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[quote=Anonymous]The cynic in me notes that a lot of kids drop out of soccer as they age — people fret about this, sometimes justifiably so, but the reality is that kids may have 3-4 activities at age 10 that they whittle down to 1-2 at age 15 — and so it’s only natural that kids move “up.” I see a lot of kids who finally make travel teams at U-14 after years of trying, and while it’s nice to see their persistence rewarded, the reality is that the club has gone from having 100 or more kids try out at U-9 to having 40 kids try out at U-14, so nearly everyone is on the first or second team. I saw some ECNL-R rosters (roughly NPL equivalent) recently and was surprised by some of the people who made it.

And the realist in me notes that physicality is a bigger part of the game than we care to admit. We have romantic notions that soccer is all about skill because we see relatively short people like Messi succeeding. But if you watch Messi closely, you’ll see that he’s a tough dude who can fight through physical challenges. That’s one reason why he’s a megastar while a player who was also being hyped as a youth player around the same time fell out of pro soccer altogether. Everyone remember who that was? Hint — started at DC United at age 14. (And no, the fact that he was comparatively slow and not so physical wasn’t the only reason he didn’t pan out the way everyone thought he would.)

But at the same time, your DD clearly takes the game seriously, and that’s great. There are plenty of physically gifted players in rec leagues who either didn’t “get it” or chose to focus elsewhere. Your DD has done well to find her level, and that’s good. I don’t know if colleges recruit heavily at NPL level, but maybe if she wants to play D3, it could open a couple of doors for her. That’s secondary, though, to the fact that she’s thriving in something she loves, and her hard work is being rewarded. We should all be so lucky! 
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