Would you sign your child up for a sport and have him/her miss half the games?

[JumpyTheFrog]

Would you sign your child up for a sport knowing you would miss 3-4 games out of 8, plus several weeks of practices? I coached this spring for the town rec league. We started out with nine players.

 

-One never showed up again after the second practice. It was at least another month before his mom replied to one of my team emails and said he wasn't coming back.

 

-Two players missed at least 3-4 games because their families went on vacation or to a sibling dance recital.

 

-One or two players were 20-30 minutes late for at least half the practices (which we only an hour). One of these same players missed half a game without explanation.

 

-In March and April, usually two out of eight players missed each practice because they were sick. I know that can't be helped,

 

-The last two practices only had half the team show up, with no explanation from any of the missing players, even the ones whose parents generally tell me ahead of time.

 

-Two players missed the last game without explanation.

 

-The post-season tournament is next week and despite asking the parents who is coming, so far I have one RSVP (a no). I hope someone besides my son shows up. We need four players to play.

 

I enjoyed coaching a lot. I just wonder if my expectations for people to show up were too high. It doesn't seem fair to the team to plan to miss more than 1-2 games for voluntary reasons.

 

I played rec league as a kid and my grandma was really ill for a season or two. Instead of driving 2.5 hours on Friday and staying the weekend, my mom would take me to soccer Saturday morning. Then we'd go to my grandparents just for the night. It would have been easier to just say, "Oh, it doesn't matter if she misses games from a free town league" but she took me anyway. I guess I should write her a thank you note!

[Word Nerd]

No. How can players learn to work together as a team when players are not consistent about showing up? How can the child develop skills if (s)he is not at practice regularly? It's a waste of everyone's time, including the child's.

[catz]

Absolutely not. Unless it was a little kid league where you were just drilling and scrimmaging with whoever showed up. We did a nice soccer league like that when my son was age 4-6. But if you're practicing and playing scheduled games weekly, that's pretty obnoxious to the coach and teammates IMO.

[luvnlattes]

No, I wouldn't. It takes time for the team to build synergy and trust each other if it's a group that hasn't played together before. If you miss half the games you don't get the opportunity to build that with all the players.

[Pawz4me]

No. In all the years our boys have played sports, I can remember one game and one practice missed. Oldest missed a game because he had pink eye and we didn't want anyone else to get it. Youngest missed one practice once when we were on vacation. When you sign up for a team sport you're making a commitment to the team, and we've always stressed the importance of that.

[sparrow]

No, I would never do that, but it seems to commonly happen on the rec leagues my daughter has played on and my husband has coached. It is *extremely* frustrating to the coaches and the rest of the team that does show up for every game and practice :glare: .

[TravelingChris]

No, my kids were in soccer. The year we went on a long vacation from mid August to the end of September, they didn't participate that year.

[Heather in Neverland]

No. Absolutely not. It is irresponsible.

[MomtoCandJ]

That's just a waste of a lot of people's time and energy :(

[athena1277]

No. My kids want to play soccer in the fall on a local homeschool league. I told them we would have to miss 1 week for sure because of a yearly trip and when it gets close to sign up time, if I find we will miss more than the one week, we aren't going to play (it's about 10 weeks long). It's a waste of my money to sign up and miss a bunch and it's not fair to the team who is counting on them.

[JumpyTheFrog]

Unfotunately, the teams were very unbalanced. This was a U8 league, so the players were all 6-7 years old and there were huge differences in size, experience, and playing ability among players and between teams. I think only 3 of my 8 players had played before and one of them, our best scorer, was one of the players that missed half the games. If she was there, we generally won. We lost when she wasn't there. We had two other good players but it wasn't enough to compensate for all the short, non-agressive beginner players we had.

 

I saw the league standings. Out of 11 teams, one team won every game, one or two lost every game, and won lost all but one game. The teams weren't balanced at all.

 

I'm glad to see that I wasn't expecting too much for parents to show up. The beach is open on weekends after the season.

