Sorry I stopped reading after the word evil....you must be a school teacher writing this...Jeez Too much time on your hands..
Originally Posted by Anonymous
A lot of folks on these pages view travel lacrosse as an necessary evil. there is no cookie cutter answer to a lot of these questions. I think like everything decision that a parent makes in regards to their son, should be tailored to the individual. I know with my experience with my son, we did it for the first time this past September. He decided that he wanted to see where he stacked up against players in his age group so decided on to try out and made the team which he picked as his first choice. Now, I heard a lot of the same things I've read on these posts from friends and parents of older boys that have been through the process...don't bother they just want your money most teams have been together since they are 8 yrs old. your son won't make it, you don't have any hooks, etc. etc. But personally the whole experience has been a positive. My son decided he wanted to try out for something and made a team. He then went to a team that had experienced coaches, handled the players extremely well, the players that were on the team for a couple of years were not clique-y at all and the new players on the team meshed very well with the "veteran" players on the team. Were there some things that I did not like, absolutely, but the negatives were outweighed by the positives. My son, who is and athletic 13yr old became a better, smarter lacrosse player. He was coached well and his lacrosse IQ was much improved. I think that if my son had made the team but not played a good amount I would still have him on the team because, he was happy with his teammates and I felt the coaching he was getting was very good. Additionally, I know that on the town level/PAL team, he would have his opportunity of playing more and having his number called out more in crunch time. I think the lesson I would teach my son would be, work harder and show them you belong on the field, not lets take our ball and go home (jump to another team) just so you can be the man. But again, that's a personal decision and there is no wrong answer. If I truly felt that the competition was above his head and there was no real chance of increased playing time, well then, yes I would look to join another organization or look to drop down to the B team if I liked the organization enough (or more appropriately, I've already paid the dues for the year, might as well stay and drop down to the B squad). Here on LI we have the luxury of loads of travel teams to choose from, just look at the sidebar to the right. That's where a forum like this can become and extremely valuable tool. You can gain some insight on what these travel programs are truly like and which one might be a better fit, than with just going with the "top" programs. Whatever your reason for having your kid play travel, I feel like its a great hands-on experience to show your kid to go through the process of putting your best effort out there and working for a spot on a roster. If you get beat out because a kid is better than you, then you'll realize what you need to do and work on to get better. If you are honest with your kid's ability, you'll find yourself on the proper team which will maximize the whole experience. Long Post back to work! I've tried my best to spell check this novel so that the English teacher trolling for grammatical errors doesn't harp on my spelling!
