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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My HS DD plays a sport, but only in spring. Soccer is a fall sport here, and DD would play rec if there were a rec program for HSers. But the rec programs for almost all of the sports stop by 14.

I wonder if the average child quitting by 11 is something my DD encountered. She likes soccer, but she's not a soccer phenom and she wasn't interested in playing at a club level, assuming she could even make a club team. Rec was perfect for her, except by the time she was 10-11, the "good kids" had mostly filtered out to play club. The kids left on rec were a mix of the kids who didn't want to be there but their parents were making them and kids who like my daughter loved soccer but weren't good enough or weren't interested in club. It was a noticeable shift. When she was 9, there was a good team of focused kids, there were always enough kids for games, practices went well. The next year started the team maybe not having enough kids for a game. Kids acting up during practice because they didn't want to be there. Fortunately my daughter had a good group of kids she could hang with in soccer, and it kept her playing until she aged out at 14. But the slow downturn of what had been a great rec program as kids moved off to club was noticeable.

She would still play now if there were opportunities, and is waiting to be old enough to join some of the 18+ social leagues, or hoping there's an opportunity for casual play in college.[/quote]

Yes!  This is very common. There are so many "travel" teams that rec has become almost like pickup with mostly disinterested kids. The majority don't come to practice, may or may not show up at games, and have no idea of basic concepts of the sport. That's how kids who, in years past, might have continued to be happy rec players, get forced into travel leagues and wind up getting sick of it.[/quote]

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