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Post being replied to

It's the individual coaches & clubs that suck on this issue by Irishlawyer

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!