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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]^agree. All the A team players from my son’s U9 year quit the sport when they got demoted a few years later.[/quote]

Curious as to why they quit.  Bruised egos, other interests, not playing with the same group of players, ...? What I realize as an adult, is that I miss seeing a group of kids develop together as a team over multiple seasons with little roster tweaks.  My kids dabbled in soccer and moved on to sports they prefer.  However, these one year / season teams lack something in my mind and heart.  Maybe it's the lack of support / unity around a club.  What I mean is, that everyone at all levels is cheering on and commited to that club, attends the club's other level and age games to cheer them on.  Right now it's like each kid brings their own cheerleaders (e.g. mom/dad).  Something is just ... lacking.
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I count my son in the group of A team kids who quit soccer. He started club soccer at 6 (we now live in California). He trained for 1 1/2 to 2 hours a day 2 times a week and one or sometimes two games on a weekend. During tournaments he had 3 or 4 games a weekend.  His coaches were fantastic (former college players who had sons on the team, and we paid very little since dads were coaching). It was great from ages 6 to 8. The team dissolved when the main coach left and my son joined a new team. He wanted to try other sports so he started playing basketball and baseball. We saw that at by 10 and 11 my son wasn't the best on the new soccer team anymore. He liked soccer but no longer loved it. It became tedious to go to tournaments all weekend. We realized he didn't have the determination to stay on the A team so encouraged him to play other sports starting when he was 9 or 10. We clearly saw the difference in treatment between the A team and the B and C teams and honestly didn't think it was worth the time or money for him to be on the B or C team - since he was losing interest in soccer anyways. He quit soccer for good at 11. 
He picked up basketball and baseball and did really well in both. There are overlap skills in both sports with soccer (but more so with basketball). He goes to a small private school where they have 3 school basketball teams for each grade 6-8. He used to get attention from playing soccer in the lower grades, now he likes being part of the basketball team and the school community coming to watch basketball. He loves the community feel in Little League baseball. He hangs around the fields even if his team isn't playing with neighborhood boys to watch their friends play.  It is such a different feel than club soccer. He is 12, which is such a fun year in Little League. Since you register in your league by neighborhood and/or school, we have met so many neighbors or parents of classmates. We spent 3 years of club soccer with the same tight knit parents. We traveled together, spent hours and hours watching soccer practices and games together and now I am not in contact with any of them. I ran into one parent at Costco and she said she never talks to any of the other parents either. Her kid isn't playing either, he switched to water polo. 
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