Progress in Soccer Issue

If you are new to my blog the whole debacle began back on this day

The head of our town soccer league called me this morning.  We discussed the issues and everything.  She remained very neutral and understanding.  I love someone who wants to work out the issues and not take sides. 

She asked some awesome questions.  She asked if the coaches seemed to pick on her or any of the players.  She asked about time of play in regular games and in the tournament game.  She said that the coaches told her that Rachel played at least 10 minutes.  That is such bs.  I told her that at the second game we timed the amount of play and it was for 6…not 10.  One would think that 4 minutes doesn’t make a lot of difference but to an 8 year old it really does. 

I told her about the coaches sitting on the sidelines and visiting during practice.  She said that she likes older kids to mentor to the younger set but only if the kids are in the high school range.  The coaches kids that were doing the coaching are in middle school.  I told her that the kids were awesome with the younger ones.  They shouldn’t be banned from it because they acted as awesome “mentors” but shouldn’t have to coach the team.  She plans to discuss this with the coaches and reprimand them for it.

I told her that I understood now that tournament play and recreational play are treated differently.  I don’t think rules need to be changed but I do feel that parents need to be aware of these things beforehand.  And if the coaches don’t know or “forget” to tell the parents then an apology is only common courtesy and respect.  How would they like it if it happened to their kid?! 

Our solution:

She will begin to put the teams together at the end of January. For now she will keep Rachel’s name on the team she is on now just so she won’t be eliminated from the league.  If there are new coaches then we will leave things as they are.  If the coaches are the same we will move her to a different team.    If there is a team that can be formed in her age range she will put her in that.  We discussed putting her in a league up but I asked if we could actually go one younger instead.  She liked that idea, so she will see if that is also possible for her.  There could be a chance that all teams will be full and no room for her.  At that point we will just pull her if the same 3 coaches remain.   

So in January we shall see what happens.  But I’m feeling good with the progress we are making in this situation now.