The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

[Songbird76]

I like the way this coach directs the team during games, much better than our last one.
I also think T is learning a lot from him.

But, this team has just been plagued with coaches being thrown at us at the last minute.. too busy to properly dedicate time. It has resulted in 5 cancelled training sessions and a lot of upset parents.
That’s one thing.

Another is we have 2 subs, 9 players in a 7v7 league .. always the same 2 boys subbing, those subs have not had more than 11 minutes playing time in 1 game. This past weekend they didn’t have more than 6 minutes tops.
There are players who are visibly tired and need to come out, but he still won’t sub.
T cried after a game in 90something degrees because he said that the coach kept yelling at him to run in the end, and he couldn’t run anymore unless he had water- and the coach told him to suck it up and keep playing. T was mad that another boy got to “rest in the shade”. He didn’t want all of that playing time, he NEEDED water!!! He wasn’t the only one. When a 9 year old wants to willingly take a break, and you have another kid (we only had 1 extra player that game) who is just sitting on the bench.. give the players a break! Rotate the sub so everyone can get water!!! Everyone’s happy at that point. We lost that game.. because our boys were so tired by the last 10 minutes, the other team scored twice in the end to beat us by one. Our defense totally broke down out of exhaustion. One kid puked after the game. I’m sorry, I get that this coach has a great record, but noone can convince me that a mediocre rested player isn’t better on the field than an overextended good player- he’s not good at the point.

Lastly, this coach does treat this team like high school age. No one ever switches positions. Not even the goal keepers. The GK parents are upset because they think their kids are losing field skills, and they won’t make a team without them come next tryout season. Plus, no kid wants to sit in goal at this age for an entire half, and then sit out the entire next half.


I just feel like this specific team has been thru so much.. Everyone is starting to unravel once you add it all up. Even though our past issues aren’t the fault of the coach.

I'm sorry....this would be a deal breaker for me. If the coach can't even be bothered with the safety and well-being of his players, he's not fit to be a coach. That is abuse! "Suck it up" is not good direction. You said he's good at giving direction in a game setting, but this doesn't sound like it. What would happen if one of the players collapsed on the field? You see it in the news with players getting dehydrated and ending up in the hospital because of a sport. Is it worth it to you to let T be abused because he doesn't want to switch clubs? I know he doesn't want to, but I would suspect that part of that is that this club is what he knows. When I was a kid, I broke down into tears when I didn't get the same teacher my brother had the year before, because I was scared of the unknown....I didn't know what the other teachers were like. I got placed in a 3rd grade class with a teacher who everyone said was mean. I was terrified and cried and cried and I begged my mom to ask to be switched, but they wouldn't move me and my mom told me I didn't know what was going to happen....she might be really nice. It turned out she was one of my favorite teachers ever, and what other kids decided was "mean" was just that she didn't allow talking when she was talking and she demanded hard work and that you behaved. She was such a great fit for me, but I went in kicking and screaming because I was just sure I would hate it. T doesn't know what to expect from another club. But he's too young to see around corners....you are his mom...you have to be the one to protect him, and sometimes that is going to mean making a decision he doesn't like. Obviously this is YOUR decision, not mine, so I can't tell you you have to switch him. But if it were me, and my kid's coach did something that compromised his health, he wouldn't be my kid's coach for long.

 

[DryerLintFan]

@21stamps I've been reading all these sports posts, and I can imagine how stressful this is as a parent. At the end of the day, it's up to you how to proceed. Not the coach. Not T. You. That's a lot of pressure.

I did want to note though,..... even though T isn't the kid in the weak player position, that doesn't mean he always won't be. If the coach is treating that kid like T, T is seeing it and feeling that pressure. Adding on that they aren't allowed to break for water because the coach is punishing a kid for not being a good player (how the heck are they supposed to get better without someone teaching them?!), this is a really unhealthy environment for learning.

 

[MouseDreaming]

I went solo. DH offered to go with me, but he hadn't watched the series and I knew it wasn't his thing, so I let him off the hook. I WAS the only one solo. Most women came in a group, though there were about 5 men who were dragged along with their wives. But I didn't care about being alone. It just came out here a couple of weeks ago...should still be in theaters here if it's not there. Come on over, @21stamps and we can go together. As long as we go here and not in Germany, they don't dub it.

