u/NoReplacement3326

My 16 year old son is flying solo tomorrow leaving HNL 11:40 pm and arrives LAX at terminal 4 8:10 am.

His connection is at 52G.

When he gets off the plane at terminal 4 (49B), where exactly will he go and what will it look like? He’s going to need a step by step so he can quickly get off this flight and make it to the regional terminal. He has never been to LAX before though he flies alone a few times a year.

His layover is 1h 16m. I anticipate a slightly early arrival as you usually make better time heading into the mainland with the winds. Is there anything else I should do to make sure he makes this connection?

My kid is U13 keeper but turned 12 last week, so he’s at the tail end of U13. He has two club offers.

A - current club. U13 “B” team (same as last year). The entire roster has changed minus two kids, but very concerned for the roster overall. We know 3 kids on it that have declined already and they didn’t send out more offers than they needed. Very worried there will not be a team there. Initial practice “meet and greets” last week were 4 kids. Likely register in the lowest competitive league same as last year, basically just above rec. He wants to go higher because he ends up having literally nothing to do in the goal, but they don’t have roster strength to register in a higher league. We would rely heavily on kids playing up from the 12s. GK training 2x month but somewhat unpredictable. Love the coaches, but no transparency in planning.

B - larger club overall but still building the local component. They have a strong club in a city an hour away. They offered my son a U14 spot because they have keepers for their 3 U13 teams. They say they have 11 registered so far and 8 pending, with a few waiting on financial aid. This club is $600 more expensive per year. Did well at the tryouts, the u13-19 director called personally to ask more questions and answer any we had. He is holding a webinar to go over specifics on league registrations and numbers of players today. I appreciate the transparency, but we haven’t met the regular coaches. My son met and liked the GK coach - dedicated coach with weekly sessions. Last year this team played in the league above where my son was, but they did not do well. That said, I have no idea if they will even have half of the same kids. They plan to transition to N1 this season. I worry that playing up for a just 12 year old, into a higher league will be hard. I’m not concerned for the social aspect really. My kid can make friends anywhere and he does.

Is it normal, okay or expected for a keeper to be playing up? I’m worried about whether it’s a “fills our need” or truly a good opportunity for my kid.

My son is a U13 keeper on the young end - just turned 12 a few days ago. He has two club offers. One, current club, B team (there’s 2 teams total) with his existing coach. The roster is not good. It’s really bad. A few kids have declined offers that we know of but we only had 26 total at practice for the two teams. They have not disclosed how many have accepted or how many offers were sent. This team registered in local leagues last year. Coach says he plans to register in regional league next year given there is a team and roster fills out. No opportunity for guest play because the A team is completely stacked. Coach scared us with the comment that they “only need 9 to play”.

Offer B is with a larger club that has 3 teams at U13. They offered my son a spot with the U14 team. The coaching director says they have 8 pending offers, 11 registered players. They are holding a webinar tomorrow to go over details of how the teams are shaping out and leagues they’ll play in, travel, etc. He says that the U14 team will be registered in N1 western conference (which would be well above where my kid has been playing.) He would also have the opportunity to continue playing field as a guest player which he wants to do, as well as guest keeper for the U13 teams. There would be more travel here but previously we only traveled within our major metro area. We have the means for the travel.

I’m concerned though that he’s never played 11v11 before. He’s a big kid, about 5’5 now and his dad is 6’4 so we expect him to have the height, but developmentally, emotionally, etc…. Any thoughts? I don’t think offer A is going to do much for his development. Offer B scares me a bit because it could be fantastic or disastrous. I just don’t know how common it is for keepers to play up. Anything I’m missing?

My son plays for a smaller club with generally 2-3 teams per age group. He is on the B team for U13s as a goalkeeper for 2026-2027. He was on the same team (but he came in mid season) as a backup GK and winger last season.

From the start this team had problems. He was invited to tryout after he attended a skills camp for fun over a school break. They desperately needed bodies which I did not know at the time. They lost all games for the first 2 months we were there and we relied on guest players. 3 additional new players came in February and the team completely turned around. But one was a kid who had literally never touched a soccer ball. We all questioned the club decision there because it did more harm than good. The kids were frustrated and avoided him, he slowed down the game and had no idea how to play.

We’re now coming into a new season and yesterday was first practice post tryouts. 5 kids showed up. Another came an hour late. 6 kids total for an 11v11 team. I’m sensing the exact same instability that existed last year.

Due to the age change and 2 kids moving to higher team, there are 4 of the original kids on the team from last year. One has already said he’s done and won’t come back. One didn’t show for practice last night. My son and one other were there.

I don’t want to pay $2800 for a team that can’t even field a full 11 players. Especially with my son fighting for his life in goal if that’s going to wreck his confidence and development opportunities.

When does it make sense to cut the loss? We don’t want to abandon the team and we believe in the coach, but he is a young coach with very little influence and leverage in the club. I feel like he’s just working with what he’s given and it’s not working for anyone.

My son is a U13 who has split time between winger and backup keeper last season. The primary keeper moved down to U12 because of the age shift so my son was sort of pushed into being the primary keeper at tryouts. They did not assess him in any other skills. The existing team lost 7/12 to age shift and we know at least one moved to the higher team.

