College needs to drop women’s soccer. This would fix a lot of things.

Unpopular opinion: Parents even ruin pick up soccer. If they little, yes, help organize. Otherwise, leave them alone.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unpopular. No more paying for youth team coaches. Team coaches shall be provided free to players/parents.

Pay for league dues, uniforms, tourney fees, field permits and fees, and admin. That’s it. Individuals can hire “trainers” all they’d like.

As far as pro farm teams, the org. pays the coaches and likely the players too.

Sooooo if you are paying for the above fees only, how will the clubs generate money to get those coaches for your teams? You expect coaches to just give up their time for free?

Local governments subsidize these recreational activities through higher taxes.

This should be done by the Federal Government! From each, according to their means... to each according to their needs!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unpopular. No more paying for youth team coaches. Team coaches shall be provided free to players/parents.

Pay for league dues, uniforms, tourney fees, field permits and fees, and admin. That’s it. Individuals can hire “trainers” all they’d like.

As far as pro farm teams, the org. pays the coaches and likely the players too.

Sooooo if you are paying for the above fees only, how will the clubs generate money to get those coaches for your teams? You expect coaches to just give up their time for free?

Local governments subsidize these recreational activities through higher taxes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unpopular. No more paying for youth team coaches. Team coaches shall be provided free to players/parents.

Pay for league dues, uniforms, tourney fees, field permits and fees, and admin. That’s it. Individuals can hire “trainers” all they’d like.

As far as pro farm teams, the org. pays the coaches and likely the players too.

So parent volunteer coaches?

No way unless you r planning your ECNL team playing rec soccer style with a bunch of lazy players.

The "national leagues" do nothing in youth soccer except chase up the cost. Do away with Academies and ECNL. Play state leagues like we did many years ago. Coaches can still recommend kids for regional and national teams. Teams and clubs can still host tournaments. Pro teams, colleges and the like can still check out players. But the idea that some team from Illinois needs to go to Arizona to play a couple of soccer games for a league is stupid.

Anonymous wrote:Unpopular. No more paying for youth team coaches. Team coaches shall be provided free to players/parents.

Pay for league dues, uniforms, tourney fees, field permits and fees, and admin. That’s it. Individuals can hire “trainers” all they’d like.

As far as pro farm teams, the org. pays the coaches and likely the players too.

So parent volunteer coaches?

Unpopular = social media has no business in youth soccer. Or any youth sport.

No parent coaches. A parent can coach - especially they youngsters - but not their own kid. Ever.

Anonymous wrote:Unpopular. No more paying for youth team coaches. Team coaches shall be provided free to players/parents.

Pay for league dues, uniforms, tourney fees, field permits and fees, and admin. That’s it. Individuals can hire “trainers” all they’d like.

As far as pro farm teams, the org. pays the coaches and likely the players too.

Sooooo if you are paying for the above fees only, how will the clubs generate money to get those coaches for your teams? You expect coaches to just give up their time for free?

Unpopular. No more paying for youth team coaches. Team coaches shall be provided free to players/parents.

Pay for league dues, uniforms, tourney fees, field permits and fees, and admin. That’s it. Individuals can hire “trainers” all they’d like.

As far as pro farm teams, the org. pays the coaches and likely the players too.

Anonymous wrote:My unpopular opinion is that refs should give yellow (and red) cards much more liberally starting at U-littles for hard fouls and "tactical" fouls. I've seen way too many slide tackles from behind and wild elbows while fighting for the ball that very seldom get a yellow card. I think more cards would (1) protect and encourage skillful play and (2) teach the offenders to play clean at an early age. What are some of your unpopular opinions?

One word: Parents

RantingSoccerDad wrote:

8. Clubs should offer free-play nights open to anyone registering in advance (can cap numbers depending on space), with staff on hand only to help with equipment and first aid (and maybe helping to form teams, mixing players of different levels while making sure no player is overwhelmed).

9. Parents in the DCUM forum should create profiles. You can still remain anonymous.

I really like your last two suggestions. Regular free-play nights would be a great way to meet and compete against other kids in the club (older and younger) and to have some unstructured play just for fun.

There is a phenomenon in soccer players and coaches (and to some extent in other sports) wherein the longer you participate, the more you develop an inflated opinion of the intricacies of the game. This generally leads to an unjustified elitism towards anyone who has not.

Anonymous wrote:Watch a lot of ECNL girls soccer. The soccer is just not good and it is hard to watch. The speed of play is so slow it encourages physical play over everything else. The coaches push a very dump down soccer ans tell the parents it’s elite.

But then those slow bully players - usually on the ground - are glorified as tough.