This spring season our youngest played on a “select” soccer team.  In our town, there is a dominant soccer club with a zillion kids in rec and club teams.  In her age group, U9, there were 5 club teams.  She played on the second lowest, or maybe the lowest, I’m not really sure.

In any event, as the season progressed, she got less and less playing time.  During their final tournament, my daughter played 7 minutes out of 50.  But she never complained and was gleefully cheering her team from the sidelines.  She did ask the coach between games why she didn’t play much.  Coach said because there was a really good player on the other team and that my daughter had gotten beat.

So, the coach didn’t sugar coat things, he said what he felt was the truth.  My daughter seemed okay with it.  I didn’t probe too much because I didn’t want to create an issue with her where one didn’t exist.  But she’s nine.  And they are in a very low bracket.

I bit my tongue until last night when I wrote to the director of the program.  I went to bed very proud of myself for standing up for my little girl and every other soccer player out there.  And then this morning I thought…maybe I wasn’t as stand-up brave as I thought?  Should I have said something to the coaches?  Should I have let it go?  What was best for my daughter?  What life lesson would she take from this?