[readinmom]

Dh has dealt with this before and it is very frustrating. Imagine having to forfeit the game due to being short players. This year he had two outstanding players that really fit in well with the rest of the team. Turns out dad forgot to mention the custody arrangement and the boys could only be there one day a week. Not responsible parenting on his part.

[regentrude]

No. Not for a team sport.

If you want a sport, but know you'll have to be gone for a large part of the time, pick a sport where the kid's absence does not affect a team. Rock climbing, tennis, horseback riding... plenty of individual sports. But joining a team is a commitment. You should not ruin it for the other kids.

[Acorn]

Yes we will. It is rec league ages under 8. No scores are kept and frankly at these ages there isn't going to be "teamwork" anyways. I know we'll miss 2 games this summer to attend on out of state wedding and another game because of vacation, from 7 total games. It is still going to give my kids a great season of weekly exercise, learn rules of teeball and have fun. I think our country has gone nuts with youth sports. There should be a venue for kids to play games that don't require a family commitment to exclude the rest of life.

[Χά�ων]

I voted no but honestly I could see DS missing half the games.

 

Life happens. Vacation and other commitments crop up. I would sign DS up for a league knowing we had a vacation one week. If he gets sick, there is another week. If he is playing two sports and there is a clash, there goes another game. That is 3 games right there. Throw in another random life happening and there is the 4th. DS has one activity that is competitive travel that takes the highest piority. Most child specialize in it when they are very young. I refuse to allow him to specialize so young so I put him in rec leagues to get experience. I never have a game or practice schedule before I sign him up so I do not know in advance if there is a clash. I am always up front with the coach and give them a list of dates he will not be able to attend. I do ensure DS is there for every practice he can be at.

 

 

[Miss Tick]

No, I think it is rude to miss any without an explanation and preferably advance notice. Even at rec level the kids enjoy it more if they can count on their teammates to follow through on their commitment.

[Murphy101]

I'm with Acorn and Momofone.

 

I do however think it's rude to not let you know they aren't coming. I would let you know.

[Butter]

No. Some things just can't be helped. Illness, death in the family, some sort of unforeseen emergency. I can even see missing a (as in one) practice or possibly a game because there was a conflict with a sibling's recital or even a little family vacation. However, to miss several because of a vacation? No. You know the dates of your vacation, you know the dates of games and practices. Don't sign up if there'll be a whole bunch of misses. It's not fair to the rest of the team.

[JumpyTheFrog]

It would be less annoying if the parents had given me a list of games they'd miss soon after I handed out the game schedule. Instead, after practice they'd come up to me and say, "Oh, we're going to the beach again this weekend." Or "we might go away, we aren't sure yet." Or they would no show. This meant I never knew whether 4 or 8 kids would show up to practice or a game. I gave up on planning in advance.

 

I don't know what the attendance policies were for soccer, but for basketball through the town you could only miss two practices (other than being sick) and after that the coaches were supposed to bench you for a game. (I doubt it was enforced.) this included practices in the second half of December.

[AngieC]

Next time you should consider setting up your team on Shutterfly. Communicate with parents and ask that they mark their child's availability on the roster. http://www.shutterfly.com/sports-team-websites/index.jsp My son's baseball team has done it for the past three years and the coaches always know who will be absent from the game. You can also set up practices on there so they can mark if they will be there or not. It automatically sends reminders to parents about upcoming practices or games.

 

I think if you set the tone at the very beginning you might have better luck getting people to at least reply about whether or not they will be there.

[Mommy22alyns]

Absolutely not. What's the point?

[Jan in SC]

Nope. This attitude is a big factor in choosing travel sports over rec sports, too.

[JumpyTheFrog]

Next time you should consider setting up your team on Shutterfly. Communicate with parents and ask that they mark their child's availability on the roster.

 

Thanks. I didn't know about this website. I will look into it.

 

Nope. This attitude is a big factor in choosing travel sports over rec sports, too.

