Today was the last day of the soccer season for both Cutie and Junior, and the teams they are on, give each of the players a trophy for all of their hard work during the season. Which, honestly, I grew up in a time, where trophies were for “winning” and were a big deal to get, and now they are giving them out like candy. I am not entirely sure how I feel about this philosophy- the whole giving them out to everyone- all the time- because I personally believe that if you keep “gifting” kids stuff, they will never learn to “work” for something and that is bunch of crap and honestly gives them an entitled attitude later in life. Whatever though, because the trophy people are making money, the leagues are making money, parents are spending money- and ultimately, it is a parent’s job to teach/educate their own child on the importance of hard work- not a coach or sport team. Climbing off the soap box now…
So, with that being said, here’s today’s issue: Junior’s trophy.
Now for the back story: Junior just became old enough to play in a recreational league after watching Cutie play for several seasons (5) and has been *dying* to play for a l-o-n-g time. Any of you that have kids know that whatever the older sibling is doing, the younger one wants to do it just as bad and is chomping at the bit to get the chance to do whatever they older one is doing. Well… like I said, today was the last day of soccer, blah, blah, blah, and he gets a trophy (like everyone else) but this is his very *first* trophy ever because he has never been able to play on a team before.
The team that he is on is coached by a guy- let’s call him Doug and he has his own kid on the team who we will call Paul. I am going to give you a bit of a background on this league. Other than the trophy thing- the league for Junior’s age bracket is one that: 1. doesn’t keep an official score 2. each child is to play at *least* 50% of the game 3. have lots of fun. Pretty simple- gets the kids in there to learn to enjoy the sport and have fun in a non-pressured atmosphere. Which is good, because I think that kids should learn to have fun in a sport at a young age for several reasons (not going to go in to them) - just my opinion.
Throughout this season Junior has been really good at this sport, like I said before he’s been watching Cutie for nearly 3 years of play now, and playing with her, etc. combined with the kid’s natural ability to run like the wind- he is the best kid I’ve seen at that age- and he’s even better than some of the kids on Cutie’s team that are 2-3 years older than he is. No, this isn’t from an over zealous mom that thinks her kid is awesome- it is from a mom that has seen her kid score an average of 10 goals per 30 minute game- but he isn’t even in the game for 30 minutes, he’s in for a max of 10 minutes, before Doug yanks him out. Quite literally telling him that he needs to not score so much and he can sit out for a bit. Doug has also held on to Junior’s jersey to prevent him from running to get a loose ball, told him to stay put (which he does) so the other team can “score a goal” he has even been so bold to scoop the ball up away from Junior and throw/toss it to the other team so they can score.
Now- I understand that kids at this level have *never* played before in a team setting, but like in life, there are going to be some kids that are amazing at something and kids that aren’t- just because a kid is good at something, you don’t need to penalize him/her and make them feel bad (especially when they are 4 years old) for doing a good job; which is what happened with Junior. He wanted to know why Coach Doug keeps taking him out when all he wants to do is play, but he won’t let him. Do I sound like a bitch yet? Probably, because I’m now appearing to be the bitter mom who thinks their kid should have more field time. No. Not even close. You see, Coach Doug’s kid Paul, is also a good player. He scores quite a bit himself, yet he is in the game for about 85% of the time and he pushes, shoves, kicks other kids and not a thing is said to him because his dad is the one out there. There is also a girl on the team (the team at this level is co-ed) and she plays about 85% of the time (she’s an average skilled player for this age) and she is friends with the coach’s family. Now, something isn’t quite right. My kid is yanked out because he scores too much and plays less than 50% of the time, yet the coach’s kid plays more than his fair share. There are 9 kids on the team, which would make it very easy to sub in 3 new for the 3 old throughout the game- yet he never did. Okay, okay, what about the damn trophy- I think my kid is about to graduate from college now after reading this…
So… today, like I said, they got trophies. Whoop-de-doo and all of that usual crap hoopla of you did great, thanks for playing, etc. from Coach Doug. After that was all said and done, the girl’s mom (that I mentioned earlier) wanted to get a group picture with all of the kids and their trophies. Junior gets up (since they were all on a blanket) and is like, where’s my trophy (he had put it down to get up- like I said, he’s only 4) and Paul takes his foot and stomps down (intentionally) on Junior’s trophy and BREAKS IT while saying “There!!” Junior is now crushed because his first trophy ever is broken in half. I don’t even know what to say to this asshole of a child punk ass kid, and before I open my mouth- I don’t say a word- shocking, right?
Isn’t that the grown up thing to do? Not say a word, because the dad/coach is a total douche bag and why is it a surprise that his offspring is equally a douche? I also know that *if* I did say something, it wouldn’t end up nice and I honestly don’t have the extra money to get bailed out of jail. At least my Saturday mornings won’t be spent with him or his offspring. Now Saturdays can be used for what God intended them for- sleeping in chores around the house. What do you have planned this weekend?
Similarity to any real person other than myself is purely unfortunate for them coincidental, this is my story so please don’t be an ass and copy/use it as your own.
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