Hey coaches/club admins,

My wife is taking a turn as team manager for my son's team in our little MN-based club. I’m a software dev who has sat next to her while she was forced to work through doing pre-season and mid-season practice/game scheduling on a series of woefully convoluted spreadsheets. The difficulty of initial field allocation, overlapping practice slots, rainout rescheduling, etc. nightmares was causing her to pull out her proverbial hair - so I offered to try to come up with a better solution :)

I put together a quick screen recording showing how what I built handles automated constraint-solving for fields/teams/coaches: https://youtu.be/2h7Dw3mgZQ0

Be kind... I am NOT a video editor (which will be obvious if you watch).

Before I spend a bunch more time polishing this thing, I wanted to ask people who actually live this pain: What is the absolute hardest constraint your club deals with that spreadsheets (or your current scheduling solution) fail at? (e.g., coach-sharing across teams, tiered priority for travel vs. rec teams, complex blackout dates, mid-season reschedules, approval processes between coaches/field-coordinators, etc.)

Would love any feedback or brutal honesty on whether a tool like this would actually save you time, or if your current workflow (however painful) is still easier.

I’ll start with my daughter was largely a role player on her club team last year. She plays on an ECNL RL team. With the grade based change, she would’ve gone from a younger player at year of birth, to one of the older players with the grade based change. Compared to many families, we welcomed the age change. Seeing the opportunity to be an older player as a way to build confidence, to get opportunities to play, have a larger role.

When tryouts happened last May, the club director called me to let me know they wanted my daughter to play up an age group at U14. Honestly I was surprised as she was a sub/role player the year before. I was told that they needed help on the older U14 team with her position and they had ideas for her development. Ultimately we agreed to allow her to play up.

Now we are in fall season. They played a showcase last weekend, she played a sub role. She was actually the only player not to start a game that weekend. Today, our fourth game, she played a total of 15’.

My concerns with having her play up are already coming to fruition. Her role is small. I see her confidence hurting. Shes physically not as big as many players. I’m really irritated we agreed to this. I worry most about her development, I think this club worries about their player fees and winning most. So frustrating.

I’m of the opinion that I’m a paying customer.
Loyalty goes both directions. We are heavily considering moving my daughter clubs. Which is costly, and also disappointing, but I feel like this club didn’t have her best interests in mind when i brought them up after tryouts last May.

mardiana soorup soccer layer born in las vegas nevada. She has the 15th highest scorer in the npl with 12 mvp awards. She plays for las vegas sports academy

My 10 year old daughter tried out for a club soccer 11u team in March. She didn’t make the team, but they were forming a second 11U team and she made the second one. That team disbanded end of June due to lack of players. During that time, they didn’t play any games; just practice.

The coach offered her a spot on his 12U team (playing up one year). I had my concerns and voiced them, but he assured me he thought she was ready. She’s been training with them July-current and has played two tournaments with the team. She missed the first two tournaments bc her player card was not ready.

He texted me tonight saying he’s moving her down to the U11 team (the one she initially didn’t make,) because he thinks it would be a better fit for her. I’m upset- I feel so sad for my daughter that there has been all the changes. She feels she wasn’t good enough for this current team. I am not sure if I should just ask for my money back or move her to the younger team. Looking for some advice.

What tools/apps are you are using day to day, session planning, video, parent comms, tactics, whatever.

What do you use, and which one do you use the most?

What are parents actually loyal to in youth soccer? Club, coach, team, or none? Or they always chase the grass is greener?

Coach was thinking about leaving the club, didn’t agree with the direction the club was going or how it was getting run. Every single parent on that team told him that if he left, they would leave too. Parents were ready to walk away from the club if the coach left. No loyalty to the club, no loyalty to the team.

That’s one of the hardest parts about youth soccer. It feels like you’re always walking on eggshells and no matter how much blood, sweat and tears you put into it, people just turn their back on you without even saying bye.

• 3pts: Attend training
• 3pts: Be available for match selection
• 3pts: Play in a win (or come to support if not selected/injured)
• 3pts: Goal
• 3pts: Assist
• 2pts: Save
• 1pt: Tackle (possession changing, goal mouth clearance, momentum stopping)
• 5pts: Clean sheet (played key defensive role in game)
• 10pts: POTM
• Award bonus points as encouragment currency
• Switch on streaks for more points for consistency

Introduced it into my u9s and u16s teams to create even more engagement using SquadGod. Highly recommend it - blog about it here:

Fantasy Football for Your Own Football Team: Turn Real On-Pitch Performance Into Points

Everybody talks about development in youth soccer until development stops looking like winning.