 

I take it that you know many people who have given up on town leagues for this reason?

[SKL]

I probably should have asked about the ages before I answered. My girls are 6, so I went based on that general age range. ... Here's where I am on this. If it's a rec league and I'm "that parent," I would talk to the coach in advance and say, "my kids will be unable to have 100% attendance because abc. Would you prefer they not sign up at all, or sign up with the understanding that they will miss sometimes?" I'm a working mom, my kids are in many activities and therapies, and sometimes "stuff" happens. This is one reason why I don't sign my kids up for stuff where every minute of the season is make or break. I just signed my kids up for a Sunday class that will sometimes conflict with another commitment. I told the coach this. It is understood and OK. If the coach said that this would create a big problem, I would not have signed my kids up. ... But reading the OP, I wondered if it were possible that some of the parents didn't have the full schedule information, given that so many missed the end-of-season stuff without explanation. ... Another thing that I wondered about was whether people had gotten angry about something. Is there any way to find out?

[ktgrok]

I voted yes, if a rec league. But, I would have called and asked if it would be ok before signing up. If they said it would be a problem I wouldn't sign up.

[Jan in SC]

We have several rec centers that run leagues. We also have large churches that run sports leagues. Most people use these for preschool- through early elementary. The football rec leagues are successful because there is no other option before middle school. The soccer and baseball rec leagues are not competitive. One of the reasons is because people will miss for anything. A slight drizzle for soccer- oh- our family doesn't do rain! A tired child in the afternoon- oh - he needs to rest tonight. (These children are 10-12!) it gets ridiculous at times.

 

To answer your question, yes, most people we know play travel soccer and baseball. Well, most homeschoolers we know don't really play sports.

[Pawz4me]

I take it that you know many people who have given up on town leagues for this reason?

 

What we see in baseball are kids who are on travel teams but also sign up at our Pony League. They all seem to have the attitude that they'll just show up at Pony when it's convenient (i.e., doesn't interfere with a travel game/practice). Some of them don't even make half the games or practices. It's terribly unfair to the kids who just play at our Pony League if they have to forfeit a game, or lose a game they probably would've won, because three or four teammates are off playing somewhere else. To my way of thinking it's the "all about me" attitude. I shudder at the lesson the parents are teaching those kids by allowing them to sign up for something w/o enforcing a real commitment. It was so bad last year that beginning with this season the league instituted a rule that to be considered eligible for all star teams a player has to participate in at least six games per season.

[Nart]

Yes, if it is a rec league. Family comes first so if there is a conflict we skip the games. At that age most rec leagues don't even keep score. I get annoyed if my son has to miss a game and other parents blamed him for losing because he has the most experience and ends up scoring most of the goals. I love it when kids miss because everyone gets more playing time.

[SKL]

... our best scorer, was one of the players that missed half the games. If she was there, we generally won. We lost when she wasn't there. We had two other good players but it wasn't enough to compensate for all the short, non-agressive beginner players we had.

 

So was it a good or bad thing that the "best scorer" was on the team? Would it have been better for the child to not sign up at all? Or did he help the team despite his spotty attendance? ... I would also wonder what the philosophy of the league is at that age. At 6-7yo is the win/loss record important? Or should the organization be promoting exercise, skill development, and team experiences for all kids?

[LucyStoner]

Most team sports have min. number of player requirements. Even if it is a rec league, it is really unfair to make the other kids show up for a game, wait around and be unable to play because they are forced to forfeit. At that point you are not only impacting your kid's team but all of their parents and all of the players and parents from the other team. This is literally dozens of people in some cases. So a few people flaking out + 1 or 2 planned for absences and everyone else loses out. Of course family is first. But I don't sign up for anything without checking our family calendar. If we have a known conflict for more than 1 game, it's not the activity for us and I find something else. For me family first includes valuing the activities my kids want to do and making it a priority to get there barring a true emergency.

