He'll need to declare by the fourth grade at the latest if he wants to intern at a Big Four firm some day.

Maybe I missed the 8-year old's version of the events?

Sounds like a smart kid.

I don't think it's too big of a mystery.

certainly not pushing him in the travel soccer world. I think the whole thing is nuts and my post was more to get thoughts on the reason that I hadn't thought of. I think (outside of world cup) soccer is as boring as baseball. I'd rather him keep playing all the sports.

He made a decision to not do travel and said he said "I'll just play development," which I think he assumed he would make because it is less competitive in the sense they only play in the county and don't travel around the DMV. So it was venting on part and seeing his disappointment in part.

work on their hip swivel, bat speed, or cross checking. That's why soccer is so stupid, it doesn't help any of those things. Wake up you idiot soccer parents!

He was 7 this year and made some elite whatever soccer team because his dad is a huge Liverpool fan and is obsessed with his kid playing soccer even though he never played and regrets it or something.
Anyway nice kid and he went in as a very enthusiastic young player, and after 6 months of 2-3x a week practice and games all weekend, he is burned out of playing the sport before the age of 8, but his dad is still dragging him through all of this, even though the kid wants to play baseball.
I hang out with the dad all the time he is so great.

Parents can be crazy in every sport (I've seen adults berate 12 year old umps in little league), but soccer takes it to a different level. When you have U8 parents and coaches talking like the kids are preparing for the World Cup, it's a whole different level of crazy. These are little boys. Let them have fun and learn whether or not they actually like the sport. Often times the best kids at age 8 are not the best at age 12. Don't discourage the mediocre kid now because if you push him out you will never get the chance to see him develop as a teenager.

To the OP, I agree with the other posts below. If your son likes soccer, let him play rec and have fun. If he doesn't want to play, don't force the issue. It sounds like he's involved with plenty of other sports and could transition back to soccer in a year or two if he wants.

at this age.

You've never been to a pee wee hockey game nor have you been to a U9 football game in 90 degree heat where the coaches and parents were telling kids that "we keep our helmets on when we are on the sidelines" while kids were getting woozy.

Examine your soccer hatred. You admitted as much (that parents "can be crazy" in every sport... but yeah, those soccer parents, they're the real assholes!

Give me a break.

until he turned 12. Then a coach was able to convince his parents to try travel. He was the only boy from our town at my son's age who played Division I. Travel at younger ages doesn't mean much. My son gave up soccer for ice hockey at age 11.

I say this as a father whose son has played soccer year-round for 11 years across all different levels (1.5 years in rec, 1.5 years in AYSO, eight years in club).

Evaluations at your son's young age are largely meaningless. As a result, those evaluations can seem -- and may be -- arbitrary and unfair. The chance of that outcome only increases if you have volunteer coaches or coaches who have kids playing on the team.

As unfun as that is at the moment, it certainly doesn't have to have lasting effects. It certainly doesn't affect what will happen in the future. It's not like he's been put on a track he can't leave.

The only question I would be asking myself if I were you (and the only question your son should be asking himself) is whether he enjoys playing soccer. If he does, keep playing. The team at that age really doesn't matter. The league doesn't matter. The competition doesn't matter much either. Playing only in the spring or fall is fine. What matters is that he's having fun playing a game he enjoys. If he is, keep playing.

There may be a time down the road to worry about teams and leagues. You've got years before you get there.

Play lots of different sports.

If you don't like the sport, finish the season, and move on, if you like one, keep playing, but play them all, don't be in a rush to specialize.

The only thing that I would add would be if you do choose to do the travel teams, look for the level where your son will get to play. I was sucked into the thought that being on the premier team was the best for my son (you want to be the best, you need to play with the best).

In hindsight playing a level down would have helped his love for the game as he would have been on the field more. He grew though practices, but his love for the game waned as he did not play as much.

I played basketball, football, baseball and soccer growing up. I lived in Northern VA from 4th thru 8th grade and that area was one of several pockets around the country where you could play high level (we called it “select” back then) soccer in the 1970s.

I raised my 2 boys in North Florida. I coached all 4 of the sports I grew up playing. Both my boys were very good soccer players, but it became clear to me very early that “organized” soccer, as it is practiced/played in the US today, was not going to meet our needs.