I have had a series of Tuesdays with unexpected events, so I still have yet to see it. Someday...

 

[21stamps]

This is totally my fault for how I typed it, but I do need to explain that water situation quickly.

T plays Left Wing. This age is 7v7- 6 field players, 1 GK.... This age plays two 25 minute halves, 5 minute halftime..and in our coach’s formation there’s a left and right defense positions, a center defense/mid, a striker, two wings. Left & Right Wings are offensive and defensive players., meaning they run back and help defense, but also carry the ball and shoot. Basically midfielders but in an offense position. This means they sprint back towards their own goal after the other team wins possession/goal kick Etc. Getting the ball and carrying it up front to set up an assist or score themselves. Running the most out of any other position.

By the end of the second half in that hot game (they did have water at half time) a few of the boys, including T, were completely spent. The coach yelled for him to get back, and you could see that he could no longer sprint and steal or stop the ball from a defensive position.

I, along with the majority of parents, strongly disagree with not subbing those boys out, along with the center mid..those 3 positions had boys who clearly could not continue at full force. Which in most of our opinions is the reason why the team lost after dominating the rest of the game. I think they could/should have had at least a two minute break to rehydrate and rest., especially when we had an available player on the bench, but I can’t go as far as calling it child abuse.

I hope this makes sense in the way I described the scenario.

 

[21stamps]

@21stamps I've been reading all these sports posts, and I can imagine how stressful this is as a parent. At the end of the day, it's up to you how to proceed. Not the coach. Not T. You. That's a lot of pressure.

I did want to note though,..... even though T isn't the kid in the weak player position, that doesn't mean he always won't be. If the coach is treating that kid like T, T is seeing it and feeling that pressure. Adding on that they aren't allowed to break for water because the coach is punishing a kid for not being a good player (how the heck are they supposed to get better without someone teaching them?!), this is a really unhealthy environment for learning.

I agree. As soon as they see a kid who is faster and has better foot skills than T.. in one tryout performance, I have no doubt that my kid is viewed as replaceable if/when that happens. Even if he had a strong and great season. They have proven that a tryout has more weight than season long performance, which is why we keep getting kids replaced with other kids who don’t actually perform as well as the ones they replaced.

T is a good soccer player, but he’s not the next Messi. He has off days just like most kids... if that happens in a tryout I could see him being cut/moved down without any loyalty or consideration of his last 3 years with the club.
This is why I wanted to leave in June (especially since we had to get new kits this year, it was the perfect time to switch), and why I’m still trying to do it now.

I will say though, I/we have been EXTREMELY lucky with the kids and parents so far. I know so many people who dislike or leave a club or team over obnoxious parents and their primadonna kids. We have not experienced that. We have had a great group of parents who get along well, the boys have always gotten along well too and are extremely supportive of each other. This is the main reason that I haven’t forced a switch yet.. What we have with parents/players isn’t the norm in soccer, unfortunately.. I’d hate to leave and get stuck on a team with crazy soccer parents. If a group of us switch then our boys would be more willing to give up the club, and we know that at least we have a core of relatively normal parents.

 

[DryerLintFan]

This is totally my fault for how I typed it, but I do need to explain that water situation quickly.

T plays Left Wing. This age is 7v7- 6 field players, 1 GK.... This age plays two 25 minute halves, 5 minute halftime..and in our coach’s formation there’s a left and right defense positions, a center defense/mid, a striker, two wings. Left & Right Wings are offensive and defensive players., meaning they run back and help defense, but also carry the ball and shoot. Basically midfielders but in an offense position. This means they sprint back towards their own goal after the other team wins possession/goal kick Etc. Getting the ball and carrying it up front to set up an assist or score themselves. Running the most out of any other position.

By the end of the second half in that hot game (they did have water at half time) a few of the boys, including T, were completely spent. The coach yelled for him to get back, and you could see that he could no longer sprint and steal or stop the ball from a defensive position.

I, along with the majority of parents, strongly disagree with not subbing those boys out, along with the center mid..those 3 positions had boys who clearly could not continue at full force. Which in most of our opinions is the reason why the team lost after dominating the rest of the game. I think they could/should have had at least a two minute break to rehydrate and rest., especially when we had an available player on the bench, but I can’t go as far as calling it child abuse.

I hope this makes sense in the way I described the scenario.