[Sara in AZ]

Of course family is first. But I don't sign up for anything without checking our family calendar. If we have a known conflict for more than 1 game, it's not the activity for us and I find something else. For me family first includes valuing the activities my kids want to do and making it a priority to get there barring a true emergency.

 

 

 

I am a huge planner, but I have such a hard time with sports leagues, especially our rec soccer league. I'm a musician, and our family priority music. We have several lessons, choir, and a Suzuki class scheduled at fixed times. When we go to sign up for our rec soccer league, I have no idea what I'm signing up for. I can specify days that are better than others, but in the end the practice time is dictated by the coach AFTER we have committed and registered. Some coaches choose to do twice a week practice, some two. It's so dependent on the coach. And the game schedule, of course, isn't a available until a couple of weeks into the season. I do my best to make sure we can get to every practice, but there are times my kids just have miss to miss a game. We're never just a no show. I'd always give warning, but sometimes there are competing commitments that we don't want to drop the ball on, either.

[JumpyTheFrog]

At that age most rec leagues don't even keep score. I get annoyed if my son has to miss a game and other parents blamed him for losing because he has the most experience and ends up scoring most of the goals.

 

 

Our league keeps score. Do most rec leagues really not keep score now? It's kind of silly to not keep score because the kids all do anyway. And how will they be motivated to run hard, even when they don't feel like it, if no score is kept? I've seen players sprint back lots of times to stop the other team, even when they are hot and tired and might prefer to just walk.

 

So was it a good or bad thing that the "best scorer" was on the team? Would it have been better for the child to not sign up at all? Or did he help the team despite his spotty attendance? ... I would also wonder what the philosophy of the league is at that age. At 6-7yo is the win/loss record important? Or should the organization be promoting exercise, skill development, and team experiences for all kids?

 

 

I don't blame her for the team losing those games. It made it harder to win, though, because we're supposed to give equal playing time to all players and I tried very hard to do that. With four kids playing at a time, I had two good players out with two beginning players. If I had three or four beginners out at once, the other team would score lots of goals. I tried to find a way to allow the team to do their best and win, while still giving everyone the same amount of time playing. When one of the three good players was absent, it meant that most of the game we had three mediocre and one good player out at the same time. (I didn't want to be one of those coaches who puts winning over playing time, so we lost.)

 

Most team sports have min. number of player requirements. Even if it is a rec league, it is really unfair to make the other kids show up for a game, wait around and be unable to play because they are forced to forfeit.

 

 

We had 8 players and 4 needed to show up to avoid a forfeit. The weeks we only had 5 players, most of the kids were very tired and they'd keep asking me for a sub and I'd have to say no because the only person not playing hadn't been out long enough to catch his or her breath. Plus, two of the players always wanted a sub after about a minute. They didn't seem to like playing so I made sure to let their parents know that when they got less playing time, it was because they didn't want to play, not because I pulled them out.

 

I know it may not sound like it, but I did enjoy coaching a lot. I guess I'm hoping that by talking about it, maybe someone will come up with a way to improve attendance next time.

[JumpyTheFrog]

Games were extremely informal and barely real games. Or it wasn't really a team sport.

 

 

Hmm, well they were real games, with uniformed refs and everything. Although, at this age, the kids don't work together at all. It sounds like rec leagues may vary by region.

 

 

When we go to sign up for our rec soccer league, I have no idea what I'm signing up for. I can specify days that are better than others, but in the end the practice time is dictated by the coach AFTER we have committed and registered.

 

 

I completely understand this. When we signed up, we didn't know how long the season would be, if it started at the beginning of March or the end of April, and what days practice would be. I have told the town how difficult it makes it for parents and they need to have a schedule set up before making people pay. I didn't sign up to coach ahead of time because I didn't know what day we'd be assigned to practice. (Coaches have no choice in practice days or times.)

 

I am seriously thinking next time of driving a few towns over for Tigger to do indoor soccer at a place that tells parents, in advance, the two hour block practices could be in, and the two hour block games could be in. There's no reason for leagues to be so vague about this. When I played travel soccer in high school, we didn't have the schedule ahead of time, but we knew games were on Sunday afternoons and Wednesday nights. None of this "Sign up and hope it fits your schedule" nonsense.

