u/JigglyPuff_4Prez

Hi!

Just finished coaching my first season of first grade girls. Honestly, it was awesome and they did great! I had 3 girls who had played at kindergarteners and about 6-8 more than had done some clinics and camps, and they all really grew so much.

Now, we need a goalie for next season. It was optional this year and most teams did not have one.

I have one girl who really wants to play, and we are going to start her this summer with some practices. Her hand eye coordination is not amazing, and she is kind of small- but really wants to be goalie.

Ideally, I would still like to develop her on the field and find 1-2 more girls to split time with her. Two of my better (and taller) players could also be great in goal. Do you take them off the field to help support in goal?

Looking for some advice on this!

My U9 son is a decent player, but he just loves it. He currently plays on a local travel team and on a mid level Barça EDP team. People can like it or hate it, but the program at Barça has been wonderful for him.

Now, my U7 daughter was playing local rec soccer, and we realized that she is just too good to do another year of the local stuff and then local travel, so we made some last minute tryouts to other clubs for U8 since this year’s age shakeups have a opened lot of possibilities. We figured we would see what is out there. She is just a natural athlete, strong, fast- the whole package.

She has made the first teams for East Coast Surf Pre Academy (EDP) and Long Island Soccer Club Academy (EDP, MLSNext), and we are waiting on Barça. She also plays other sports (club and PAL lacrosse, rec basketball). I do not want this to completely take over our lives- both of us parents work, and we are not hurting for college tuition funds- so this is just playing because she loved it and has a natural talent.

Curious for feedback on all these clubs (Long Island).

Thanks

My current U9 son is a decent soccer player. Made the local Travel A team last year and was developing nicely. We like the kids and the parents.

He is the kind of kid that practices all the time, never misses a practice or a game, doesn’t complain. It’s raining? We are there. 30 degrees out? We are there. He was their second highest scorer last season with the most assists. I would put him at probably third best on the team.

All of a sudden this season, two kids (one of which is the coach’s kid) are playing full games and my kid (plus 2-3 others) are rotating through one position. Which means they are getting 10-15 minutes of playing time each and others are getting a full 50 minutes (which, frankly, they do not have the stamina to handle). Our coaches are dads.

We did say something, coach said they were just trying different combinations, but it would go back to normal. Except it hasn’t.

In the interim, we have found a spot on an EDP Academy team and he is absolutely thriving. So we are doing both, because we also enjoy having a ‘local’ team. But today was kind of the last straw- they won 6-2 and he and these handful of other kids (not the worst kids on the team by any means) played like 15 minutes each.

We spoke to the B team coach about playing with them next year with the understanding that we would make what we could make while staying on the Academy team, but would still love to play with them. Their coach is a hired coach.

What would you do?
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