You said it perfect. I couldn't agree more. If a club is taking a families money, that kid should be good enough to play. Clubs want it both ways, I get it. They want to make tons of money(nothing wrong with that, all businesses do), they also want to win every single game. Sometimes to please all your customers, you need to sacrifice things. If I had a choice the rosters would be 19 kids and everyone is good enough to play. Some rosters are 28 kids, how can a coach play all these kids. The 10 last kids on roster, leave the tournaments hardly playing and in some cases, never playing. As far as club is concerned those 10 kids are 40 thousand bucks, but now those families want satisfaction and that falls on the coach. I understand you get practice and that's most important, but families spend money and many summer weekends based on their sons lacrosse schedule. They miss graduation parties, other non lacrosse vacation weekends,family parties, their other kids events, barbaques, etc. They do all this to watch their child play and have fun. To not have these kids play is unacceptable. If that was my son, I'd rather someone after tryouts say he is not good enough to make the team. That would save me money and a year of aggravation and my son being sad not playing. I can then look for another team more suitable to his ability.
You are the only one who saw the point to my post. If a club team takes your child and your money then there is an expectation. Most of you saw it as me whining about my sons playing time and made the obvious [lacrosse] responses. My son is a very good parent payer, the team took money from kids who shouldn't be there. The parents have EVERY right to be angry. Perhaps the greedy directors should have been honest. Again, if you take someone's money and offer a spot the assumption is that the child will play. By the way, most of you are jerkoffs, but that's a story for another day!
You appear to be the jerkoff! You went to tryouts, you saw the competition and knew it was a real stretch and when your little star made the team and they called you and said he needs a little work you figured they weren't being polite and hinting you should decline. You thought that the coaches overlooked the dropped passes and lack of lax IQ. When you spoke to the coach and he casually mentions skill development directly to you and to all the parents at practice, you missed that too, but now the differences are starting to show at every turn. But you don't get Johnnie to the wall or take him for a run or a HS or NCAA game to watch, you blame the Coach and the organization. Now you want him playing during the meaningful games and crunch time instead of just the blowouts and are angry that doesn't happen. You Sir, need a mirror! For yourself and your son. It isn't his fault, or the coaches or the organization. It's you! And now your boy needs to work with the bad hand you dealt him. He is young, there is still time, don't waste another year being ignorant of the truth. Your kid deserves better.
You must live in fantasy land. Not every coach makes a personal phone call to a player's parents. And moreover, not every coach will, as you say "hint" that the kid should decline. In fact, they have a financial incentive to not do any of these things. They want and need the extra 2 grand from this and every other kid deemed marginal to the team. The last thing they want is for little johnny's dad to think that the kid may be less of a player than the others BEFORE the check is written. This is why communication is often a complaint that parents have.
What happens when the kid declines the spot because daddy watched the tryout, noticed a lot of kids faster than his kid, and said "I don't think my kid will get playing time on this team, so we will go elsewhere". This is when the phone call comes - "we need your kid, he is good that is why we picked him, ect, ect." But in your fantasy world the coach and director are fine with having only 17 kids on the team (and only 17 checks). They secretly want players 18-23 to walk away and spend their money elsewhere. Please oh please give me directions to the planet you live on so I can go their immediately, because it seems better than the one I am living on.
And you are completely ignorant of the most important differentiator between top players and non-top players - speed, quickness, and athletism. There a TON of youth players that have great stick skills and lacrosse IQ, and are extremely successful for their Town and former travel teams. They go to a tryout and make a team. Its not always clear at one tryout how much faster certain other kids are - moreover, many incumbent strong players miss tryouts because they are going to Disney or Aunt Suzzie's wedding or whatever, safe in the knowledge that all they need to do is email the coach that they are still in and the spot is there's. And you don't know how many of the really quick kids are coming vs who will join another team instead, nor do you know if the team will be adding a couple of top kids after tryouts. The bottom line is that especially for the popular clubs that get large turnouts at tryouts, even the most skilled observers of youth talent can't predict how the roster will play out 10 months later when the real games happen.
