Steps to Long Island Youth Soccer Tryouts: A CoachMommyLI Series

This past weekend, if you were on Long Island, you were wet and freezing on the soccer fields on Saturday and being blown around in gale force winds at the fields on Sunday.  Many of you were fortunate enough to get off Long Island for your soccer games and had better weather.  No matter where you travelled with your kids and their soccer team this past weekend, or if you are hoping to be on a team next year that travels, we are past the Memorial Day Weekend tournaments and that means the end of the Spring 2013 season is near  and tryouts are beginning.

Making the decision to attend a Long Island Youth Soccer tryout to make the move with your child to a Travel team or to change teams is not as easy a decision as it seems.  One of my biggest frustrations as a coach was how parents handled the process, and as a parent, it now frustrates me when parents of other players handle the process poorly.  Often parents fail to realize the impact their choices and actions can have on the other players of the team they leave behind.  This is not to say that making a move should never happen or that once you commit to a team or level of play that the time will never come for a change.  As important as it is to teach your child loyalty to a team, coach, and a club; the truth is that a time will come when the direction of a team changes or a child and their parent’s goals and commitment level in soccer will change.  The key is that when this time comes, the parent, child, and coach work together and follow the basic guideline of steps I provide below to make it a less difficult experience for all involved.

Coach Mommy Long Island’s Steps to Tryout/Changing of Team Success

1.       Discuss and decide as a family what level of commitment will be made by the child (parents and siblings), including finances and time

2.       Have an open/honest/respectful discussion with the child’s current soccer coach about what you and your child wants from a team and ask the coach about his plans/expectations  for the player and team

IF YOUR VISION and HIS ARE NOT THE SAME, TELL THE COACH ABOUT YOUR PLANS TO EXPLORE OTHER TEAMS AS SOON AS DECISION IS MADE AND PRIOR TO ATTENDING OTHER TRYOUTS.

3.       Ask your current soccer coach if he/she has suggestions for another suitable team or tryout

4.       Search local resources for teams having tryouts and open practices; sites available for Long Island Youth Soccer and surrounding areas include: www.backofthenet.com and www.lijsoccer.com

5.       Contact the Coaches of the top 3 teams you feel best meet your wants and ask for information from the coach about the team and role that your player may be used to fill, ask questions about practices, fees, training, substitution and play time policies, change of position, league team plays in, and location of most games and tournaments team attends, to name a few things you should consider.

6.       Decide which team you feel would be the first pick for your child and you and attend that tryout

7.       If your child is chosen for the team, notify both the new coach and the current coach of your child’s decision within 24 hours.  If the child is not chosen, repeat the steps and attend another tryout. I would NEVER suggest attending more than one tryout and then waiting to make a decision.  If the child earns a spot on multiple teams, he may be taking a spot that he does not plan to fill from another player who will commit to the team.

The process seems daunting and complex, and as a parent you may not believe that so much is necessary for Youth Soccer. Over the next few days, I will take a more in-depth look at the above steps and hopefully answer some questions you may have about Youth Soccer Tryouts on Long Island, as well as give you another perspective or some understanding as to why all of the steps are important.  Please feel free to comment if you have further questions or feel that I have missed something or disagree.  Open communication is the key to success in Youth Soccer (and you thought it was the expensive buff trainer with the sexy foreign accent- HE/SHE is just the side benefit.)