Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
1-7 isnt an issue for younger graded, but if you are talking about 5th grade and up, the better players will just play club or elsewhere and not return. Have it happening now.


This is what I don't understand, the better players have all year to play elsewhere, PAL is only 8 weeks long. Doesn't anyone have any pride in or allegiance to their community anymore? Why are they allowed to play elsewhere, what are we teaching our kids? When things don't go your way just take your ball and leave and abandon the rest of the kids in your community? That it is ok to cheat and have players from outside the community come in to play just so you can win games? Our kids should be learning sometimes things are tough, but if you stick with it and try hard you will eventually succeed on your own and that is something to be proud of. Sports are also supposed to teach life lessons and none of them should be how to cheat the system just to win a few games. As coaches and parents we should all be above that.



Great points and I agree with everything you said, except for the winning which is back to my original point. I don't understand the emphasis on winning in PAL lax or accusing other coaches for wanting to win. What does it get you? (and I don't mean you, just in general). A team finishes 8-0, 7-1, 6-2....big deal! Does the coach get awarded with a contract extension? Do the players get a trophy? No...it means nothing. These are young kids in PAL lax, not some ESPN Power Ranking league.


Being a board member of a youth league, I can tell you why winning matters. Not about coaching awards. Not about ESPN. It's about parents. Know what happens when a team struggles? Especially an "A" team? Parents criticize the coach. Criticize the other players that aren't up to their kids' standards. Start choosing to go to their travel team practice over the town team. For every team that I hear is "falling apart" it usually starts with a lack of success and disintegrates from there. I will be the first to admit youth lacrosse scores don't matter in the overall scheme of things. You think I remember scores and records when my son was in 3-8th grade? NO way! But to keep teams together, parents want their kids to be on a winner. If it didn't matter so much to them, they wouldn't be screaming for little Johnny to try and run through the entire other team and shoot from 20 yards away.