My son is in the 5th grade, we are in a northern Westchester "hot bed" for lacrosse. I've been told by 3 or 4 different parents that my son "has to play for XYZ summer club or he'll never play in HS because the Varsity coach runs the club". I have refused to be pressured into registering him for the team in spite of being invited by the program director. He plays for a summer program that has no connection to our HS program and everyone knows this HS associated club is far inferior to the one he plays on now.
What is a parent to do? My son loves playing for this other club, has many friends on the team and is being coached by a few highly qualified coaches.
If your good you play.....period.
I have posted thi sbefore, but if you think there are no politics involved in youth sports, you are naive. There are politics involved in mulit-million dollar pro sports, so it easily happens at every level below it.
Politics are everywhere including employment, promotions, sports etc. Players of equal talent you can make the case that favorites play a part. But....on a whole in sports the best players play. No coach is going to sit his/her best players.
Remember this the next time you see the pro player making millions of dollars a year who is basically [ChillLaxin] the bed for half a season but is still starting, while a player at a level below him could do better. I get it - that player has the skills and potential to be the better player, but sometimes they just aren't at that time. And that player has been invested in by the team - they have to justify that investment in playing time. In the pros, it's money invested; in college it's time and effort to recruit. Both will ride poorly performing players long after they should have let another player play.
Ok. Last comment.......are you really equating/comparing pro sports players making millions of dollars to college/HS/youth sports. Cmon man....read the thread.....question was about 5th grade lax. Also note the comment...."on a whole". Stop with all the excuses why average players are picked over other average players ie recruiting, politics, team mom, daddy coach, too small, not athletic blah, blah. Sorry.....the best players play.
You missed the point - politics come into play at ALL levels of sports. On the whole, yes the best players will play - but if you're the parent of the one kid who is affected by the politics, you really couldn't care less about the "whole". Considering I've seen it both from player and coach's perspective, that is my take. I witnessed it firsthand as a SA in college for the reasons mentioned - it didn't affect me personally, but everyone on the team knew about it, talked about it. Highly recruited freshman literally stunk up the place for better than a half a season before they finally gave up on him and gave the job that any one of half dozen guys could have done better, to another player. Comparably guys who hadn't been as highly recruited were quickly replaced when they didn't play up to par, even though they were still playing at a level higher than the touted recruit. Similar stories from SA friends playing at other colleges. If you don't think daddy ball or affiliation with a club coach or whatever don't come into play at youth, you're crazy and/or naive. maybe it's only one player, but it happens. heck, I've been a youth coach in different sports for years, and I occasionally catch myself almost making player decisions based upon kids (or even parents!) that are personally annoying, or, vice versa, kids (and parents!) that are likable. That term "coachable" can be applied very widely to just about any character trait that you want to, good or bad, and it happens. Note that i am not saying there should be anything done about it, but to pretend it doesn't exists is ignorance.
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