It's not because of the way you wrote that, but that's all gibberish to me I don't speak sports ball

 

[DryerLintFan]

I agree. As soon as they see a kid who is faster and has better foot skills than T.. in one tryout performance, I have no doubt that my kid is viewed as replaceable if/when that happens. Even if he had a strong and great season. They have proven that a tryout has more weight than season long performance, which is why we keep getting kids replaced with other kids who don’t actually perform as well as the ones they replaced.

T is a good soccer player, but he’s not the next Messi. He has off days just like most kids... if that happens in a tryout I could see him being cut/moved down without any loyalty or consideration of his last 3 years with the club.
This is why I wanted to leave in June (especially since we had to get new kits this year, it was the perfect time to switch), and why I’m still trying to do it now.

I will say though, I/we have been EXTREMELY lucky with the kids and parents so far. I know so many people who dislike or leave a club or team over obnoxious parents and their primadonna kids. We have not experienced that. We have had a great group of parents who get along well, the boys have always gotten along well too and are extremely supportive of each other. This is the main reason that I haven’t forced a switch yet.. What we have with parents/players isn’t the norm in soccer, unfortunately.. I’d hate to leave and get stuck on a team with crazy soccer parents. If a group of us switch then our boys would be more willing to give up the club, and we know that at least we have a core of relatively normal parents.

Beyond this though...... think about how T is perceiving this..... he sees the other kids being benched because they are weak. So he'll be constantly on the lookout for kids that are better than him and when he sees one he'll completely lose focus and self esteem. He'll feel like he has no value because the other weak kids aren't being built up, they're being devalued. Even pro soccer coaches don't draw that line in the sand. You're bad at something, lets make you better. Not you're bad you get benched until you keep doing what you're doing enough that some miracle happens and you get better by osmosis.

I'd take a team of crazy soccer parents ANY DAY over having my kid learn this is okay and normal.

I think about this when he is an adult at a job. When my boss sees a weakness in me, she develops it. She puts me into situations outside of my comfort zone so I can grow and achieve more. It doesn't matter how old you are, you are coachable and you will never be the best. Never. But you're also not expendable.

If it's not acceptable to treat adults like that, it's certainly not acceptable to treat kids like that.

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

OK, I have been quietly freaking out for over two weeks, because the bill at the beginning of the month from my biggest distributor was a ridiculous amount of money. It didn’t sound right to me, but it’s not out of character for me to go a little overboard without paying attention, and it was the time right after the one store reopened after moving, so I thought maybe I went nuts stocking it up. Had to put it on 2 credit cards.

I was thinking I might have to take out a small loan by the end of this month, etc. it was a bit of panic. But in the back of my head, I knew it didn’t sound right.

I’ve been super busy in the last week because both my taxes and my orders for Black Friday were due on Tuesday, and each was a whole lot of work and attention.

Just now, I took a moment to add up the invoices for August, and it was MUCH less. I sent an email off to the company, I don’t see how I can be wrong, so that should fix everything by late morning! I am cautiously relieved but will be a little anxious until I get confirmation and a big refund! LOL. Right now walking Kylie to burn off some nervous energy and hopefully get some sleep.

Running a business is rough. There is so much stress with it. You have my sympathies.

 

[21stamps]

One last thing about our club-

2 of our players have older siblings who have been with the club for several years- they love their coaches and have had a good experience with those teams. Each one has had the same coach since age 7. Contrast that to our 3 coaches in 3 years.

My sister put her 1st grade son in the club’s rec program this year.. she didn’t want him to go select yet, but wanted more competition/better training for him than his school team. After 2 practices the youth director asked if he would come to an elite team’s practice- a year older than my nephew. He did, and has been going to their practices ever since.. along with his rec practices. He has also been a guest player in 2 games for that team... and was invited to play both Futsal and Unboarded Indoor with them this fall.

My sister was told that all he has to do is show up at tryouts and he is guaranteed a spot on that team.

My nephew is not like T... he is seriously in 1% of kids his age, in any sport. Not just natural ability and athleticism, but he understands the games tactically. That’s very rare at 6 years old.

He would be playing up a year with the highest level team, as the youngest player...
My sister said “Thanks, but no thanks. We’ll play futsal and unboarded, but I’m not ready for him to formally join a select team yet. He won’t attend supplementals, is not going to play spring soccer, but we may change our minds and let him attend tryouts in May, for next year.”
They told her that he will have a spot whenever he wants it.