[Χά�ων]

I am blown away that someone would put their child on a travel team AND a rec team for the same sport. I am amazed that the rec league even allows it.

 

In my experience the leagues play at very different levels. It would be incredibly frustrating to the child who is just learning to play to go against kids who hae been playing for years and/or are at a differet level. On the flip side I cannot see my DS enjoying playing in a league whre he was one of the best and he was bored because the level of competition is not the same. There is a huge difference between a 10 year old who has been playing a sport since he/she was 3 and a 10 year old trying the sport for the first time. There is a reason the different levels exist and just like I would not insist on DS playing on a travel league in a sport he has never played before I would not dream of putting him on an introductory or rec level team for a sport he has been playing for years unless that league had a huge range of abilities and the teams were not divided by random lot.

 

[MooCow]

Most team sports have min. number of player requirements. Even if it is a rec league, it is really unfair to make the other kids show up for a game, wait around and be unable to play because they are forced to forfeit. At that point you are not only impacting your kid's team but all of their parents and all of the players and parents from the other team. This is literally dozens of people in some cases. So a few people flaking out + 1 or 2 planned for absences and everyone else loses out. Of course family is first. But I don't sign up for anything without checking our family calendar. If we have a known conflict for more than 1 game, it's not the activity for us and I find something else. For me family first includes valuing the activities my kids want to do and making it a priority to get there barring a true emergency.

 

 

:iagree: And our rec league's policy is if there is not enough kids on one team to play, the other team will "share" it's players. It works very well, although it

rarely happens.

[Soror]

We haven't done any team sports and this is part of the reason, I don't want to sign away our lives. We did sign up for track and ended up missing a lot. The schedule got changed on us for one thing, I thought it was going to be 4 weeks and it ended up being 7-8 or so. We also had to rearrange our vacation due to other conflicts and I wasn't going to entirely miss getting any vacation due to rec sports. Then multiple practices were rearranged due to the rain, generally to Sunday and I am not very keen on Sunday practices and such. Also, we specifically asked about formality and such when we signed up. We wanted to make sure meets weren't required and that it was pretty laid back.

[LucyStoner]

 

 

:iagree: And our rec league's policy is if there is not enough kids on one team to play, the other team will "share" it's players. It works very well, although it

rarely happens.

 

 

We used to do this when I played softball as a teen but league marked it as a forfeit IIRC. So we got to play but is affected both teams records.

[Χά�ων]

Most team sports have min. number of player requirements. Even if it is a rec league, it is really unfair to make the other kids show up for a game, wait around and be unable to play because they are forced to forfeit. At that point you are not only impacting your kid's team but all of their parents and all of the players and parents from the other team. This is literally dozens of people in some cases. So a few people flaking out + 1 or 2 planned for absences and everyone else loses out.

 

 

I am just amazed that they force a team to forfeit due to lack of players. Everytime a team has been short when DS played the coaches just have a player from the other team join that team for rec or grab kids waiting or just finishing up a game. It will not work for sports like dance or gymnastics but for a rec level basketball, soccer, baseball etc it is easily doable and the kids still get to play. DS has even done this at the travel level. The difference was that they did not play for the opposing team, he and some of his team mates and their opponents played the game before theirs so that the kids could have a game. DS played up one age bracket and some of his teammates played up 2. They lost but the kids got to play and that was the most important thing, even for a travel team at a tournament. It was a 6am game and there was a miscommunication about the game time.

[MyThreeSons]

I voted other, but we would only do it in this situation:

 

If we spoke with the coach ahead of time, and we all understood what would be happening, and the coach was okay with it.

 

We have played in a recreational soccer league where there were rules about everyone playing at least half of each game, if present. It was frustrating to have a kid who wasn't very talented but came to every practice have to sit while a kid who never practiced got to play more just because he was better.

