Youth Soccer Coaching
"Be Flexible and Let Them Play!"

First of all, placing limits on who you are going to play or associate with is often a good thing. If rec. teams were forced to play against select teams, neither the rec. team or the select team would benefit.

However, there are instances when excluding someone helps your goals only vaguely but has a great negative impact on certain specific players. For example, suppose that an organization has a rule that it will take players only from a certain geographical area. This may be an innocuous rule that doesn't really hurt anyone, as other players can play in their own geographical area. However, as the players get older and there are fewer players in an age group, it becomes difficult or impossible to maintain teams that all come from the same area. Players from this organization then cannot play because of limits that work adequately in younger age groups.

In those instances, it would be far better for everyone to have rules that have some flexibility. There is nothing wrong with saying that our team, club or league wants to do things a certain way. This allows the organization to be focused. But if the limits the organization places on itself exclude others from playing soccer altogether, for instance, when the organization is the only game in town, then the limits are probably unduly restrictive. There needs to be some flexibility. Diversity does not detract, it enhances.

If a team is fundamentally inconsistent with your organization's objectives, you may have no choice but to exclude them. But this happens less often than it may appear. If a team wants to play by rules that 11-a-side soccer doesn't start until U-14, and your league begins 11-a-side at U-11, then this is a fundamental inconsistency. The two approaches cannot coexist.

But if a team wants to use a parent-coach while your organization calls for professional coaches, this is an inconsistency but not a fundamental inconsistency. The parent-coached team could play perfectly well with or against the professionally coached teams. If there are other options for the parent-coached team, then the professionally-coached organization should be able to say that the parent-coached team would be better suited for these other alternatives. But if there are no other options, then an accommodation should be made to allow the parent-coached team a place to play.

Here in District II, which includes San Jose and surrounding communities, leagues boundaries are literally across the street from one another and PAL and AYSO also compete for players. Organizations have learned that placing limits often means that their best teams leave for an organization that is more accommodating.

There is nothing bad about having a focused approach, so long as your focus does not prohibit kids from playing soccer altogether. If someone wants to play soccer, and there is no where else for them to play, and their objectives are not fundamentally inconsistent with your objectives, then be flexible and let them play.