I understand why he is getting that treatment, and I understand that this is competitive play...but I wish they would show some loyalty to current players too.

Anyway, just wanted to show the contrast between experiences. I think our team is just jinxed.

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

Woke up at 2:30 AM, because of the nor'easter rain and wind storm (up and down the Eastern seacoast). Rain was loudly hitting the a/c unit in the window of the bedroom. Dog was freaked out with the weather, so he's been like velcro next to me ever since I got up! LOL . . . Now, he wants my crackers and peanut butter.

@FutureCEO , I read that RI is also getting hammered from this storm.

Drinking coffee. That is all.

We are further west by you and have had a wind gust of 32 mph this morning. It is recycling day here, but knowing what the weather would be, we didn’t put it out. Neighbor’s recycling is everywhere. Heard where you are gusts are expected up to 60 mph. Hope you don’t need to go anywhere today.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

It's not because of the way you wrote that, but that's all gibberish to me I don't speak sports ball

Same.

I only speak baseball and some football. If it's another sport, forget it. Besides maybe tennis because I was an awesome Wii tennis player back in the day...

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

So this showed up on my FB today
View attachment 418726

Seems like yesterday. 2 years? Wow!

 

[Rista1313]

 

[21stamps]

Beyond this though...... think about how T is perceiving this..... he sees the other kids being benched because they are weak. So he'll be constantly on the lookout for kids that are better than him and when he sees one he'll completely lose focus and self esteem. He'll feel like he has no value because the other weak kids aren't being built up, they're being devalued. Even pro soccer coaches don't draw that line in the sand. You're bad at something, lets make you better. Not you're bad you get benched until you keep doing what you're doing enough that some miracle happens and you get better by osmosis.

I'd take a team of crazy soccer parents ANY DAY over having my kid learn this is okay and normal.

I think about this when he is an adult at a job. When my boss sees a weakness in me, she develops it. She puts me into situations outside of my comfort zone so I can grow and achieve more. It doesn't matter how old you are, you are coachable and you will never be the best. Never. But you're also not expendable.

If it's not acceptable to treat adults like that, it's certainly not acceptable to treat kids like that.

T was mad that the kid got rest, he viewed it as himself being the one punished. Oh he was so mad after that game.

I disagree a bit about lack of playing time. I do agree with the coach’s mentality of practices being where you earn your playing time in games- with both attitude and performance. Especially at 9 years old.. these kids need to work to earn a spot, and if you’re behind then do extra training to improve. I understand all of that.
The problem is, and where I definitely agree with you, is I think he has given up on 1 specific boy, and is just waiting to cut him from the team. Talk to his parents privately! Talk to him privately! Suggest what he needs to do, don’t give up on him! This specific kid replaced another kid who shouldn’t have been moved down (that family left the club over it and is now at a competitor club at the sam level as our team, where he deserves to be!). That’s a mistake made by the club at tryouts..they have a long year left together, do whatever it takes to make that kid better and so he can contribute more in games... even if it’s just suggesting to his parents what he should be doing in his off time. That’s where I feel the coach is treating them like high schoolers instead of 9 year olds. Kids can have slumps. We only have a roster of 9 kids, every kid needs to be able to play so we have subs. They keep the roster small because they want focused talent over bulk, so build that talent.. he must have done something right to make it in the first place.


I think the coach is trying to get this family to voluntarily move down before the spring season starts. The mother knows this now after what he said during the team parent meeting.. She won’t. She said it would be different if he would have communicated privately, but after that humiliation she is going to finish the year and then probably switch clubs (her older daughter also plays for them and would not leave as the mother loves her coach and good experience with them). The bylaws state that a player can not be forced to move down involuntarily between fall and spring. We went thru this last year with other players.. now this one is facing the same. The difference is we have a much more serious coach who will probably not play the kid more than a few minutes. Our coach last year was not like that, she was a really nice person, probably too nice, but not a good trainer. I just want something inbetween! Or a tough coach but a compassionate assistant coach to balance eachother out.

 

[21stamps]

We leave for the tournament this weekend and have all decided to stay at a hotel together. We’ll see if anything has changed after that meeting... they have one more practice tonight. I think all parents have talked to their kids and told them to make sure they are taking practice seriously and giving 100%.

