they have to play the game to ensure their child is on a team that’s right for them. These clubs cost enough money that it can feel like a big waste if you’re on the wrong team and have to stay the whole year because they won’t refund you. For boys, making a high school team is hard if you’re not on a top level team. So there is this pressure to get to and stay at the top even if college soccer is not the goal.

It’s really messed up. And instead of recognizing the actual problems, US Soccer just keeps allowing creation of more leagues, tapping into kids’ and parents’ FOMO.

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