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Satan, get thee behind me


RJ

My 16 year old is a soccer player. She plays open league and on her high school varsity team. I was one of her coaches up to three years ago. One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how the parents can be. They can actually be gleeful when their daughter fouls/injures another player. I saw this just weeks ago at a tournament we played in Austin (as a wildfire raged close enough I could see the flames leap over the trees in the far distance at one point!). A player on the opposing team raked her foot down the lateral lower leg of one of our girls, which dropped her like a ton of bricks. It was an obvious foul, not called by the official. The girl then ran to the end of the field and high-fived a fellow player, while laughing.

My point is this has to be bred into the player. It has to be sanctioned by the coach as well as by the parent. To actually think your daughter is a good soccer player because she took another player out is unfathomable. My daughter's coach would pull any player she saw doing that, and I would make sure she did if it was my daughter. The bright side is this...we are playing showcase tournaments where college coaches come to see the girls play. These coaches go out of their way to see players that have somehow come to their attention. I have talked to several of them about this issue, and they have all said that they would not consider recruiting a dirty player. So, who gets the last laugh?