Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Same on my kids team. One of those kids had a great game last spring. I was driving my son and his friend home after the game. I remember saying, so and so had a great game. He is really good. The boys started giggling they were in 3rd grade. I said what’s so funny. They said you know he was left back. He is older than everyone else. The next practice I spoke to another couple dads. He wasn’t left back, his parents held him back. He is a really good player, but against younger kids, he is off the charts good. I’d also be embarrassed by this. How his parents can sit and watch the game, cheer like everything is all peachy is laughable. Plus all the kids know this. For a parent to do this to his son at this young age, embarrassing. You want your son to be off the charts good. Do it the right way. Practice hard. Get him training. That’s the way to do it.


More embarrassing to me are the parents who moan and complain on the sidelines when a big kid outplays their kid or team. My son is a tall, good player (from MD). Every time we play a NY team I hear dads complaining that he's a hold back when he scores. I am 6'2, my wife is almost 6'0, he is on grade. bigger doesn't mean hold back.


When I see a big kid I have brains enough to look at the sideline. If I see parents that are 6+ ft then you can obviously tell thats why that kid is so big, not that he is a holdback. There are many times when there are 5 kids on a team who are a head taller and none of the parents are over 5ft 8. There is a very successful high school soccer team near me. Might be ranked top 3 in the country now. Growing up they always had kids who were way bigger and often times more skilled then everyone else. None of the parents are over 5ft 5. I know one of the coaches there and he told me there is nothing he can do. They show him a birth certificate from some country that looks made up and that the kid has a full beard but the birth certificate says he is only 11.

Point being it is usually easy to see which teams are using holdbacks/cheating. Looks at the parents. 99% of the time dna doesn't lie.