on October 15, 2025, 13:04:40, in reply to "Agree with all of what you said...especially about rec leagues/park district being competitive."
If the club is focused on skill development, having a B and below squad is great. Not all kids are superstars or develop at the same rate. Many of the kids on the B team at U10 will be the stars on the varsity team...kids just develop at different rates and no one really know how good a kid will be until after they go through puberty.
I just saw a study a couple of days ago that determined that there is basically no predictive correlation between success in youth sports to success in high school age sports. Many of the great kids at U9 will be bench players in high school and many of the kids that are slow and uncoordinated at U9 will be stars in high school. Offering B and below teams is great if those clubs just focus on developing those kids at the right pace. The farce is when those clubs send those kids to tournaments 8 hours away to play other developmental level teams from far away. 
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If the park districts were competitive, you probably wouldn't see B, C, D teams in travel because those kids could play, grow, enjoy in the house league. That's the way it used to be growing up. Now, everything beyond an A (maybe a B) is just a cash grab. Previous Message
Especially when lots of leagues are fielding B and C level squads who will never sniff varsity.
I really wish the rec leagues were more competitive.
I saw a funny comment online last year about the humor in 2 travel teams from towns next to each other playing each other in a travel tournament 2 hours away. Hotel and food and gas costs added to the normal expense for fields, refs, etc.
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in 2nd place of the bronze division of the U9 3 Blind Refs Tournament in Kalispel Montana is laughably TOO DAMN HIGH.
I tell people all the time that all that anyone should care about at this age is development. As you said, no one is going to remember who won what in a year or more. I want my kids to win, because that is human nature, but being honest about things, finishing .500 is the absolute best case for kids. Lose all of your games - not as much fun for the kids and some may lose or not develop a love for the game. Win all of your games - you aren't being pushed enough and your development is going to stall.
Priorities 1, 2, & 3 should be development because before High School Varsity or High School AAU nothing matters in the slightest. There are no scouts at your U13 whatever game.....The problem is that all of these club teams need to justify the thousands of dollars annually they are charging you to play on their travel team. It's a broken system.
probably just another real jerk in life33
