Travel Soccer

One of the parents on the team got these great action shots of Alex

Alex's team after winning one of their tournaments (Alex wasn't pictured since this last game was on Sunday)

Alex has been playing travel soccer (for the first time) this fall. They started conditioning in July and their season ends this weekend with the state championships. Alex wanted to do it to improve his skills for school soccer in the spring. I do believe that his skills have improved, but it has been somewhat of a struggle for us...not only expensive, but SO many scheduling conflicts.

When the season started, we were told that practices were Tuesday and Thursday with games on the weekends. We knew that Sundays would be a problem since we don't participate in sports on Sunday, but we talked with the coach about that early on, and he was very understanding.  Early on in the season, the coach changed the practices to Mondays and Thursdays.  This wasn't great for us since we have family home evening on Monday nights, but we have just tried to deal with it.  Then multiple times he has changed or added a practice on Wednesday (which is our youth group night), and the time always seems to conflict.  There have just been so many things about the travelling on the weekends and the weekly schedule that have been difficult. 

Also, Alex decided early on that he didn't like this as much as he thought he would, and it was even a struggle to get him to go to practices for awhile, especially in the beginning.  They are much harder practices than he is used to.  He has been better lately, but it was his decision to do this and we agreed to pay for it.  That makes it very frustrating when he puts up a fight to go.

Then there are the games where we travel 5 hours round trip for Alex to play 5-10 minutes.  Alex is good, but is not considered one of the best players on his team.  This means that if they are playing a hard team, he doesn't get much play time.  After these games, he gets down on himself because he must not have done well.  There were a few times where he seemed so nervous that he might mess up and get pulled out that he was (1) afraid to get in there and do anything, and (2) messing up because he was so nervous he was going to.  Don't get me wrong though, he has had games where he has played very well too and gotten a lot of playing time.  It really has been kind of a roller coaster for his self-esteem.  Competitive sports put such high pressure on these kids to perform well.  I definitely could not have taken that kind of pressure at his age, so I do feel for him at times. 

On the up side, it has been nice to have some one-on-one time with Alex while driving to some of the tournaments.  Usually Eric and I trade off going, but I have taken him to the past few.  Alex isn't one who likes to open up and talk much, so these long drives have usually been a good relationship-building experience (and we need as many of those as we can get).  And, I do really like his coach and feel that he has taught Alex a lot.

The first day of the state championship is this Friday (Nov 11) in Murfeesboro, which is also Alex's 16th birthday.  The kids have Friday and Monday off school for Veteran's day and because of the soccer schedule, he doesn't have a single night available to have a party or friends.  Even Thursday night the coach has organized a MANDATORY team dinner for companionship.  I do feel bad for him because he has 2 days off school, a weekend, and his 16th birthday, and not a day available to celebrate it with friends.  He wants to skip the tournament, but his team has worked hard to get there and they are seed #2.  It's a big deal and I feel he needs to see it through.  But, at the same time, I know that there is a good chance he won't get much playing time, and then he will just be depressed the whole weekend.  I also want him to have a good 16th birthday.  What to do...what to do?