 

Now, on a competitive, travel league team, the coach would be allowed to make his own rules about sitting a player who doesn't practice, and I'd be fine with that.

[linders]

Your expectations are very reasonable. If I had the vacation situation, I would discuss with the coach first. If there were plenty of extra kids on the team to sub in and my kid wasn't the "star" or otherwise critical, perhaps. Otherwise, no. Around here, even rec league teams usually have just 1-2 extras, so one kid missing gives you no margin for injuries/illness/breaks, and the idea of teams 'loaning" players? Never, ever seen it here except in the 5-and-under league.

[sparrow]

Wow. I think it's really a shame that people think that because it's *just* rec league, it's OK to miss practices and games. Believe it, or not, my husband has better things he could be doing, too, but he volunteered to coach your kid.

[JumpyTheFrog]

Wow. I think it's really a shame that people think that because it's *just* rec league, it's OK to miss practices and games. Believe it, or not, my husband has better things he could be doing, too, but he volunteered to coach your kid.

 

When Tigger was in rec gymnastics, I didn't feel the need to let them know ahead of time if we'd be out because he wasn't on a team depending on him and the instructor got paid either way.

 

But I think it's different in an activity where the coaches are all volunteers. I spent two hours a week for three months coaching and trying to help everyone improve. I would be surprised if I even get a single thank you note or email.

 

For those of you who think missing games is acceptable, would you say the same thing about a child missing half the math competitions and practices, half the band rehearsals, or half the Lego League meetings? What about half their tutoring sessions?

[QuirkyKapers]

No, it impacts the entire team and their performance. The teams end up having to find fill in players from other situations and it makes it more difficult to have good team interaction when the players don't know each others skills from previously playing together or from practice.

[Alice]

I said other. I wouldn’t intentionally do it . However, like a previous poster said, when we sign up for baseball we don’t know when the games are. Our baseball league actually doesn’t even tell us the practices until each Sunday and they change each week. So when you sign up at the beginning of the season either you 1) Have to commit the next 8 weeks or so to baseball and nothing else 2) Expect that you may have to miss some games and/or practices or 3) Not sign up. We’ve elected for #2. It’s a rec league, although a fairly competitive one. We try and make everything we can but without knowing in advance the schedule I can’t make that commitment and have any other kind of life. Plus, you have to sign up months in advance. So I’m signing up in January for spring ball or June for fall ball. I can either plan on keeping 2-3 months completely open or make some other commitments knowing they might conflict. This season one of ds’s games was the same time as his piano recital. He had to choose the piano recital which was a commitment we made 9 months ago. We try to model making a commitment to the team, but we also try to model making good choices.

 

Last fall, we planned a 2 week vacation without really thinking about fall ball. That was sort of my fault but it also just happened that the only two mid-week games they had were the weeks we were gone. I knew he was going to miss the two Saturdays we were gone but he ended up missing 4 game which was half or almost half of the games. I felt bad about it but it other than dropping out (which would hurt the team also I suppose as then they would be down a player the whole season) at that point there was nothing I could do.

 

I do tell the coaches well in advance of any planned absences. Usually we get the game schedule and then I email any we will miss right away. Then right before the missed game I remind them so they can plan. In baseball, they can “call up†players from the next level down, so they never have to worry about forfeiting a game for lack of players. Often the players called up are very excited to have the opportunity to play in the higher levels so it works out ok.

 

I know on ds’s baseball team this season there are 11 players. No one has made every game or practice. Several boys have missed at least a couple of games (but out of a total of 16). But they have a good camaraderie and they are currently undefeated. So I think it can work if parents communicate and are still committed to the team. It sounds like you unfortunately didn’t have that in your team this year. The lack of communication alone would drive me nuts.

[SKL]

 

For those of you who think missing games is acceptable, would you say the same thing about a child missing half the math competitions and practices, half the band rehearsals, or half the Lego League meetings? What about half their tutoring sessions?

