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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OK soccer coach (and uber-parents) - please help me understand the whole point of travel soccer.  I would understand getting together the top, say 5% of players in an area and forming a team with them and having them compete against other similar teams.  And those teams would probably need to be further away to create the top level of competition.  So I get why travel soccer started.

BUT... that doesn't seem to be the case now.  Now, it's the top 1/3 or more of kids in any given club that is on the "travel" team.  So there are more than enough teams to have a county-by-county similarly competitve league.
We are currently in a U8 county league.  Team is doing well - only one loss, but no blow outs.  The competition is fine.    The coach is planning to move to NCSL for U9.  Likewise, most of the other top teams in the county league are moving to travel too.  So now everyone is paying more money, just to drive further to play teams that are the same as the ones we could find in our own county.

Why the racket?  What's the real benefit to the kids?  Why not competitive county-wide (for example) leagues?

DS won't be trying out for the U9 travel team this year.  My idea of a fun family day isn't traveling 1.5 to watch a bunch of 8 year olds play slightly above average soccer for 40 minutes.  
To hear his coach say it, we've just doomed him to never play good soccer in his life.  Sigh.[/quote]

It sounds like you have made your decision so I'm not really sure why you are even asking this question but I'll try and answer with a little more respect than the questions was posed.

I'm not going to get into the structure of leagues because it is what it is at this point.

1. "My idea of a fun family day isn't traveling 1.5 to watch a bunch of 8 year olds play slightly above average soccer for 40 minutes. "

Well, this may not be YOUR idea of fun but did you ask your son? So if you are not willing to support his interests because they don't interest you then who are you really thinking about? Does this mean that you have to fined the BEST team in the BEST league? No, at U9 that isn't necessary but perhaps you can look around enough to find a balance that works for everyone.

Not having him play travel at U9 is not what will "doom" him to never play good soccer, but your attitude has doomed him to never exploring his potential based on nothing more than your idea of fun. Your expectation of what U9 travel soccer looking like "slightly above average soccer" is not inaccurate but that misses the point. Nobody at 8 years old is finished product. Yes, U9 travel soccer does not look that much different than it does at Rec right now, but that changes every year and it does improve because of training. Training that even at travel soccer's most mediocre will still improve a player over time more than playing rec soccer that is mostly social in nature.

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