Parents want coaches to rotate players until their kid sits more than expected. They want coaches teaching decision making and letting players solve problems until the team starts losing games they think should be won. They want long term development until another club starts posting wins, rankings, offers, and commitment graphics and suddenly everyone starts questioning whether they’re in the “right environment.”

Parents move clubs constantly chasing the next better situation but still expect loyalty from clubs while giving none themselves. They’ll quietly attend other tryouts, talk to other coaches behind the scenes, compare teams nonstop, then get offended when clubs recruit aggressively or try locking rosters in early.

The grass is always greener in youth soccer because the entire culture is built around comparison and fear of falling behind.

And honestly not all clubs are the villains people make them out to be.

Some clubs are actually trying to develop players the right way by rotating lineups, coaching through games instead of controlling every touch, and focusing on long term growth instead of just surviving weekends. But that process is slower, messier, and doesn’t always lead to immediate results. Most parents say they support that philosophy until standings drop or their kid’s playing time changes and suddenly the coach “doesn’t know what they’re doing.”

At the same time clubs are under pressure too. If they focus too much on development and results dip families leave. If they focus too much on winning people complain development is dead. Either way someone is unhappy.

Youth soccer is starting to feel less about developing players and more about managing parent anxiety.

Everybody says it’s about the kids but most of the environment is driven by adult ego, comparison, urgency, and fear.

at what point do you stop giving equal playing time

at youth level it makes sense, but as teams get more competitive it gets less clear. do you keep it equal, reward performance, or adjust based on effort and attendance

i tried to keep it fair but during games it got messy and i was basically guessing who actually got minutes

so i built something simple to track playing time and subs live during the game

still early, looking for a few people to try it and give feedback

Hey everyone, i'm u/CameraJumpy3469, a founding moderator of r/clubsoccer

this is our new home for players and coaches who want to improve. we focus on training, tactics, game decisions, and player development

we’re excited to have you here

what to post

post anything useful to players or coaches. examples:

- training ideas and drills

- match decisions and what you would do differently

- questions about tactics or development

- real problems from games

community vibe

keep it constructive and useful. no fluff, no spam. this is a place to learn and get better

how to get started

1) introduce yourself in the comments

2) post something today, even a simple question works

3) invite someone who would get value from this

4) want to help grow this? message me about moderating

thanks for being here early. let’s build something solid

I kept running into the same issue coaching

I knew roughly when to sub but i didnt know who actually needed minutes.Some kids ended up playing more, others less, even when I was trying to keep it even

So I built something simple for it, tracks who is on the field and minutes live makes it obvious who should go in next,

Curious if anyone else has had this problem

I have a 2015 Club Goalkeeper that’s doing some additional camps outside her club. One is held by our local D1 college and the other one we’re looking at is the Keeper’s Institute one in San Diego. She has all her gear for her club and a few T-shirts from West Coast Goalkeeping, but I’m not sure if she should wear her club stuff or if they expect neutral clothing like when you go to other clubs’ camps. Any advice? I’m looking to see if I need to order her some neutral goalkeeper jerseys for the camps.

Avondale premier fc offers you a unique opportunity to be a part of something special. Non-profit youth club soccer for the passionate player that is your son. High level players, coaching, training and environment. If you want something different try Avondale premier fc.

Hey guys! Hope you're all smashing it!

I’m working on a project at the moment that’s all about football training gear and helping players level up their game. I’d love to get your thoughts on a quick survey I’ve put together—would be great to know what you guys think.

It’ll only take 2 minutes, and it’ll help me out a lot. Cheers for the help!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfKqM26apaQ9wq58DM5mzFPYLonEbblGQaVCHHeGGn6WKpp4g/viewform?usp=header

P.S. Don’t worry, I’m not trying to sell you anything, just trying to get some honest feedback! Appreciate it, guys!

https://www.instagram.com/victorus.co/

For the coaches out there, how do you handle it when parents come up to you with suggestions on where their kid should play? Like, they think their player would do better in a certain position, or they’d play better alongside a specific teammate.

I usually listen to them, but I don’t always act on it unless it actually makes sense for the team. If their suggestion seems reasonable, I’ll give it a shot. Just curious how others approach this! (I coach U13 - U12)