It depends on the purpose and structure of the activity. If the purpose is to get amateur kids moving / learning, and the leaders are flexible, then yes. I would prefer that my kids miss nothing, of course, but normally this happens because of a conflict between two important things at the same time. So the alternative is to not participate at all. Does non-participation of many kids help meet the goals of the organization? Maybe, maybe not. ... For the record, my kids have not played in any team sports so far, largely because we can't do the kind of schedules that would involve. However, even at our laid-back The Little Gym, each class has an annual "show" that involves a certain amount of prep and teamwork. (I wish they didn't.) My kids were not as prepared as many, because they missed or were late to some of the classes. Sucks to have a working mom who has to respond to things that come up toward the end of the day. Thankfully the owners/teachers are understanding and not hung up on perfection. Of course that's why I chose their program over others.

[catz]

I don't think 100% attendance is necessary, but as a coach, I would ask for dates players will miss for certain when the season starts. Approaching 50% is obnoxious, even for a rec league if numbers matter at these games. Local to us, it is possible to find drill based, more laid back ways to do sports that doesn't require a team commitment. I think age 10 was the year things because a little more intense in terms of competition (and the age my son wanted to quit soccer!).

[JennifersLost]

I'm going to disagree on this one - it is very common practice here to do this for rec soccer and the rec league is set up so that this is okay. Otherwise, very few kids would be able to participate in soccer at ALL. I was a parent who thought it was all or nothing at first, and I kept my older kids out of soccer because we travel extensively every summer. Then someone enlightened me - that the town wanted everyone to have a chance, that the only thing that "counts" for anything is the final round of playoff games (held at the very end of summer/early fall when everyone's back from vacation) and that everyone assumes that most kids will be gone part of the season.

 

I love our town for its laid back attitude and complete acceptance of "real" family schedules in this instance. After living in California where your six year old kid would be benched for a string of games if you were late even once to little league. I feel that this is the kind of attitude that fosters love of team sports, of movement, of participation, tolerance, families, and life.

 

It is not unusual at all to have kids in the playoff games you haven't seen for 6 - 8 weeks prior. We're just happy to have the extra subs when they show up!

 

Over and over again I'm shown how incredible our town is for its ability to understand that real life means all kinds of situations for all kinds of kids. I love that attitude of "we'll all get there together in the end." Such a difference after the hyper-competitive crud I grew up with.

[MolleenCarie]

No, absolutely not.

 

We were so disappointed last year when half the baseball team went missing bc of football. It was our ten-year-old son's first year playing on a team; he hadn't had an opportunity to play on a team in the past bc we could not commit for various reasons (new baby, one car family, ministry commitments, pre- and post-deployment vacations, etc.). Last year we could do it and we were so excited. Out of ten families, our son and three other boys had parents that were committed to the team. We will see how it goes this year, but I won't be holding my breath...

[mathmarm]

No.

Seems really rude. "Lack of punctuality implies a lack of respect."

I throw college kids out of my classes who show up late. I am "That Guy" when it comes to administratively withdrawing slackers who don't show up on time or at all and then don't take the initiative to email or notify me of their absences in a timely manner.

[ChocolateReignRemix]

We were so disappointed last year when half the baseball team went missing bc of football. It was our ten-year-old son's first year playing on a team; he hadn't had an opportunity to play on a team in the past bc we could not commit for various reasons (new baby, one car family, ministry commitments, pre- and post-deployment vacations, etc.). Last year we could do it and we were so excited. Out of ten families, our son and three other boys had parents that were committed to the team. We will see how it goes this year, but I won't be holding my breath...

 

 

And right there you made the best argument in this thread about taking the commitment seriously. Some conflicts cannot be prevented, but when someone signs up knowing they cannot fully commit (or not caring because it is "rec"), the enjoyment and experience for the other players is certainly affected. DH and I had this problem year after year in the rec division of our basketball program, and finally we simply suspended the minimum playing time for rule for players who continually missed practices or games for their teams.