competitive little kid sports

[michigancat]

I never updated my daughter's final water polo tourney but it pretty much sucked. Before the tourney, the coach said she wouldn't play outside of blowouts. He brought in some ringers and generally made all the girls feel like crap or uneasy about their situation. Well guess what, at the tournament he needed to play my daughter in almost every game! And she did great in her opportunities. He also berated her in a game where she wasn't playing but was helping girls coming out of the pool with goggles full of milk (milk can help with burning from chlorine. Well at halftime she didn't bring a milk jug from one end to the other at half time (water polo switches benches every half) and he screamed at her. It was awful. I wouldn't have blamed her for quitting (seriously it was that bad) but I texted the coach that he needed to apologize to her and he did. We also heard a rumor that this coach was fired from a college coaching job because he was caught drinking in the team van with girls from the team and he pretty much admitted to it at his closing address to all the parents.

Team results were great, she got to beat her most hated rivals, played at the Stanford pool, and the girls were absolutely wonderful but holy crap that coach was an bad person and I think I should have more strongly suggested she quit but oh well it is over and she will never interact with him again.

[meow meow]

we drove to omaha saturday for one (1) single game, then turned around and drove home.  13U regional league soccer.

I mean, at least your team has beat every other 13U soccer team within a 3 hour radius of KC right?

not exactly.  still learning about regional/national leagues in soccer, but starting with 13U, most/all? clubs play in either a national league (biggest clubs) or a regional league.  So we have some teams in that league from KC/Wichita/Omaha/St Louis/Iowa.  Some of her friends from her old club are playing in the ECNL (national league) and they play teams/games in Chicago, other further city's that you may/may not want to drive to vs flying.  Basically if you're in those clubs, soccer is your kids only sport because of the time/$$ commitment.

yeah, I was just joking. I always think it's hilarious and stupid to travel really far unless you are an elite level team that crushes it locally. Unless its just an annual fun trip or whatever. I know it happens.

they are one of the top teams in KC, but this is our first time traveling somewhere where you aren't staying for the weekend/playing multiple games.  5 1/2 - 6 hours of driving for an hour and 15 mintues of play!

[Cartierfor3]

I never updated my daughter's final water polo tourney but it pretty much sucked. Before the tourney, the coach said she wouldn't play outside of blowouts. He brought in some ringers and generally made all the girls feel like crap or uneasy about their situation. Well guess what, at the tournament he needed to play my daughter in almost every game! And she did great in her opportunities. He also berated her in a game where she wasn't playing but was helping girls coming out of the pool with goggles full of milk (milk can help with burning from chlorine. Well at halftime she didn't bring a milk jug from one end to the other at half time (water polo switches benches every half) and he screamed at her. It was awful. I wouldn't have blamed her for quitting (seriously it was that bad) but I texted the coach that he needed to apologize to her and he did. We also heard a rumor that this coach was fired from a college coaching job because he was caught drinking in the team van with girls from the team and he pretty much admitted to it at his closing address to all the parents.

Team results were great, she got to beat her most hated rivals, played at the Stanford pool, and the girls were absolutely wonderful but holy crap that coach was an bad person and I think I should have more strongly suggested she quit but oh well it is over and she will never interact with him again.

Dang. That's intense.

[nicname]

CF3 jr's football career has been tough so far.

Week 1 the freshmen had their game shortened to 8 min quarters after a 1 hour lightning delay and they got demolished so the 2nd half was a running clock- he didn't get into the game and was pretty sad. They were going to do a 5th quarter but because of the delay they didn't.

Week 2 the freshmen had an absolute barnburner of a game and won in OT! But.... he didn't get in the game  . Coach told him if it had been not as close either way he would've got some snaps but it didn't happen. It really was a hell of a game and I know the coach wanted to get the kids a win to build for their growth so I'm good and so is my kid.

Overall he was good but I know it's been tough since he's done so much work. I'm friends with the varsity coach and he found me after the game and told me my kid is a great worker and should keep going. I'm incredibly proud of his hard work and resilience, and I'm trying to raise a man, so the playing time is small potatoes. But that drive home after week 1 was pretty sad. 

Sports man. So much to learn. Let's all keep crap in perspective this fall as our kids play sports. This is kid stuff. What's important is being healthy and active, learning to work as a team, learning to be resilient, seeing improvement work over time. 

I'm a bit of a progressive when it comes to youth sports but IMO in a goddam freshman high school game, everyone that has been showing up to practice and working should get snaps every game. If you lose, who gives a crap! Playing time keeps kids engaged, gets more kids more experience, and builds the program for varsity. Not playing everyone in a blowout is especially mumped up.

You said it more succinctly than I did in my rant last night. Very well said.

