Anonymous
08/27/2023 15:35
Subject: The Grind
My U14 daughter has been doing soccer and telling me she wants to do soccer since 1st grade. If she tells me tomorrow that she's done, I'm fine with it.
I think your son will decide what his priorites are - AP, debate, soccer, etc. I'm just my daughter's chauffer and give her advice that putting her energy in school should come before other activities. But at the end of the day, she's going to make her decisions and live with the rewards or consequences.
I'm a spectator of my daughter's activities. After every year, when it comes time to pay for the next year, I tell her if she wants to do this another year, she has to commit to it and not quit in the middle. She needs to commit for the year, as we're paying for a year.
I think your son will decide what his priorites are - AP, debate, soccer, etc. I'm just my daughter's chauffer and give her advice that putting her energy in school should come before other activities. But at the end of the day, she's going to make her decisions and live with the rewards or consequences.
I'm a spectator of my daughter's activities. After every year, when it comes time to pay for the next year, I tell her if she wants to do this another year, she has to commit to it and not quit in the middle. She needs to commit for the year, as we're paying for a year.
Anonymous
08/25/2023 22:13
Subject: The Grind
Not sure what the question is. Should your son continue playing soccer? Travel? HS? Both?
I was like you - I stopped playing soccer after 8th grade in the mid 80s. I couldn't make my HS freshman team nor the few travel teams that existed back then, and there was no rec league to speak of for HS kids. It still is one of the biggest regrets of my life to have stopped playing at 14.
If he is enjoying it and can balance all of that, great. But, yeah, if he starts to fade in school then maybe he needs to prioritize what it important.
I was like you - I stopped playing soccer after 8th grade in the mid 80s. I couldn't make my HS freshman team nor the few travel teams that existed back then, and there was no rec league to speak of for HS kids. It still is one of the biggest regrets of my life to have stopped playing at 14.
If he is enjoying it and can balance all of that, great. But, yeah, if he starts to fade in school then maybe he needs to prioritize what it important.
Anonymous
08/25/2023 21:15
Subject: The Grind
Anonymous wrote:So we're now seven years in to travel soccer. and my son is U15 Even my son was shocked to hear that he has now played travel for half his life. His energy finally surpasses our energy as parents. He is a stellar student beginning high school. He's not going to be a pro or D1 player. Four practices a week with multiple APs and honors classes, and debate and Model UN, will take their toll. He also plays futsal and loves it. He hates the coaches who run his high school program (it's private and he played JV high school beginning in 7th grade, but they are clowns who ordered him to stop playing futsal, which is not only stupid, but a nonstarter for him and only confirmed for him that they are idiots). I thought he would eventually decide to focus elsewhere, as I did in eighth grade when I grew slow and played and went to school with players who were clearly moving on (and went to UVA and other programs in the 80s). But he is now growing and enjoying it. I don't think the juice is worth the squeeze. But I don't want to make decisions for my son. Thoughts?
You are 100% correct. Don't make decisions for your son.
Anonymous
08/25/2023 20:55
Subject: The Grind
So we're now seven years in to travel soccer. and my son is U15 Even my son was shocked to hear that he has now played travel for half his life. His energy finally surpasses our energy as parents. He is a stellar student beginning high school. He's not going to be a pro or D1 player. Four practices a week with multiple APs and honors classes, and debate and Model UN, will take their toll. He also plays futsal and loves it. He hates the coaches who run his high school program (it's private and he played JV high school beginning in 7th grade, but they are clowns who ordered him to stop playing futsal, which is not only stupid, but a nonstarter for him and only confirmed for him that they are idiots). I thought he would eventually decide to focus elsewhere, as I did in eighth grade when I grew slow and played and went to school with players who were clearly moving on (and went to UVA and other programs in the 80s). But he is now growing and enjoying it. I don't think the juice is worth the squeeze. But I don't want to make decisions for my son. Thoughts?