Quote:
Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall
We all have these conversations. This is the first layer.
Try talking to them about the kids who can't afford to play for any travel teams that are awesome at soccer and how you can get them to play with your team if you all agreed to pay a bit more. The conversation will shift once they realize the advantage they inherently have by paying all that money. Everyone who has kids on a travel team complains about the money. But the reason they exist is to give them a leg up on the kids who can't be on a travel team.
We've discussed here before why the men's and women's national teams look the way they do here in the US. It's not because there are no people of color playing soccer. It's because the whole system is set up to feed talented, upper middle class athletes into college programs and elite travel squads. This is the only country in the world where soccer is a rich man's sport.
|
I think the idea that kids are getting an advantage by playing on a more competitive team in a program is not quite right. The more competitive teams are better, and they have better coaching. But the kid who gets to play on that level and isn't starting is not necessarily improving as much as s/he would have playing all the time at the next level down. What I see at somewhat younger ages is parents who think their kids are the next Messi and keep pushing them higher, switching programs to do it if necessary. A little later, the kids switch on their own, usually because a friend in another program tells them how much better it is there.
You're right that it's so much easier for affluent kids to get into the system. For the program, the two costs are coaching and fields. (Especially fields. In my area, there is a huge shortage, and the club rents fields from the school districts, which cover their budget shortfalls by (essentially) making it harder for poor kids to play the sports they can't play in school.) Kids whose parents can pay for these things will find someone willing to take their money. Kids whose parents can't are less likely to find a spot.