[star seed 7]

That sucks about nicjr's acl 

[nicname]

That sucks about nicjr's acl 

Worse, it’s his Achilles. He tore it last spring planting for a high jump. I feel really bad for him. He’s not a super-stud or anything, but he likes sports and is usually a starter or one of the first off the bench for the “A” team in the sports that he played.

I try to teach him to be a great teammate and put others before himself, but I know it gets old going to practice and games and not being able to suit up. He’s been doing this since spring in baseball and now football.

[Dugout DickStone]

broke my right hand i n a few places playing babe ruth  back in the day and still went to every game/practice and end of season banquet I got "most dedicated teammate" award for continuing to show up and I was like, "wait, it was an option to stop coming to this bullshit?  It was like 110 degrees that one game"

[Stupid Fitz]

First fall AAA tournament this weekend. It was a pretty small tourney so a good one to start with. Lots of mistakes as expected with the time off from summer season. Earned the 2 seed by beating the team that crap kicked us in bracket play. That team ended up winning it so whatevs. It was hot as crap so I don't think anyone was too disappointed to not be sitting around waiting for a game and then playing another game later in the day on Sunday. Pitching is getting much better. The boys won AA state and played in mostly AA tourneys, but did dabble in AAA last year. These kids are getting big and throwing harder pretty rapidly. The plus side is that they are around the plate more. It's a nightmare scenario when some giant kid is throwing gas, but you have no idea where it's going. That is getting more rate. Lil SF got a big hit and drove in a couple which was great. Still K'ing too much, so we have some work to do this off season.

[Cartierfor3]

How old again SF?

[Stupid Fitz]

11U

[Kat Kid]

I went to quote dugout's post about going to all of his team's practices and games injured.

My 8yr old has a broken collarbone and I am enjoying not going to all these practices and games and there is no way I would drive to KC to stand and watch other 8 year olds with my injured 8 year old sitting on the bench being antsy about not being able to run around because the doctor told him he couldn't.

[SleepFighter]

we drove to omaha saturday for one (1) single game, then turned around and drove home.  13U regional league soccer.

I mean, at least your team has beat every other 13U soccer team within a 3 hour radius of KC right?

not exactly.  still learning about regional/national leagues in soccer, but starting with 13U, most/all? clubs play in either a national league (biggest clubs) or a regional league.  So we have some teams in that league from KC/Wichita/Omaha/St Louis/Iowa.  Some of her friends from her old club are playing in the ECNL (national league) and they play teams/games in Chicago, other further city's that you may/may not want to drive to vs flying.  Basically if you're in those clubs, soccer is your kids only sport because of the time/$$ commitment.

yeah, I was just joking. I always think it's hilarious and stupid to travel really far unless you are an elite level team that crushes it locally. Unless its just an annual fun trip or whatever. I know it happens.

they are one of the top teams in KC, but this is our first time traveling somewhere where you aren't staying for the weekend/playing multiple games.  5 1/2 - 6 hours of driving for an hour and 15 mintues of play!

In Austin, when my oldest son was in U12, there was one team in town that did this sort of thing. Now,8 years later, there are at least 8. It doesn't make any damn sense, but as a parent, it is very hard to not go along with it.

[SleepFighter]

That sucks about nicjr's acl 

Worse, it’s his Achilles. He tore it last spring planting for a high jump. I feel really bad for him. He’s not a super-stud or anything, but he likes sports and is usually a starter or one of the first off the bench for the “A” team in the sports that he played.

I try to teach him to be a great teammate and put others before himself, but I know it gets old going to practice and games and not being able to suit up. He’s been doing this since spring in baseball and now football.

Not much.worse when you're young than being injured.

[steve dave]

local HS we feed to sucks such bigtime ass right now after getting to state semi final last season. lost a ton of kids but woof. 0-4. BUT! tonight their kicker blasted a 55 yard FG like it was nothing to go up 1 with 2 minutes left! lost obviously but wow! lil sd's football team was all in attendance mostly doing crimes instead of watching the game and I was coach chaperone and it was electric for a minute when the kid bombed the kick. need to replace our purple wildcat kicker with this green wildcat kicker right now.

[Cire]

My nephews seventh grade team has 2 kids that are absolute cheat codes.

One is 6’ 175 and can run/catch

The other is  tall/thin moved in and played on one of those awful urban competitive teams where the kids are crashing head first into each other with coaches screaming

He hit a kid that tried to tackle him so hard       That it looked like he got knocked down and    bounced off the turf


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[steve dave]

our #1 pitcher blew out his ACL his first football game. Had surgery today. Gonna be a photo finish if he's ready to deal come baseball season. 6th grade already getting rough.