Reply to Vent: current landscape and player participation

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I've been coaching in the area for 13 years.

Part of me wants to congratulate you for working with kids who eventually move on to ECNL or MLSNext Teams. There are a lot of coaches who would like to work with that sort of talent, and hopefully some of that development was because of you.

The grass is always greener, and it's tough for smaller clubs who aren't at least 2 teams deep in each age group to field good teams consistently. The best you can hope for is that you're creating an environment and reputation that makes the prospect of leaving the team a very difficult decision. You will still lose players to what others perceive as better opportunities, but it is, what it is.

Coming from a poor family myself, families w/ low resources face more challenges than just the ability to pay for soccer. Are any of your players having transportation issues? Sometimes all it takes is to have that one or two families willing to make sure everyone gets to where they need to, to make a huge difference.

I don't know what club you are with, but it can also be a mentality people have with the club itself, especially if it's not their first choice. How the club presents itself matters.

I wish you luck! Been there, done that.[/quote]

I’m OP and this resonated with me. I moved to this club because there is no way, playing growing up, my parents could afford for me to play for the clubs I was coaching at.

I was feeling like an imposter, even though I’ve always had a blast following the kids I’ve coached through college.

The kids don’t show up for any reason other than they have no experience being held accountable. There are coaches who take a “show up when you can” approach. I’m not one of them. I’m giving my 100% yo coach the team. The dedicated players are giving 100% to play and get better. What makes you special enough to be the exception, when you are the one who really needs to show up and get better??

I enjoy coaching kids w potential and who have passion. I am aware of the many challenges facing DC soccer, including (no offense) a hs league where the kids aren’t exactly getting better from the level of competition.

But when we try to control what we can control, showing up to matches and practices is top of the list. That’s the frustrating thing. Injuries happen, we aren’t as good as other teams, etc we can’t really control that.

But you can control the amount of effort you put in and it’s just sad and frustrating that so many kids don’t understand at a younger age what’s expected of them. I’m not saying it’s all the parents but like, my parents weren’t ever gonna be like “oh you can spit practice tonight” to hell with that. I signed up, I committed, I learned what it’s like to sacrifice and be part of the team. [/quote]

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