12/13/2021
It’s that time of the year once again when many coaches out there start to claim they won state cup championship and use it to poach kids. Parents, make sure you do your research before joining any club. I’ve received many questions this weekend by parents asking to clarify how is it that 10 teams became champions in the same division??? Saying they spoke to the coach and they said they were the statecup champions? What many fail to tell you is what division they won. All teams continue in this tournament.. win, lose or draw. At the end everyone plays in a final and is a runner up or champion of certain divisions. Premier, Gold, silver, bronze, copper, nickel etc… everyone gets put in the division they belong too eventually. This is different than when I grew up playing and many parents too so I can see the confusion. Hopefully clubs and coaches can stop the business marketing and truly start to work harder for results instead of false advertising and putting kids on paths that they shouldn’t be along with parents paying coaches fees when your team hasn’t improved in years. This is part of the problem now with soccer along with them eliminating grassroot programs so that they can coach 2/3 teams and make some $$$ instead of having all these young kids play in a local recreation league and help them improve while not burning the kids and parents out from traveling. Again, do your research parents, don’t take my word. Been doing this for over 30 years and I’ve played all my life in this broken system. That is why I left that competitive scene in order to help create the love for the game on a grassroot level. We don’t need kids traveling at these young ages. Why make 4 travel teams when you can have a full blown local league with small sided games that will help the kids not only learn to love the game but hopefully continue playing in the future. Every club should have a feeder program and not have these coaches start looking for talent with false advertising. Call me a Hater, but I do this for the kids. They don’t deserve to have coach/clubs lie to them. Hats off to all the kids for this weekend. It’s not you guys, it’s the system.
