Anonymous wrote:Loyalty to a club = no
Loyalty to a team = yes

This. Plus teaching children ethics. Why is this hard??
God some of you are major a$$holes.

Anonymous wrote:The best is when the age group coordinator or TD tells parents they will reward loyalty as a precaution to be proactive with parents. Don't fall for it. Smile, be polite, know they are full of shit and email the other club's coach well in advance of tryouts, take your kid to the practice. You won't regret it.

Exactly.

Being loyal to your kid, however, has to take into account where they feel comfortable playing. If they like a coach, or a team--even if that looks like misplaced "loyalty"--then all that matters for your kid feeling happy when they play.

Unless your kid really has a shot at d1/strong d2 college or pro, and I'm going to be really blunt here: your kid likely doesn't, screw club loyalty, give your kid options, and then let them pick. It's about love of sport and development. That's what gives the best shot at playing next level anyway.

-- Parent of kid who, to our surprise, did make a go of it in college. Parent who also knows clubs are totally full of shit at all times.

The club will cut your kid without hesitation if better players come along and accept offers.

Loyal to your kid. Not the club, team or coach. Things change year to year. Parents are paying for the kids to be there. Nothing is the end of the world.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best is when the age group coordinator or TD tells parents

they will reward loyalty as a precaution to be proactive with parents.

Don't fall for it. Smile, be polite, know they are full of shit and email the other club's coach well in advance of tryouts, take your kid to the practice. You won't regret it.

+100

Oh I love that line! "We like to promote within our club" is also cute, then we see all of the top teams filled with outside players Loyalty my arse. It does not exist.

I'll another +100 to your +100! Ha!

Our team and coach is such a weasel. Lot of kids fell for the "homegrown" loyalty line and are very much regretting not accepting other offers. Live and learn I guess. Fool me once...

Loyalty doesn’t make your kid earn a spot on a better team though. Why would your kid be promoted to a better team if there is another outside player that is better?

I read all these posts complaining that outside players turn out not to be that great. But if your player was good or improved, they would have been promoted.

I don’t know, our team has a few kids promoted from the second team and they’ve earned those spots with hard work but I can’t say they’re better than the new kids that have come in.

Frankly just showing up is not enough to earn a spot. And for kids and parents to expect that for any sport means they’re not meant for competitive sport.

Right but having a parent meeting and stating loyalty will be rewarded is bs and gaslighting.

Anonymous wrote:Three kids.
Two left their original club. Third stayed all the way through. Third played in college, the others didn't.
Point being, this thread seems to be suggesting that it is best to leave the club you start with, when in fact there are perfectly good players who have perfectly fine experiences and develop into solid players who go on to the next level.
My older two were correct in their decision to leave, the youngest was correct in staying put.

At young ages, it’s about both happiness and development. If you are getting neither, time to move DC to another environment that provides something.

Three kids.
Two left their original club. Third stayed all the way through. Third played in college, the others didn't.
Point being, this thread seems to be suggesting that it is best to leave the club you start with, when in fact there are perfectly good players who have perfectly fine experiences and develop into solid players who go on to the next level.
My older two were correct in their decision to leave, the youngest was correct in staying put.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best is when the age group coordinator or TD tells parents

they will reward loyalty as a precaution to be proactive with parents.

Don't fall for it. Smile, be polite, know they are full of shit and email the other club's coach well in advance of tryouts, take your kid to the practice. You won't regret it.

+100

Oh I love that line! "We like to promote within our club" is also cute, then we see all of the top teams filled with outside players Loyalty my arse. It does not exist.

I'll another +100 to your +100! Ha!

Our team and coach is such a weasel. Lot of kids fell for the "homegrown" loyalty line and are very much regretting not accepting other offers. Live and learn I guess. Fool me once...

Loyalty doesn’t make your kid earn a spot on a better team though. Why would your kid be promoted to a better team if there is another outside player that is better?

I read all these posts complaining that outside players turn out not to be that great. But if your player was good or improved, they would have been promoted.

I don’t know, our team has a few kids promoted from the second team and they’ve earned those spots with hard work but I can’t say they’re better than the new kids that have come in.

Frankly just showing up is not enough to earn a spot. And for kids and parents to expect that for any sport means they’re not meant for competitive sport.

Outside players aren't moving over for a lateral team level. Clubs that want more people paying dues are more likely to keep a current played on a B or C team and bring in an equally skilled player to the higher team than to move up the internal player and offer the outside player the same level they are at their current club.

It doesn’t change the fact that no kid should expect to make a higher team if they’re not performing at that level, regardless of the fact that may have shown up at all practices and have been at the club longer.

If parents genuinely believes their kid should be at a higher level team, they would move the kid. So yes, for the top kids on a B team, they should move if they’re not promoted and there is a high chance that they can land somewhere better.

