Anonymous wrote:Is this ASA? If so, I sympathize with the situation you're in because there's no good answer, but as a rec parent, I'm so glad to hear this is happening. My kid has been on a team with no select players and has been debating quitting because he's tired of getting blown out all the time because the other teams are loaded up with select players (especially sine not everyone is honest about their kid playing travel for another club). Hopefully this will spread talent around more and create better balance among the rec teams.
Anonymous wrote:^^
Agree. This is stupid of ASA. They have a Rec Committee of parents for this reason. Talk to them. They need to grandfather your team and simply impose some conditions to make it fair, like only 2 select players are allowed to attend any one game, and then you just rotate. If ASA doesn't fix this for a rec team, then they are doing nothing to keep soccer fun for your team. It's not just the player cut, but rather the whole team that gets impacted. If I were an opposing coach in your Division, I would have no beef playing against you as long as you had some fair condition like I mentioned.
Anonymous wrote:Why are travel kids playing on rec teams? That's not allowed in our league.
Anonymous wrote:So our rec league is finally enforcing their "select player" limits this year. 3rd grade teams went from being allowed to have 3 "select" players to just two. Select = travel players or ADP (developmental) players. 4th grade teams that play on the same size fields with the same roster size in the same field configuration (7x7 - 6 field players plus goalie) as the 3rd grade, but they are allowed to have 3 select players, down from 4.
Our team is now struggling with this, as we have three select players (2 travel, 1 ADP) and we've been told to cut one. This is difficult because of the 8 original girls on our team (before roster size increased), 5 had played together since kindergarten and the other 3 had played together with our current coach since K. All 8 girls have now played together for 5 seasons. We are a good team and tend to lead the division (1st division), but we have won games without each of the select players. Nobody wants to quit. We really like our team. We've all spent 4 years getting to know the other families, and frankly, the reason we put up with the crazy logistics of being on two teams is that we like the other kids/parents and coach so much.
The league suggested dropping the girl who registered last, but all 3 select players were registered within hours of each other, so we don't think is a really fair way to go.
All 3 players prioritize their other teams' games, but 1 made all 8 games, and 2 made it to 7 of 8 games last season, and will play multiple games per day when scheduled. So all 3 players are dedicated.
Only the ADP player practices with the team because rec practice conflicts with one of the weekly travel practices.
The travel players are on the same travel team, a highly ranked team that wins most games. The ADP kid is on a weaker ADP team that mostly loses, so closer to rec than travel.
One of the parents is the assistant coach/team manager of the team and assists with all practices. No other parent has volunteered to do this.
The other teams with players from our school are all at their select player cap, so the girl who leaves will end up on a team with nobody she knows. And since the other teams from Division 1 are likely at cap, she will likely have to move down a division and be the strongest player on a weaker team, which we've personally found to be a frustrating experience for a kid.
We're trying to reason with the league on the grounds that these are 8-9 year old girls and it's cruel to separate one from her entire team, and on the grounds that the rule could be the same as for 4th grade since the rest of the format is the same. But if/when they say no, we're still at the same spot - having to tell a kid she has to go, and with no clue who to tell.
What would you do?