Playing Soccer

With over 40 parks in the town I live in, to say that playing soccer is popular would be an understatement. In fact, the city is looking into adding additional parks to accommodate the demand.

Over ten years ago, I became a soccer mom (oh, and Garrett became a soccer player :-) ). The games were fun, the families were nice, the commitment was minimal and we were kind of swept up in the soccer mania. By the time Garrett was in second grade, we had a real super star on our hands. Or so we thought. My goal scoring, super dribbling son was apparently placed in the "B" league, meaning he was playing with players who were the bottom half of the skill level.
Insert deflated balloon here.

Well initially we were disappointed, but the following year when they had actual competitive levels, we figured Garrett would show them. But Garrett would not be playing soccer on a competitive team that year. In fact, these naive first time parents learned that it wasn't just the kids that played soccer.
Boy were we schooled in the art of navigating your child through the ranks of the soccer level.
Now I should make it clear, the truly great and gifted soccer players make their own path, but the rest of the "very good" players-let's just say it's who you know and what you have done for the club. And we knew no one and reluctantly participated in fundraisers so you can guess where we fell.
Without boring you with details the soccer club is structured like this for each of the age levels:
D1-Premiere
D3-Select
D3-Advanced
D4-Recreation
The higher your level, the greater the commitment, fees, training, and games.
For a couple years, Garrett tried to get on a competitive team, but unless you make it that first year, it is very hard to break through. By fifth grade a friend suggested he join him on the competitive team in another city and he did. For two years he played for a team that lost nearly every game, but he had a great time and loved the extended season of soccer. A coach from our town noticed him at one of the games and asked him to be a guest player. Finally, that opened the door and the following year he made the Advanced team. For two years he was team captain of that team and then last year he moved up to the Select. He seemed a little unsure of his value on this stronger team, but quickly he earned the coach's respect and the coach said if he were to give a Coaches award to any one player it would have been Garrett.
Well the tryouts we had learned to dread were scheduled last week. Our expectations were that Garrett would play for the same team, but strange things happen at these tryouts and because our club is very competitive, kids from cities up to an hour away come and try out. You just never know who is competing for your spot.
All weekend, we waited for the phone call, jumping when it would ring. Late Sunday afternoon, we got a call from some unknown business and it was the D1 Premiere coach calling to invite Garrett to play on his team. We. were. stunned.
Our family had agreed that whatever team he was asked to play for, he would play so I'm really not sure what we have gotten ourselves in for except practice starts in a couple weeks and games in June. Oh, and a big, fat check is required.

So in retrospect, we really thought we had done Garrett a disservice by not navigating the system correctly and getting him onto a competitive team early on. We figured we'd learn from our mistake and make sure Jack had it easier. But you know what, Garrett can honestly say he earned this spot through his own efforts, dedication, and hard work. He knows that the straight path may be the quickest, but perseverance pays off.



And that's how you play soccer!