Should Your Child Play More?

[BLUEDOVE3]

End of the season follies!!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky-5doFLL2I

[Pumper]

A couple of years ago I had a parent approach me after a game to tell me his son was disappointed that he wasn't playing more, and to ask me what he had to do to get more playing time.  Fortunately I didn't go with my first thought, which was "maybe if he wasn't terrible, I could find him some more minutes".  This kid was the worst of about 12 on the team, and I thought I was being very nice to give him a couple of minutes each game as it was.

Best thing I could think to say was that he needed to work on his rebounding and not turning the ball over.  I was a volunteer coach of a bunch of 4th and 5th graders.  When I asked the principal what my charter was (win games or get everybody playing time), her answer was both.  Nice.  Was an interesting year.

[no-look]

Uncle Rico:  If coach would've put me in in the fourth quarter we would have won state. No doubt, no doubt in my mind.....

[Big girl]

Was this a little league team? If so I think every kid should get equal playing time. My son's football team's league had a rule that stated that every kid had to play at least 25 downs. How is a kid  going to learn to play if he is just riding the pine? Winning at that level should not be the only goal. IMO. My son was the star of the team and he hated coming out of the game, but they had to give other kids the opportunity to play.

[Pumper]

Nope, it was a BISD 5th grade league.  There were tryouts with cuts.  Although the PE coach gave me a list of kids who I should not include (behavior or grade issues) and a list I should include (good kids who try hard and have good conduct).  I had no problem with it.

Some of the other schools had a junior high coach come down to coach an elementary team.  In other cases, like mine, it was a volunteer dad approached by the elementary PE coach.  Was a good league, the kids learned a lot, and it was very competitive; a huge step above Little Dribblers for kids that age.

But most teams we played were out to win, period.  My charter was to try to win, but to make sure all kids got at least a little playing time.  We went 7-2 and lost in the 3rd round of the tournament, and I was dang proud of it.  At the time, I thought we didn't have that much talent, but now looking back, a handful of those kids have a great chance to be good, productive high school players.  Was a great experience for all involved I think.