Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best is when your kid is just fine but isn’t going to play D1, not going to play on the top team, and he is totally fine with that. He gets plenty of playing time on his mid -level travel team, practice isn’t that serious, games are sufficiently competitive. And, parents all have the same mindset.

Actually, the best is when D1 was never the goal. You didn't waste your kids youth with excessive travel---but went to teams with the best coaches and 'player development' and your kids had time to focus on academics and other things they enjoyed--and their own training of their own choosing (backyard).

And then they get to the end of HS and their talent becomes obvious. We didn't spend a 1/4 of the $ or travel time and our kid ended up getting on a D1 team which was his own personal goal (actually has aspirations beyond that) and we let him direct the ship with regard to that.

WE DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A HIGHLIGHT TAPE because we never filmed. He didn't get clips until senior year.

I won't lie and tell you it hasn't been wonderful after getting cut from HS watching my kid play out his dreams.

I love this. Thanks for sharing. What sport?

Soccer- boys

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best is when your kid is just fine but isn’t going to play D1, not going to play on the top team, and he is totally fine with that. He gets plenty of playing time on his mid -level travel team, practice isn’t that serious, games are sufficiently competitive. And, parents all have the same mindset.

Actually, the best is when D1 was never the goal. You didn't waste your kids youth with excessive travel---but went to teams with the best coaches and 'player development' and your kids had time to focus on academics and other things they enjoyed--and their own training of their own choosing (backyard).

And then they get to the end of HS and their talent becomes obvious. We didn't spend a 1/4 of the $ or travel time and our kid ended up getting on a D1 team which was his own personal goal (actually has aspirations beyond that) and we let him direct the ship with regard to that.

WE DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A HIGHLIGHT TAPE because we never filmed. He didn't get clips until senior year.

I won't lie and tell you it hasn't been wonderful after getting cut from HS watching my kid play out his dreams.

I love this. Thanks for sharing. What sport?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best is when your kid is just fine but isn’t going to play D1, not going to play on the top team, and he is totally fine with that. He gets plenty of playing time on his mid -level travel team, practice isn’t that serious, games are sufficiently competitive. And, parents all have the same mindset.

Actually, the best is when D1 was never the goal. You didn't waste your kids youth with excessive travel---but went to teams with the best coaches and 'player development' and your kids had time to focus on academics and other things they enjoyed--and their own training of their own choosing (backyard).

And then they get to the end of HS and their talent becomes obvious. We didn't spend a 1/4 of the $ or travel time and our kid ended up getting on a D1 team which was his own personal goal (actually has aspirations beyond that) and we let him direct the ship with regard to that.

WE DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A HIGHLIGHT TAPE because we never filmed. He didn't get clips until senior year.

I won't lie and tell you it hasn't been wonderful after getting cut from HS watching my kid play out his dreams.

I love this. Thanks for sharing. What sport?

Must be something lame like lacrosse

Lacrosse attracts the most politics and nepotism. I would say it’s something like football.

I thought baseball was the worst for this?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best is when your kid is just fine but isn’t going to play D1, not going to play on the top team, and he is totally fine with that. He gets plenty of playing time on his mid -level travel team, practice isn’t that serious, games are sufficiently competitive. And, parents all have the same mindset.

Actually, the best is when D1 was never the goal. You didn't waste your kids youth with excessive travel---but went to teams with the best coaches and 'player development' and your kids had time to focus on academics and other things they enjoyed--and their own training of their own choosing (backyard).

And then they get to the end of HS and their talent becomes obvious. We didn't spend a 1/4 of the $ or travel time and our kid ended up getting on a D1 team which was his own personal goal (actually has aspirations beyond that) and we let him direct the ship with regard to that.

WE DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A HIGHLIGHT TAPE because we never filmed. He didn't get clips until senior year.

I won't lie and tell you it hasn't been wonderful after getting cut from HS watching my kid play out his dreams.

I love this. Thanks for sharing. What sport?

Must be something lame like lacrosse

Lacrosse attracts the most politics and nepotism. I would say it’s something like football.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best is when your kid is just fine but isn’t going to play D1, not going to play on the top team, and he is totally fine with that. He gets plenty of playing time on his mid -level travel team, practice isn’t that serious, games are sufficiently competitive. And, parents all have the same mindset.

