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Message: [QUOTE="upstater, post: 3009876, member: 153"] He should play other sports. It's what he wants to do. You outlined the other concerns, that if soccer is his #1 love, he might fall behind. With my daughter, soccer is her #1 sport. That doesn't mean she will push herself beyond the bounds we've set for her to go all out for a college scholarship. We have boundaries as well. And we've made decisions similar to yours in another way. Here's an example: she was invited to join a Development Academy team and play a year up. But she's only 12, and that would have meant long trips for her (transport provided) multiple days a week, and weekends spent on club buses, hotels. We just said no to this because it would disrupt her life (her family life with us). It would be much less disruptive for us (we'd do a lot less driving since transport is provided) and it would be a lot cheaper (all hotel, food, long distance travel is paid for by the club), but at what cost? Anyway--we made that decision. Another kid from her current team got the invite once we turned it down. She joined. She does homework each night in the van (a 5 hour after school commitment: 2 hours driving roundtrip, 1 1/2 hour practice, 45 minutes yoga/training, 20 minute soccer study session). Her team has 2 Class A coaches, one of whom played in Eredivisie in Holland (top league). After 6 months, there's a night and day difference in this girl's play. She has improved markedly. It's no joke what top level training will do for any athletic kid that shows dedication. We joined a club that will only take 2 hours 15 minutes a night from my daughter's life, though I am responsible for all the travel/hotels, ugh. She will not be getting the same level of training she could have with the DA team, even though her coach is the head coach of a men's college team D2. But that's OK, since she will still compete against top soccer teams in the National League and she can still play school soccer. I would stress to people looking at this from the outside that there are very limited options for parents with kids who want to compete at high levels in soccer. If I designed it myself, of course I would design it differently so that we wouldn't do it this way. But our options are limited. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach