In hindsight, make that 400-500. Still bigger than any club crowd he played in front of by a bunch, but my old-man memory is probably inflating...
The pull of playing for your school and playing in front of fans who aren't your parents (even if at most schools it isn't the same kind of crowd...
You should definitely get your son on your local President Next Club, start working on those podium skills, and his press conference banter...
Amen on the lefty thing. Mine is a lefty and at 12 or 13 was slotted in at left back (at least partly at his request, which shocked my wife and...
I think it's a tough road, though maybe more likely at lower levels. In a past life I worked as a sports writer and spent some time covering a...
I know you've been told this a number of times in a dozen different threads here, but this should be a red flag where those coaches are concerned,...
I won't dispute anything you said, but it can be done. The cooler-and-candy idea is from real life, and a woman who was the girlfriend of a...
I think a lot of soccer leagues do run concessions, and I don't think we ever went to a tournament that didn't sell food, drinks, gear, shirts,...
All Against All Football was big in one of our neighborhoods when I was a kid in Texas, and pretty brutal. ;-) One kid received the kickoff or...
The university systems model (like the Wisconsin system or the other big ones) I get. Those schools are separate universities with fairly distinct...
Any idea who else operates with two athletic departments for what is supposed to be a single school (albeit with two campuses)? Unrelated to...
You see a lot more young kids than I do, for sure. And that all makes absolute sense, especially the limits of someone's DNA. FWIW, the kid I...
I might push back a little here, just based on the limits of what I think you can tell at 9 or 10. I saw too many kids over the years at 8, 9 and...
I'm nowhere near Colorado and, if I recall, there aren't too many men's college programs in your state. But with your mention of CU Boulder in...
At those ages, kids should be playing everywhere and not be locked into a spot and -- in practice -- learning universal skills and soccer IQ. They...
You bet. Again, my son's experience may not be representative so hopefully others may chime in, but he's at a DIII. As I mentioned above, his team...
One more thought re fitness: The expectations went up there, too, but -- at least at this club -- there wasn't a ton of time spent on it...
In that case, while I don't have a definitive "here's the difference" answer, I'd say this based on what my soccer son experienced (for context,...
I'll be curious about how others see this, too. For clarity, when he says the high school level, he's talking high school ages as opposed to the...
The addition of lights on the local park district fields was big when my son was still doing local club soccer was a huge plus for club and rec...
Biggest challenge at DePaul may be that the El almost runs over Wish Field rather than next to it. I love weird fields like this one (even if it...
That's absolutely right. When my youngest was about 8, he did winter indoor soccer at the local Y (alongside kids' basketball, swimming, ...,...
I hadn't thought about that as a factor, but living in Illinois you see this routinely in college football and men's basketball. Getting sideways...
Ah, I feel for him. I hope he's OK, or will be be at some point.
Any idea what happened to the coach at Oakland? The release on the school website doesn't say much at all. Their record wasn't great, but Oakland...