I want them all to play well and win together, all with decent playing time. No parents storming off. I guess we’ll find out in a few days.

 

[21stamps]

Thanks for listening to my soccer vent.

I really appreciate it. I can’t really vent to anyone else about this subject.

 

[DryerLintFan]

T was mad that the kid got rest, he viewed it as himself being the one punished. Oh he was so mad after that game.

I disagree a bit about lack of playing time. I do agree with the coach’s mentality of practices being where you earn your playing time in games- with both attitude and performance. Especially at 9 years old.. these kids need to work to earn a spot, and if you’re behind then do extra training to improve. I understand all of that.
The problem is, and where I definitely agree with you, is I think he has given up on 1 specific boy, and is just waiting to cut him from the team. Talk to his parents privately! Talk to him privately! Suggest what he needs to do, don’t give up on him! This specific kid replaced another kid who shouldn’t have been moved down (that family left the club over it and is now at a competitor club at the sam level as our team, where he deserves to be!). That’s a mistake made by the club at tryouts..they have a long year left together, do whatever it takes to make that kid better and so he can contribute more in games... even if it’s just suggesting to his parents what he should be doing in his off time. That’s where I feel the coach is treating them like high schoolers instead of 9 year olds. Kids can have slumps. We only have a roster of 9 kids, every kid needs to be able to play so we have subs. They keep the roster small because they want focused talent over bulk, so build that talent.. he must have done something right to make it in the first place.


I think the coach is trying to get this family to voluntarily move down before the spring season starts. The mother knows this now after what he said during the team parent meeting.. She won’t. She said it would be different if he would have communicated privately, but after that humiliation she is going to finish the year and then probably switch clubs (her older daughter also plays for them and would not leave as the mother loves her coach and good experience with them). The bylaws state that a player can not be forced to move down involuntarily between fall and spring. We went thru this last year with other players.. now this one is facing the same. The difference is we have a much more serious coach who will probably not play the kid more than a few minutes. Our coach last year was not like that, she was a really nice person, probably too nice, but not a good trainer. I just want something inbetween! Or a tough coach but a compassionate assistant coach to balance eachother out.

Like Dr. Phil says, you can want in one hand and sh*t in the other and see which one fills up faster.....

It doesn't matter what you want, here. You have what you have. Also, I think you're wrong calling this coach "tough". He's not being tough, he's being borderline abusive. He's wrecking that kid. Probably for life. At an age we should be building our kids up, he's ripping the heart out of that kid and telling him he's not good enough and he's unwanted. And even if he never does it to your kid, your kid is seeing that, and your kid will internalize it too.

This is a tough situation to be in. I'm sorry you have to deal with this. It sucks that he's in charge of shaping such young lives.

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

In the end, this is a decision you have to make yourself, but if I were you, I would seriously be questioning if that's the best place for T. Regardless of whether or not he has the talent, are the coach's words the message you want T to take home? Is this going to motivate T and help him improve? Is it going to be in his best interest and give him the best training, not just in skills but in sportsmanship and confidence? This is exactly the kind of stuff that ruined Soccer for A and we had to pull him from the team and switch him to chess. I think he was only 8 when it happened, but the coach screamed at the boys in the locker room for mistakes they made...A was the oldest boy on the team at 8 years old. He wouldn't allow parents in the locker room when they were getting dressed, which seemed fishy...a grown man with a bunch of boys and parents were locked out. But you could hear him shouting and the boys came out in tears. My husband told him if he ever did that again, he'd be talking to the club organizers and lodging a complaint. He called A out numerous times about being a weaker player....told him he couldn't put him in the game when he had so many better players, and in practices, he ran drills that targeted A. (He made A tend the goal as a team of one, with all the other boys on the other "team" and they got to shoot penalties and the first team to miss 10 had to run laps around the field...it was always A who had to run, and he'd do it multiple times a practice, so A would come home EXHAUSTED) Other parents called him out on it, told him it wasn't fair, but he wouldn't stop. I think he was probably TRYING to make A quit, but at that age, it just wasn't FUN for him anymore, and if you're going to be paying that much for it, it's got to be fun. So you need to think about whether this particular team is in T's best interest and if he'll be learning what you want him to learn. Dedication and discipline are great lessons, but do you want him to learn that it's ok to humiliate teammates because they aren't as advanced, or that this team is the ONLY thing that matters, or that you can't have anything else in your life besides this? It's an incredible amount of pressure for children, and especially when you are paying for the priviledge of being treated that way.

