We are in the same boat with hockey. Hockey works off birth years by having two birth years play together. Mini meow is the older year this year and I felt like he was a shoo-in to make the program's AA team. Come to tryouts, 48 kids are there for a 13-man roster. Welp...work your ass off and make an impact then fingers crossed. He ended up being the best defenseman out there, but it was super stressful. The hockey director is a great guy and doesn't play favorites. Just because you were on last year's team doesn't mean you're on this year's team.Our 8 and 10 year old participated in travel soccer tryouts this week. Over 250 kids across 3 days. There will be 6 teams so a lot of kids and parents will be disappointed.
My 10 year old may stop trying out if he doesn’t make it this year. He’s a good athlete, but he also isn’t committed to one sport and doesn’t attend soccer camps like a lot of these kids do. That puts him way behind the 8 ball already, and it will only get harder to make the team as he gets older
I hate the fact that by the age of 10, you already have a good idea whether your kid will play competitive school sports or not. He definitely has the desire, but I don’t want to push him. I’ve talked to many parents that regret pushing their kids to the point they don’t enjoy sports anymore.
So now, in an attempt to "keep up," he's on the ice 4 times are week this summer and has one night a week with a private off-ice instructor. He doesn't want to play other sports, but I'd love for him to latch on to something else as a second sport. We tried baseball and it flamed out. He was set-up for success there - batted lead-off and played shortstop. It was kid pitch, and he bats left-handed. He was hit 9 of his first 12 at-bats. That's not how to get a kid hooked on a sport. We did soccer this spring. It's fine, but that whole community of soccer down here is weird. It's competitive, but like....not really competitive. It's like the kids and parents want their kids to be good, but they just aren't athletes.