Actually, the best is when D1 was never the goal. You didn't waste your kids youth with excessive travel---but went to teams with the best coaches and 'player development' and your kids had time to focus on academics and other things they enjoyed--and their own training of their own choosing (backyard).

And then they get to the end of HS and their talent becomes obvious. We didn't spend a 1/4 of the $ or travel time and our kid ended up getting on a D1 team which was his own personal goal (actually has aspirations beyond that) and we let him direct the ship with regard to that.

WE DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A HIGHLIGHT TAPE because we never filmed. He didn't get clips until senior year.

I won't lie and tell you it hasn't been wonderful after getting cut from HS watching my kid play out his dreams.

I love this. Thanks for sharing. What sport?

Must be something lame like lacrosse

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best is when your kid is just fine but isn’t going to play D1, not going to play on the top team, and he is totally fine with that. He gets plenty of playing time on his mid -level travel team, practice isn’t that serious, games are sufficiently competitive. And, parents all have the same mindset.

Actually, the best is when D1 was never the goal. You didn't waste your kids youth with excessive travel---but went to teams with the best coaches and 'player development' and your kids had time to focus on academics and other things they enjoyed--and their own training of their own choosing (backyard).

And then they get to the end of HS and their talent becomes obvious. We didn't spend a 1/4 of the $ or travel time and our kid ended up getting on a D1 team which was his own personal goal (actually has aspirations beyond that) and we let him direct the ship with regard to that.

WE DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A HIGHLIGHT TAPE because we never filmed. He didn't get clips until senior year.

I won't lie and tell you it hasn't been wonderful after getting cut from HS watching my kid play out his dreams.

I love this. Thanks for sharing. What sport?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best is when your kid is just fine but isn’t going to play D1, not going to play on the top team, and he is totally fine with that. He gets plenty of playing time on his mid -level travel team, practice isn’t that serious, games are sufficiently competitive. And, parents all have the same mindset.

Actually, the best is when D1 was never the goal. You didn't waste your kids youth with excessive travel---but went to teams with the best coaches and 'player development' and your kids had time to focus on academics and other things they enjoyed--and their own training of their own choosing (backyard).

And then they get to the end of HS and their talent becomes obvious. We didn't spend a 1/4 of the $ or travel time and our kid ended up getting on a D1 team which was his own personal goal (actually has aspirations beyond that) and we let him direct the ship with regard to that.

WE DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A HIGHLIGHT TAPE because we never filmed. He didn't get clips until senior year.

I won't lie and tell you it hasn't been wonderful after getting cut from HS watching my kid play out his dreams.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best is when your kid is just fine but isn’t going to play D1, not going to play on the top team, and he is totally fine with that. He gets plenty of playing time on his mid -level travel team, practice isn’t that serious, games are sufficiently competitive. And, parents all have the same mindset.

Actually, the best is when D1 was never the goal. You didn't waste your kids youth with excessive travel---but went to teams with the best coaches and 'player development' and your kids had time to focus on academics and other things they enjoyed--and their own training of their own choosing (backyard).

And then they get to the end of HS and their talent becomes obvious. We didn't spend a 1/4 of the $ or travel time and our kid ended up getting on a D1 team which was his own personal goal (actually has aspirations beyond that) and we let him direct the ship with regard to that.

WE DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A HIGHLIGHT TAPE because we never filmed. He didn't get clips until senior year.

I won't lie and tell you it hasn't been wonderful after getting cut from HS watching my kid play out his dreams.

Anonymous wrote:Take a youth team of, let’s say, 10 kids. It will pretty much always go something like this:

1 kid: clearly the most skilled kid on the team, very obvious
2 kids: clearly behind on skills, very obvious
7 kids: average, fine, not remarkable either way

“Politics” won’t matter much for the first 3 kids, but it will influence the experience of the remaining 7- sometimes heavily. Parent friendships/influence, kid friendships, other social factors etc etc.

I have never seen it go any other way. Literally ever. 3 kids. Some sports and teams it will only matter a little (pretty tolerable), other times it will matter a lot (can be hard to take).

All you can do is try to keep your kids playing in teams/sports where the politics are there (they always will be), but at a tolerable level. It is also important to ask yourself if it is bothering your child, or just bothering YOU. Often the kids are fine and having fun either way. Sometimes the kids do notice or feel a bit demoralized- in that case, likely time to move to a different team or organization.

Anonymous wrote:The best is when your kid is just fine but isn’t going to play D1, not going to play on the top team, and he is totally fine with that. He gets plenty of playing time on his mid -level travel team, practice isn’t that serious, games are sufficiently competitive. And, parents all have the same mindset.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take a youth team of, let’s say, 10 kids. It will pretty much always go something like this:

1 kid: clearly the most skilled kid on the team, very obvious
2 kids: clearly behind on skills, very obvious
7 kids: average, fine, not remarkable either way

“Politics” won’t matter much for the first 3 kids, but it will influence the experience of the remaining 7- sometimes heavily. Parent friendships/influence, kid friendships, other social factors etc etc.

I have never seen it go any other way. Literally ever. 3 kids. Some sports and teams it will only matter a little (pretty tolerable), other times it will matter a lot (can be hard to take).

All you can do is try to keep your kids playing in teams/sports where the politics are there (they always will be), but at a tolerable level. It is also important to ask yourself if it is bothering your child, or just bothering YOU. Often the kids are fine and having fun either way. Sometimes the kids do notice or feel a bit demoralized- in that case, likely time to move to a different team or organization.

You nailed it! I’ve seen this exact scenario play out so much. I’m not sure what the answer is. My kids are still young. I’ve found the age impact of the 7 kids in the middle too, like coach runs drills first week to see actual stats- best time on dash, longest throw, longest catch and then its head to head with another kid who is a full year older but same grade and older kid gets position due to maturity. Then older kid gets better in position and so on.

Part of the problem too, I assume, is that as kids move up in age and the less skilled/talented/passionate kids drop out, many of those kids that were previously in that number 1 spot on their teams are now in that pack of 7 in the middle. And their parents can’t or won’t accept it.

Anonymous wrote:Take a youth team of, let’s say, 10 kids. It will pretty much always go something like this:

1 kid: clearly the most skilled kid on the team, very obvious
2 kids: clearly behind on skills, very obvious
7 kids: average, fine, not remarkable either way

“Politics” won’t matter much for the first 3 kids, but it will influence the experience of the remaining 7- sometimes heavily. Parent friendships/influence, kid friendships, other social factors etc etc.

I have never seen it go any other way. Literally ever. 3 kids. Some sports and teams it will only matter a little (pretty tolerable), other times it will matter a lot (can be hard to take).

All you can do is try to keep your kids playing in teams/sports where the politics are there (they always will be), but at a tolerable level. It is also important to ask yourself if it is bothering your child, or just bothering YOU. Often the kids are fine and having fun either way. Sometimes the kids do notice or feel a bit demoralized- in that case, likely time to move to a different team or organization.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take a youth team of, let’s say, 10 kids. It will pretty much always go something like this:

1 kid: clearly the most skilled kid on the team, very obvious
2 kids: clearly behind on skills, very obvious
7 kids: average, fine, not remarkable either way

“Politics” won’t matter much for the first 3 kids, but it will influence the experience of the remaining 7- sometimes heavily. Parent friendships/influence, kid friendships, other social factors etc etc.

I have never seen it go any other way. Literally ever. 3 kids. Some sports and teams it will only matter a little (pretty tolerable), other times it will matter a lot (can be hard to take).

All you can do is try to keep your kids playing in teams/sports where the politics are there (they always will be), but at a tolerable level. It is also important to ask yourself if it is bothering your child, or just bothering YOU. Often the kids are fine and having fun either way. Sometimes the kids do notice or feel a bit demoralized- in that case, likely time to move to a different team or organization.

You nailed it! I’ve seen this exact scenario play out so much. I’m not sure what the answer is. My kids are still young. I’ve found the age impact of the 7 kids in the middle too, like coach runs drills first week to see actual stats- best time on dash, longest throw, longest catch and then its head to head with another kid who is a full year older but same grade and older kid gets position due to maturity. Then older kid gets better in position and so on.