Select Soccer - They've reached that age

Over the years, we’ve had several players leave our rec soccer team to join academy soccer teams. Here in North Texas, there is no shortage of soccer clubs to choose from. If your goal (as a parent) is to see your little one get as good at soccer as quickly as possible, there is no doubt that doubling up the practice schedule and playing year around in various leagues and tournaments will do it. Concerning soccer, I personally put my priority on helping my kids have fun, get some exercise, and spend some time with Dad. Turning them over to another coach at age 6 doesn’t seem like the best plan to me.

Now my girls are old enough to start thinking about select soccer; actually, I should say the parents are thinking about it. I’m having trouble understanding the motivations of the parents that want to “go select”. Again, if “soccer skills” is the priority, which they say it is, then the extra time and professional coaching you get at a club is certainly justified. They say the girls need these skills so they can achieve their “dream” of high school and college soccer. I wonder how many of these girls have ever been to even one high school soccer game. I wonder how many have ever even watched more than 5 minutes of soccer on TV. I wonder how they acquired this “dream”.

Honestly, these parents are putting way more priority on soccer skills than they do on their child’s education. Their kids are in their prime learning years, but do these parents spend an extra dime on ensuring they’re kids are maximizing their “thinking skills”? A child’s “thinking skills” will play a far greater role in their success in life than “soccer skills”. Playing soccer does deliver some life skills, no doubt, I spend a lot of time and energy coaching soccer for that very reason; however, I don’t put it higher than my kid’s education.

If parents instilled in their kids the “dream” of becoming a entrepreneur, scientist, engineer, or some other productive occupation rather than “high school soccer star”, and then backed it up the time and resources they are willing to put into select soccer, imagine how this would carry forward in their children’s lives. These types of dreams that don’t end in high school.