The club has two teams at this age group. My son is disappointed that he didn’t make the higher team but feels like he wasn’t properly assessed, was sort of pigeonholed for being the keeper to replace the one that moved down even though he definitely did outperform the existing keeper from the higher team. There are only two kids total who had any interest in being keeper.

He says he is okay to attend one practice and see the roster, but he’s leaning toward not accepting the offer. He feels that as long as the other keeper stays on the higher team, he will be stuck as the developmental level keeper because they need a body and not based on skill. They won’t move down the existing keeper even if it’s fair. And he is thinking if he has to start over with a completely new team anyway, he might as well explore other options and see if he can play at a higher level elsewhere.

I want to listen to him and I don’t think he’s being unrealistic. He is still relatively new to playing, but he puts in a lot and returns have come fast for him. He’s making advances quickly. I don’t want him to feel limited by another year at this level and lose interest.

I know nothing about exploring a club outside of tryouts as ours were all last two weeks. Is this worth our time?

My son is heading into U13 and is pretty new to GK and to playing soccer/football overall. He started around a year ago on a rec league. In November, they were without a keeper and my son volunteered. Loved it, and has stayed there for his rec team. He started with a club in January and now plays both, but the club already had a keeper so he was backup and played 3 games as keeper for their season.

It’s tryouts now and my son has again expressed interest in keeper. There’s been 2 days of tryouts and he has only been in goal the entire time. Today is the final day. There is only one other kid who is a keeper in their age group who currently plays on the higher level team. My son skill wise is roughly equal to the other kid but isn’t it also important to see their field skills in tryouts? Outside of drills, these 2 boys are only in goal. It seems like the roster at least for keepers is set: my son will be keeper for the B team and the A team will keep their existing keeper.

Is it too early for him to not also be playing on the field? His birthday is today and he’s 12. My son is also a solid winger and I worry that he may lose some of that skill if he’s not doing other types of play.

What is the general consensus?

My son will be heading into 13U this year. He’s relatively new to soccer. He played i9 (super low level rec) for 2 months, did one of their clinics for 3 weeks, and played at school before December 2025. In November, he attended a local club’s thanksgiving camp and was invited to practice. He went to practice with them for one day and was offered a spot. He was sold immediately but it took me a week to convince him to go to the practice. He started with them mid December. As soon as he’s “in it” he’s good - he’s made friends, he’s a solid middle/upper of the pack player (on the lower team of the 2 for his age group). He makes goals, he is respected by teammates and he feels generally good about how he’s doing. He loves his coach and really enjoys the club. Usually wants to show up 30 minutes early to practice and always stays late to shoot with friends.

All that said though he’s never formally done a tryout.

This past week leading into tryouts (which start today - May 11/12/13) he’s started saying things like “I didn’t have to do a tryout before, why do I need to do it now” and “I don’t even know if I want to still play” or “maybe I’ll only play school soccer”. He also has been angry that one of the tryout days is his birthday and that’s been another “why I don’t want to do it”. This morning the moment he woke up he says “I need to know what we’re going to be doing in tryouts”. I think he’s feeling a ton of anxiety that is coming across as resistance. Anyone else had similar kids? What helps?

He won’t admit he’s nervous or anxious so it’s almost impossible to actually address it through that. He has improved tremendously and has a great potential to continue improving- I just don’t want to see his confidence worsen if anxiety makes this tryout hard for him.

What do YOU do? Walk it off and call it a day? Talk to the other club? When does it “cross a line”?

Went to a tournament game for my son last night. We lost 3-2, and we were happy with that. We went into this game knowing we would lose more than likely because this team plays an entire league above our boys. U12. The tournament bracket had 5 teams in local leagues and one in regional. It’s no surprise the regional team had won every game and had zero goals conceded… until last night and our boys scored on them. Twice.

The other team’s parents were just gross. They instructed their kids to push and use elbows during the game. They complained about every moment it got physical and blamed us, the parents, not the refs, when calls weren’t made. We had one parent who was reacting to the other team’s comments - but not initiating and not using profanity. He since apologized to all of us for letting it get the best of him.

The final goal we conceded was kicked out of our keepers hands. It got ugly and dirty and as we are all leaving, one parent on their side is spewing profanity on the field. I stepped in and said “this is a kids soccer game. It’s not that serious and we can all just go home.” He starts complaining about how our kids pushed his kid or whatever (the game was not overly physical but there were a few questionable moments on both sides that did not get called). I reminded him that is all stuff to be taken up with the ref and none of us at this point have control over it. Then their coach starts in talking about our coach started it because he didn’t want to play a game at 8pm on a school night 45 minutes out of town. This game was on a weekday because the other team registered for two tournaments and couldn’t make both work.

Their coach came across the field during half time and demeaned our boys - telling his parents “there’s no reason to complain right now because they are fighting for third place anyway” and disparaging 11/12 year old boys… when he intentionally registered his team in a tournament they knew they would win.

Their boys called ours names and made nasty comments while they did the handshake at the end of the game.

This seems to be the standard every single time we play this club. The parents make nasty comments, use profanity, encourage kids to play in ways that have no integrity or respect. But they are one of the largest clubs and we are one of the smallest. They have 10+ teams at every age level where we have two. So we will forever be playing against this club.