Luckily, there were a couple of fledgling organizations called Challenge Sports and Kick It that ran competitive 3V3 soccer tournaments. We could pick a spot in Florida almost any weekend throw 4-6 kids in a couple of cars and go compete. We did this around football, basketball and baseball. I know that “organized” soccer has done its best to kill off these outside organizations, so the competition may not be as good today, but I still see ads for the tournaments. As an aside, 2 of my 3V3 players ended up starting in the midfield for the 3rd team in Florida high school history to go undefeated and untied (though neither chose to pursue playing soccer in college).

I haven’t heard of a travel org making that a requirement at U8

Since a common theme in this thread is sports forcing kids to specialize at a young age I thought I'd share something I found interesting.

I never played hockey until I was 37 years old at which time my then 5 year old son started playing. Both of my kids, G10 and now G8, have always played multiple sports (baseball, soccer, basketball) but hockey was new to us all. After the first year of my son's hockey I decided to get a little more involved and volunteer as a coach. What I have experienced thus far through USA Hockey has been very impressive.

USA Hockey is basically the governing body for all youth hockey. They require all coaches to be certified to varying degrees. Through this certification process one of the themes that was stressed over and over was the emphasis on kids playing multiple sports. They flat out don't want their players specializing (at least at the youngest of ages) in hockey only. In fact I remember a college coach in one of the training videos (I forget which coach and the exact quote) saying that he wouldn't even look at recruiting a player unless they lettered/played at least one other sport at a high level.

I found that approach not only very sensical, but also very refreshing. Not that it doesn't exist in other sports, but I've never seen another sport with such an organized top down mentality of cross training.

Many sports you need to start building skill and fundamentals at a young age to be uber successful. Others, like football, you can pick up much later in life and still make it to the highest levels. The point is, let kids be kids and know that cross training will be beneficial in the long run. If your kid doesn't have the natural ability and 99% of us don't, then no amount of overtraining is going to get them that scholarship or paycheck.

Every coach in the world agrees that a player should be a multi-sport athlete.

IN THEORY

When it comes to their sport and their season, many generally don't put that concept into play.

At my soccer club, we encourage and allow multi-sport athletes. We have boys who play lacrosse, ice hockey, and tennis. We are a "soccer second" kind of team despite the fact that we are pretty good (and would possibly be great if we implemented a policy of intolerance to other sports).

Our left midfielder plays hockey for a club here in Chicagoland (he's fifteen years old, so we aren't talking about U8 hockey) and he's not allowed to miss a practice or a game without losing playing time. So maybe hockey is organized higher up to allow for multi-sport, but it is not at the local level.

This was doubly true for high school sports. Practice five days a week at varying times so you can't plan anything. My son's lacrosse coach said "absences from practice are unexcused if the result of homework or a test:" and, of course, unexcused absences cost you playing time. This is after getting up at 6:30 for 1.5 hours of "off-season" not mandatory (but surely mandatory) high school soccer practice, a full day of school, two hours before dinner and a lacrosse practice that goes from 6-8pm - and we go to a school where it takes about 25 minutes to get to and from. Hey, don't worry about it - manage your time better!

Compete in 2 sports.

But I'd have big problem if a coach "punished" my kid for missing off season workouts while they were in a competitive season for another sport.

they never say the kid will be punished. They just strongly imply it.

Let the kid enjoy a beautiful day on a grassy field kicking a soccer ball around with his friends rather than a travel team for second graders.

Is it possible that the competition for the development team was tougher because other good kids like your chose not to play travel team and only wanted to play developmental? I understand that you probably got screwed, but it’s a possible explanation.

will be the "explanation."

My past experience at this kind of stuff through the years is that is very "political" based on friendships, next door neighbors, etc. It even extends into high school.

My son was easily the 2nd best catcher in his high school class but the sophomore baseball coach, who was also the sophomore football coach, picked a far worse player (a great kid..we knew him well) because a) he coached him in football and b) he was a 'friend' of the family and c)had coached his older brother (who played college baseball) a few years earlier.

My son was upset, saw it for what it was, and moved on to other things to his long term advantage.

When that same coach asked him to try out the next year because the other kid stopped playing baseball, my son simply said, "you should have picked the better player last year" and declined his "offer."

