I coached my Daughters’ various soccer teams for 16

years and spent 6 years on the soccer advisory committee for our town. I think it all depends on what kind of teams you have and what your goals are. The Park District ran the House and the travel program for the town (70,000 people).

We had a pretty big house program, especially through 4th grade. Those were parent coached and they played exclusively against other teams in our town. You would play 7 or 8 games in the fall and then again in the spring. The “uniforms” were reversible shirts. Play was supposed to be fairly even. Everyone played 2 quarters. No one plays 3 quarters unless everyone plays 2 and no one plays 4 quarters unless everyone plays 3.

The referees were local kids, jr hi and high school hired by the park district. There were no standings, although I think they had playoffs of some sort with the older grades - junior high. The House program ended with 8th grade.

Travel program played through high school but only during the season that the high school teams were not playing. Several private clubs played year round and did not allow players to play for their high school teams.

Participation in House leagues tapered off after 4th grade. The better players played travel, some kids moved to other sports and others concentrated on other activities.

Travel soccer started in 3rd grade - U9. At first there were parent coaches and they could hire a paid “trainer” to run some of the practices. The parent coach needed to get an E License. This was in the 1990’s and it was harder to find qualified trainers.

It was always tough in the travel teams to follow the Park District goals of maximizing participation while still trying to be competitive with the private clubs. Parents liked to complain and the soccer committee and the Park District would listen to the complaints. The private clubs would usually just tell complaining parents to find another club. Rory Dames, who runs the Eclipse Club and coaches the Chicago women’s pro team said his ideal team would be a group of rich orphans.

I coached my youngest Daughter’s travel team. It was the top team in the club at her age group and there was a B and C team also. At try outs, the A team coach picked his or her team, then the B team and then the C team.

Back then U9 played 7 field players and goalie with a maximum of 14 players on the team and 50 minute games. The park District wanted maximum participation so we had 3 teams of 14 players. With 6 subs for 7 field players, only 1 or 2 would play more than half the game. The private clubs didn’t care about playing everyone and one coach told me that a player who switched to her club was playing 15-18 minutes a game.

I had the players on my team pick numbers from 00 to 14. The B team player took 15 to 28. The C team took 29-42. As players moved between teams over the years, there were few conflicts. Each player had a red jersey that cost about $40 and a white tshirt with number and logo to wear if there was a color conflict. There were problems when manufacturers discontinued the club jersey. Eventually we had a custom one made for the club. Some clubs go with cheaper jerseys that they change yearly.

At U11 we played 11 v 11. Interest was weaker so I was able to have 16 players which let me play most kids 40 minutes out of 60 minutes. Again, the private clubs didn’t do that, with playing time based on ability. I found that the bottom 5 players improved greatly with the extra playing time with meaningful minutes. By U12 we made the top division in The Chicago area and went 9-9-2 against very strong competition.

After U12 we started losing kids to the top clubs which were Sockers and Eclipse. Some wanted better competition. Others were chasing scholarships. We stayed very competitive but clubs like Eclipse and Sockers had better players.

At U12 Our club picked a group to provide trainers for all of the teams which the team could decide whether to use 1 practice a week or 2 practices. It made the practices more uniform across the club.

After a few years, the club switched to having the group of trainers provide coaches for each team and the parent coach became a manager/administrator. After about 5 years that group broke off and started fielding their own teams and a new head trainer was hired.

With the travel teams, the league provided the referees. Most were pretty good. We travelled all over the area, sometimes 50 miles to Rockford and Plainfield and Hyde Park and sometimes the referees were biased, but that just the way it was. B and C teams didn’t travel so far

Some of the time the club assigned the practice fields and times to the travel teams. Park space was often at a premium.

Phasing out parent coaches made the program more expensive but it took some favoritism out of the player selection. It also improved the coaching

These days many of the parents played as kids and so I would expect parent coaches to be better.