I'm sorry....this would be a deal breaker for me. If the coach can't even be bothered with the safety and well-being of his players, he's not fit to be a coach. That is abuse! "Suck it up" is not good direction. You said he's good at giving direction in a game setting, but this doesn't sound like it. What would happen if one of the players collapsed on the field? You see it in the news with players getting dehydrated and ending up in the hospital because of a sport. Is it worth it to you to let T be abused because he doesn't want to switch clubs? I know he doesn't want to, but I would suspect that part of that is that this club is what he knows. When I was a kid, I broke down into tears when I didn't get the same teacher my brother had the year before, because I was scared of the unknown....I didn't know what the other teachers were like. I got placed in a 3rd grade class with a teacher who everyone said was mean. I was terrified and cried and cried and I begged my mom to ask to be switched, but they wouldn't move me and my mom told me I didn't know what was going to happen....she might be really nice. It turned out she was one of my favorite teachers ever, and what other kids decided was "mean" was just that she didn't allow talking when she was talking and she demanded hard work and that you behaved. She was such a great fit for me, but I went in kicking and screaming because I was just sure I would hate it. T doesn't know what to expect from another club. But he's too young to see around corners....you are his mom...you have to be the one to protect him, and sometimes that is going to mean making a decision he doesn't like. Obviously this is YOUR decision, not mine, so I can't tell you you have to switch him. But if it were me, and my kid's coach did something that compromised his health, he wouldn't be my kid's coach for long.

Really well stated.

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

This is totally my fault for how I typed it, but I do need to explain that water situation quickly.

T plays Left Wing. This age is 7v7- 6 field players, 1 GK.... This age plays two 25 minute halves, 5 minute halftime..and in our coach’s formation there’s a left and right defense positions, a center defense/mid, a striker, two wings. Left & Right Wings are offensive and defensive players., meaning they run back and help defense, but also carry the ball and shoot. Basically midfielders but in an offense position. This means they sprint back towards their own goal after the other team wins possession/goal kick Etc. Getting the ball and carrying it up front to set up an assist or score themselves. Running the most out of any other position.

By the end of the second half in that hot game (they did have water at half time) a few of the boys, including T, were completely spent. The coach yelled for him to get back, and you could see that he could no longer sprint and steal or stop the ball from a defensive position.

I, along with the majority of parents, strongly disagree with not subbing those boys out, along with the center mid..those 3 positions had boys who clearly could not continue at full force. Which in most of our opinions is the reason why the team lost after dominating the rest of the game. I think they could/should have had at least a two minute break to rehydrate and rest., especially when we had an available player on the bench, but I can’t go as far as calling it child abuse.

I hope this makes sense in the way I described the scenario.

I get it. It was still very wrong.

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

I agree. As soon as they see a kid who is faster and has better foot skills than T.. in one tryout performance, I have no doubt that my kid is viewed as replaceable if/when that happens. Even if he had a strong and great season. They have proven that a tryout has more weight than season long performance, which is why we keep getting kids replaced with other kids who don’t actually perform as well as the ones they replaced.

T is a good soccer player, but he’s not the next Messi. He has off days just like most kids... if that happens in a tryout I could see him being cut/moved down without any loyalty or consideration of his last 3 years with the club.
This is why I wanted to leave in June (especially since we had to get new kits this year, it was the perfect time to switch), and why I’m still trying to do it now.

I will say though, I/we have been EXTREMELY lucky with the kids and parents so far. I know so many people who dislike or leave a club or team over obnoxious parents and their primadonna kids. We have not experienced that. We have had a great group of parents who get along well, the boys have always gotten along well too and are extremely supportive of each other. This is the main reason that I haven’t forced a switch yet.. What we have with parents/players isn’t the norm in soccer, unfortunately.. I’d hate to leave and get stuck on a team with crazy soccer parents. If a group of us switch then our boys would be more willing to give up the club, and we know that at least we have a core of relatively normal parents.

The coach needs to realize he is working with little kids. They have different needs in heat. That is why when a heat advisory is put up, those most to get harmed are the young and old. They are not tiny adults, they are children. Adult hockey players switch out every couple of minutes. They cannot play to their full potential otherwise.