On commitment, I thought about it last night.

I went back to last year. I made him go to the travel tryouts last year on the basis that competing and trying out is part of life, this year he bugged me to do to tryouts. Last year, he went to the first tryout but he said he didn't want to go the other 3 tryouts for travel because his friends weren't there. Totally fine with me and we moved on. This is another huge issue with rec is by grade but travel and development is by age year and because he is a 2010 birthday (12/31/2019) while the rest of is rec team is 2011 birthday, he is always going to be off.

Anyway, not surprising only going to 1 tryout, when the tryout made email list comes out he doesn't make it. We tell him and he's fine with it. 2 weeks later an email comes out saying he's now made the travel team. Seeing this as the cash grab it is (travel coaches get stipends but the soccer association employees 12 or so full time employees). We say no. I suspect it is the two times we say "no" to travel that impacted his ADP.

And, yes, there is certainly politics going on. On my sons rec team 4 out of the 8 made some level of travel - all at the 2011 age group. 1 was the coaches son and another was the assistant's son. The coaches son is good, the assistants is okay, so I think politics played a role in his selection to the lowest travel team (there are 6), which I understand.

Of those kids and my son: one kid has great footwork, skill and the best pure soccer player on the team (his parents are from Germany and moved to the US 2 years ago) and is playing on the 2011 A travel team next year, the coaches son and my son are the next best players but my son is the best athlete on the team and certainly the best on-ball defender and workest the hardest on defense. He is also extremely coachable and only needs to be told once to do something.

I've cooled off from last night but I know he will be disappointed. But, it is a life lesson that sometime life isn't fair and decisions have consequences. Sort of stinks he is learning this at 8.

It wasn't by any means a comment about your son. It was really directed at the folks making the selection needing an excuse to "explain" their decision.

To a certain extent, I've been down your path. Playing in a very good and large "house" baseball league over many years, my son was always a very good player at a key position and probably should have made their travel squads a number of times but didn't because we were never a part of the in-crowd that ran the league. The sons and pals of the big shots in the league always made the travel teams. Funny thing is I became part of the league apparatchik group when I was the #2 guy in our college age league and saw what a bunch of ass clowns some of these guys really were.

But it worked out well in the long run because my son did other things with his time (i.e., becoming a well-regarded umpire in the league) that he had fun at. I fully believe that the skills he learned in being an umpire in a youth league were far more valuable that being a catcher on a travel squad.

I probably felt the way you did at the time when my son was disregarded but he had a great fun and made lifelong friends playing house baseball.

Listen to some other folks on this board that have been through this with kids at much older ages. He's 8!!! With 2 girls of my own in travel soccer for years, no one really cares about your kid until you hit u12/u13 anyway. Let your son enjoy playing with friends if he can and develop as a soccer player if he likes the sport. It doesn't matter what level team he is on at 8, believe me.

I also have a 2010 boy, 2 2008 girls, and a 2004 boy. All play travel soccer with the oldest in the highest level in our area. We see the 2010 parents traveling 1.5 hrs one way during the summer so their 8-9 year old can play on an area all-star summer team.

so they spend the summer months traveling to Charlotte, NC 2 times a week for practice and have been in summer tournaments. We watched their championship game this past weekend because our oldest was in the tourney. The all-star boys soccer is no better than what we saw this past year - they played a team that traveled from Boston to Charlotte for a U9 soccer tournament. That is another level of crazy. Our youngest son and girls are taking the summer off from playing in tournaments. They are doing several camps (1 soccer camp) and spending time at the pool. I'm an guessing they will be in better spot than the kids that played all summer long come fall season.

I was a very good soccer player when I was really young. At 10 years old I played in the 11/12 year old league and led the league in assists. Who knows if I would have continued to be as good but once I got to middle school I wanted to play football and baseball, and didn’t care about soccer anymore. This was in the late 80s so soccer was not big outside for little kids and travel was pretty rare too. My dad was pretty upset but they didn’t want to force me to do anything I didn’t want to. I wish they did :). I never was big or fast enough to do well in football and I sucked in baseball once I had to hit a real pitcher. I always wished I had seen how far I could go with soccer.

