You know me, not really into sports, but I do love to watch my son play soccer. He’s been playing soccer exclusively since he was 5yrs old. I’m not a fanatical soccer mom, I’ve pulled him out of a game if he’s acted like a jerk. As a mom I wanted him to be good at one thing, and I certainly didn’t want to spend my days driving him around from basketball practice to baseball practice to soccer etc etc etc. Jack of all trades master of none so to speak. Pick a sport, one sport and stick with it.

He’s not the best player on the team, but he’s damn good and he’s worked hard. He and a bunch of other boys on the team have earned the right to be starters, earned the right to play the position they feel the most comfortable in, and earned the right not to be pulled out of the match to give the ‘new kids’ a chance to play – that bullshit cushy ‘let every kid feel good about themselves’ and ‘everyone get’s a chance to play’ should end in junior high. Tough the suckers up for the real world I say!

Seriously, high school is not the place to start playing a sport and tryouts in soccer should be the same as any other sport – try out and bomb, you don’t get picked for the team.

High school sport is competitive, as a coach , you don’t start the game with players who’ve never played before, and you certainly don’t pull out your best players if you don’t have a significant lead – that’s coaching 101 – isn’t it?

And for the first time in my life, I sound like a fanatical soccer mom – do I care? Nah!

M is a Forward not a friggin Defender, don’t have him defending with the sole purpose of picking up the slack of those who couldn’t kick a ball if it were 3 feet in diameter.