But the reality for many of those bottom b and c kids is that it’ll be harder to find a higher placement.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best is when the age group coordinator or TD tells parents

they will reward loyalty as a precaution to be proactive with parents.

Don't fall for it. Smile, be polite, know they are full of shit and email the other club's coach well in advance of tryouts, take your kid to the practice. You won't regret it.

+100

Oh I love that line! "We like to promote within our club" is also cute, then we see all of the top teams filled with outside players Loyalty my arse. It does not exist.

I'll another +100 to your +100! Ha!

Our team and coach is such a weasel. Lot of kids fell for the "homegrown" loyalty line and are very much regretting not accepting other offers. Live and learn I guess. Fool me once...

Loyalty doesn’t make your kid earn a spot on a better team though. Why would your kid be promoted to a better team if there is another outside player that is better?

I read all these posts complaining that outside players turn out not to be that great. But if your player was good or improved, they would have been promoted.

I don’t know, our team has a few kids promoted from the second team and they’ve earned those spots with hard work but I can’t say they’re better than the new kids that have come in.

Frankly just showing up is not enough to earn a spot. And for kids and parents to expect that for any sport means they’re not meant for competitive sport.

Outside players aren't moving over for a lateral team level. Clubs that want more people paying dues are more likely to keep a current played on a B or C team and bring in an equally skilled player to the higher team than to move up the internal player and offer the outside player the same level they are at their current club.

Anonymous wrote:I like this guy, especially the part about drinking beer at 9:30am on a Friday!

LOL

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best is when the age group coordinator or TD tells parents

they will reward loyalty as a precaution to be proactive with parents.

Don't fall for it. Smile, be polite, know they are full of shit and email the other club's coach well in advance of tryouts, take your kid to the practice. You won't regret it.

+100

Oh I love that line! "We like to promote within our club" is also cute, then we see all of the top teams filled with outside players Loyalty my arse. It does not exist.

I'll another +100 to your +100! Ha!

Our team and coach is such a weasel. Lot of kids fell for the "homegrown" loyalty line and are very much regretting not accepting other offers. Live and learn I guess. Fool me once...

Loyalty doesn’t make your kid earn a spot on a better team though. Why would your kid be promoted to a better team if there is another outside player that is better?

I read all these posts complaining that outside players turn out not to be that great. But if your player was good or improved, they would have been promoted.

I don’t know, our team has a few kids promoted from the second team and they’ve earned those spots with hard work but I can’t say they’re better than the new kids that have come in.

Frankly just showing up is not enough to earn a spot. And for kids and parents to expect that for any sport means they’re not meant for competitive sport.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best is when the age group coordinator or TD tells parents

they will reward loyalty as a precaution to be proactive with parents.

Don't fall for it. Smile, be polite, know they are full of shit and email the other club's coach well in advance of tryouts, take your kid to the practice. You won't regret it.

+100

Oh I love that line! "We like to promote within our club" is also cute, then we see all of the top teams filled with outside players Loyalty my arse. It does not exist.

I'll another +100 to your +100! Ha!

Our team and coach is such a weasel. Lot of kids fell for the "homegrown" loyalty line and are very much regretting not accepting other offers. Live and learn I guess. Fool me once...

Anonymous wrote:The best is when the age group coordinator or TD tells parents

they will reward loyalty as a precaution to be proactive with parents.

Don't fall for it. Smile, be polite, know they are full of shit and email the other club's coach well in advance of tryouts, take your kid to the practice. You won't regret it.

+100

Oh I love that line! "We like to promote within our club" is also cute, then we see all of the top teams filled with outside players Loyalty my arse. It does not exist.

The best is when the age group coordinator or TD tells parents they will reward loyalty as a precaution to be proactive with parents. Don't fall for it. Smile, be polite, know they are full of shit and email the other club's coach well in advance of tryouts, take your kid to the practice. You won't regret it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Loyalty to club no
Loyalty to team no

Seen it over and over. Kids who want to stay 'loyal' to their team, but the underlying truth is they are too scared and or nervous to move to a different team.

This. My child was so loyal that they refused to go to tryouts with other clubs. Some new kids showed up at tryouts and she learned loyalty went in one direction when she got cut.

I started early taking my kid to other tryouts.

I told him it was a chance to play and see how he does against other kids. Plus it would prepare him and make him more comfortable for tryouts later when he got to High School ages. No pressure at all to make the team. Just go have fun! Plus I used to tell him we could either do the tryout or do chores around the house.

He would get offers from other clubs top teams after every tryout when he was younger, but he never wanted to move. And in a few years, when puberty started to hit other kids early and his club dropped him to the second team, he was ready to move on.