My now 13 yo son was the leading scorer and inarguably a top 3 player in our town soccer program in 3rd grade. Tryouts for 4th grade travel (which was the first year of travel) were only a couple of weeks after the 3rd grade spring season ended but we didn't find out until August that our son didn't make the "A" travel team (there were three levels). Of the 8 kids who made the A team, 5 were sons of coaches or board members in the soccer program. None of those 5 were as good as my son. Three of them weren't even particularly athletic.

I have never liked soccer and always wanted him to play football. My wife was against him playing football right up until the moment we found out he didn't make the A team. She was actually the one who placed the call to the football player development director as football registration had ended. Our son switched to football and never looked back. I still think (and my wife agrees) that the switch may be the best thing that has happened for his development (in simplest terms, better posture/gait/self-confidence/etc.).

I still have fond memories of the exchange I had with the grade director of the soccer program (who had twin sons who made the 4th grade A team) to let him know my son wasn't playing. I shot him a two sentence e-mail that said our son would be playing football but thanking the coaches and wishing the travel teams well. No complaining and no explanation offered. He e-mailed me back in about 2 minutes asking if we could discuss by phone. After pleasantries he said something like "We'd be really sorry to lose him. Is it because he didn't make the A team?" I said "Yup." Silence [I think he wanted me to let them off the hook by saying "No"] He started to hem and haw about "lots of stuff going into the eval" and I politely cut him off and said "I'm sure you had your reasons. Nothing either of us says from this point is going to make things any better." He said "Yeah. You're right." And we cordially hung up. If I knew then what I know, I would have added "Thank you for doing me and my son an enormous favor."

The A team did not win a game that first season. All three of the kids who were not coaches/directors sons (who unsurprisingly were the 3 best players) quit after that year. Two gave up soccer entirely; the other just played club. You reap what you sow.

I hope it works out for you guys as well as it did for us.

Every family has to make their own decision on traveling teams but we stayed away from that area for a number of reasons. I think it will work out better in the long run.

Just stinks that he is going to have to learn a lesson at 8 that there are unintended consequences for making perfectly acceptable decisions and that people can hold those decisions against you.

as much as you do. He is also likely to forget about this sooner than you will.

It’s threads like this, as well as the parents I know whose kids are competitive athletes that make me glad my kids were never really into team/competitive sports.

His life will not be ruined by this decision. Believe me.

I'm glad that he wants to play a number of different sports. He'll be better off for it. I'd bet a significant number of the travel team end up being burned out within 4 years. No offense, but I doubt any of the 8 year old travel team will be making a living playing soccer or even getting part of college paid by it. Said as one with three grown children.

It’s becoming increasing hard to make it at the next level as a multi-sport athlete. So many parents and coaches push kids into one sport year-round instead of the emphasis on being a well-rounded athlete. Perhaps the coaches are looking for those types of kids who intend to specialize in soccer exclusively.

to develop players who want to play travel soccer? If so, then perhaps they put your son on rec because he indicated he didn't want to play travel soccer, and reserved the developmental spots for those who want to work towards making the travel team.

But, should that be a determining factor for rising 3rd graders because they dont want to focus on one sport at 8 years old. If that was factor then that should be listed in the criteria factor for the team.

So I am really just guessing at the possible purpose of the developmental team, and a logical reason why they wouldn't select your son under the circumstances you describe.

My older two kids played soccer, with my oldest daughter playing in college (from which she just graduated). I totally understand the issue of kids wanting to play multiple sports, with soccer (and probably some of the other skill sports, like baseball) pushing earlier and earlier for kids to be single sport athletes. I can see both sides to the argument, but regardless, eight is too young to have to choose a single sport, although I would also think he could play another sport while playing travel soccer, at least at the younger ages. My kids did until about 8th grade.

Impressive! I suspect the developmental coaches thought there was some weird time travel shit going on.

And I obviously don’t have kids. So, I defer to the other posters. Good luck, and I hope your son enjoys all the other sports he participates in.

is literally the youngest kid out there for tryouts. Born 22 hours later he is one of the oldest. It is what it is. As I mentioned above, rec soccer is by grade and development and travel is by age.

they're careful in high school to have the kids play their age/grade still (at least for baseball).

Big push from the US soccer org that resulted in a change in the cutoff from 8/1 to 1/1.

It is applied to all levels of soccer (HS teams obviously excepted)

@$$h0les.