I agree with OP, this is so annoying. Yes, it doesn't matter per se but when the same families keep doing it, it makes you wonder why they bothered signing up their kid in the first place.

To the ASA parents, schedules are now posted for games.

Anonymous wrote:Why would someone do this? We have a rec MSI 1st grade girls team. 14 girls signed up, so it was a full team. Only 9 showed up for the game today, so we had no subs. Our girls had to play the entire game, so they were exhausted. They were real troopers, but it’s just annoying that people would sign their kid up and then just bail.

Hoping this isn’t a trend throughout the season. I know it’s only little kid rec, but it isn’t fair to the kids who show up and then have to play 40 minutes of soccer. The other team didn’t have that issue, so they were much more energized.

OP, MSI REC for first grade is 4v4. Most times, they divide it into two teams of 4v4. It’s also four quarters of 10 minutes each per game.

You having 9 players show up is much more than adequate. When my DD was at that age, she and all of her teammates wanted to play the entire game and hated to be substituted out of the game. They all had plenty of energy to run around on the small-sided field.

I can only appreciate/understand your concern if only 2-3 players showed up. But this is on the volunteer coach and team manager to properly communicate with all the parents to make sure they know when to show up for games/practices.

Anonymous wrote:100% the adults/coaches in charge fault. As people have said, kids won't show up. As a result, coaches need to be able to adjust on the fly to make it as enjoyable as possible for the kids. Maybe that means making two fields of 3v3 or 4v4 or, if everyone shows up, 5v5 or have a kid or two from the team with more kids play on the team with less players. Maybe the coaches don't show up and you have to make one field of 7v7. It's not rocket science, it's creating a best environment as possible for the kids where they can all participate, have fun, and get as many touches on the ball as possible. At these youngest of ages the #1 goal for adults has to be...how can we get the kids to enjoy playing and wanting to play more and more. Too many kids on the field...sucks. No subs in this heat...sucks. Parents yelling...sucks. Negative talk....sucks. Pressure....sucks. Lines, laps, and lectures...sucks.

Agree with this, but… parents of the no shows should give a heads up.

This is basic human courtesy 101, and takes all of two minutes.

At that age you just make it fun. We often had/have to swap with the other team to have a good number on the field. And if you can't, as the coach you can simply have more water breaks. And we've ended games a few minutes early if the kids are just wiped out from the heat etc.

Where it really makes a bigger issue is when the kids are older and playing on a larger field. Our older DS is in ADP and last season we had two games where we had no subs, and it was really hot - and the other team had like 4 subs. But still, like PP said you make the best/most of it.

You can't control what other parents do, but I wish there was an attendance count so parents that don't show get an email nudge or something. I don't begrudge the rare miss - we all have vacations, sick days etc. But some are frequently out. We had one family that would rarely bring their kid to practice, and often showed up for the game 15mins late, or mysteriously had to leave 15 minutes early - and the parents would complain that their DS wasn't getting enough playing time. (This was for a slightly older team, ~8years old).

100% the adults/coaches in charge fault. As people have said, kids won't show up. As a result, coaches need to be able to adjust on the fly to make it as enjoyable as possible for the kids. Maybe that means making two fields of 3v3 or 4v4 or, if everyone shows up, 5v5 or have a kid or two from the team with more kids play on the team with less players. Maybe the coaches don't show up and you have to make one field of 7v7. It's not rocket science, it's creating a best environment as possible for the kids where they can all participate, have fun, and get as many touches on the ball as possible. At these youngest of ages the #1 goal for adults has to be...how can we get the kids to enjoy playing and wanting to play more and more. Too many kids on the field...sucks. No subs in this heat...sucks. Parents yelling...sucks. Negative talk....sucks. Pressure....sucks. Lines, laps, and lectures...sucks.

It’s both. Don’t sign up if your kid won’t play. Let the coach know if you won’t be there. None of this is difficult.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because they're 6 years old and it's not a big deal. Relax.

My issue is that it isn’t fair to the kids who showed up and played 40 minutes because there weren’t any subs.

But that's the fault of adults in charge for not adjusting. Making those kids play 40 minutes was dumb, but actually not the fault of the families that didn't show.

Anonymous wrote:Because they're 6 years old and it's not a big deal. Relax.

My issue is that it isn’t fair to the kids who showed up and played 40 minutes because there weren’t any subs.

Anonymous wrote:We wouldn't miss anything unless we were out of town, but I find it annoying that we still don't have game schedules yet for our rec soccer (ASA), for which practices start this week (and we just got the practice schedule last weekend). It's making it difficult to make any other weekend plans this fall, so I could understand if people are starting to have conflicts at this point.

Same! Still haven't heard anything about a practice this week.

I would have played one down if possible. See if other team would do so as well.

That way you get one kid resting, at least.

When we haven't had enough kids for two games, we've just played one half of the field and subbed kids out frequently. One time the other team made a big stink about forfeiting (which...we don't even report scores at that age), we borrowed two kids form their team so we could play both fields.

Because they're 6 years old and it's not a big deal. Relax.

You don't really request fields in that way for MSI 1st grade rec. They split a small field into two for a game which involves two mini-games. You can just play on one of the fields or reduce the number of players per team or borrow players as other PPs suggested.
Weird how big of a deal OP is making about this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because it's rec and that's how they do. You have to have many more kids than needed on the roster.

14 roster for 9v9 are travel numbers and most of them show up.

Why are first graders playing 9v9? First grade should be

5v5, maximum 7v7.

They’re doing 4x4 on two fields at once.

Oh makes sense. Next time request 1 field.

That’s a really good idea. Thanks!