Recently I read a letter by a rather upset father of a nine year old. The boy just wanted to play soccer and players on the team were switching to a team that played to win. At the age of nine playing to win. Really.
Let me connect three dots.
In the early days of radio and TV the leading entertainers were former burlesque or vaudeville performers. They had performed in small theaters all over the country. There were comedians, singers, magicians, pretty girls, jugglers and all the rest.
Then with the advent of national radio and TV burlesque and vaudeville died. Fred Allen said that the young performers had no place to be lousy. Most reading this will have no idea who Fred Allen was, but he had a droll sense of humor and was on target with many of his comments.
Hold that thought.
Next we have Claudio Reyna who should be familiar. Now he plays for the New Jersey Red Bulls. Recently the NJ Red Bulls played the Red Bulls of Austria in Austria. New Jersey lost 1-0.
Reyna complained that the game was played like the final game in a World Cup and it was supposed to be a friendly game that did not count for anything. Some friendly game! It caused some bad injuries and bad feelings. For nothing! A friendly game.
Next we have my dear old friend Jay Martin who is the editor of the Soccer Journal which is the house organ of the NSCAA. He wrote an article that he called, "A Time for Reflection." Near the end he wrote about the fact that Dutch and German youth teams played to play and did not care about the results. Then he wrote: "Results are not important at any level below college and/or MLS. Coaches in the United States should not worry about results. The emphasis clearly should be on player development."
There. The dots are connected.
Kids need a place to be lousy. They need a place to grow and develop without the pressure to succeed and win.
I have six grandchildren. I do not want or expect all to be great soccer players. I want them to grow to enjoy the game. Enjoy it and support it.
I grow sick of all the burnouts in this country.
Face it; the egocentric parents are killing the game for everybody else.
Stop the nonsense. Let the kids play. Please.
Sadly,
Alan Maher
