The Danger of Consolidating Players Before U12

"The best players need to play together."  Do they?  Maybe, but when?

Let me offer some disclosure so you know my mind set.  I am not a fan of recruiting.

For your personal trophy case and perhaps your coaching resumé, consolidating the best players in your area as soon as possible might seem like a good idea.

For the development of the age group, I think early consolidation is damaging to everybody involved including the players who are being consolidated.

In many cases, consolidating players before their U12 year does nothing for anybody other than their coach. Not all cases, but many.

A coach has a decent U8 team.  He sees his friend has a son on a neighbouring town's team and the boy is decent.  "Hmm...." he thinks to himself and when the season ends, he invites his pal over for a
beer and talks about moving the kid.  He might even ask his friend to be an assistant coach. (that's my all-time favourite bait)

Those two teams of 10 players had four good matches during the summer.  Good for 20 players.  You took the other team's two best players.  This summer your two teams have zero good matches that were good for zero players.

"Ask the coach, if they truly believe they have the best players, would they step aside if a more qualified coach wanted to coach the team?  Have they personally sought out a more qualified coach?"

Wait, there was another team who also gave you four good games who have two players that you like.  You lay down the sales pitch and you scoop them up.  Now your four good games with them are also gone.

A league and age-group decimated way too young because of aggressive, recruiting coaches.  During the development stages where a good, engaging environment with developing players and coaches existed, is stripped away from an entire age group.

The next step for the new "super team" is to find a new league because they've ruined the one they were in.  Then the politics begins.

At an age where players are developing at different rates and blooming at different times, who is one coach to decide that they were the right person to have pulled the plug on all that?  The sad thing is, it's not always the best and most knowledgeable coach in the age group who does this.

I've watched this happen six time in Niagara over the last five years and have heard the same stories from friends in other districts around the province.  It can be argued from that coach's viewpoint that it's not their responsibility to worry about an entire age group.  I've even heard a few proclaim that they did it for the good of the better kids.

I know there are cases where a coach has a good name and the players migrate their organically. That's the result of a good program.  But we've all seen the aggressive situation, where soliciting emails are sent to other team's parents and coaches showing up at games to talk to parents (a.k.a. poaching.  Read this article by Jason DeVos from 2001).  A good coach just has to run their program and they usually receive the calls, not make them.

If you are approached by somebody who claims they will lead you and your region's best to soccer's "Promised Land", ask them:

• What are their qualifications?  As a player and/or coach?
• What is their experience as a coach?
• Why should your child leave their current team to go to that team? What will you tell your current coach if you pull your child?  If the reason is valid, it should be easier for you to tell them.
• What is that coach's vision? 
• How many U8/U9/U10 players did that coach dump over the past year? (This matters because it may speak to that coach's need to recruit to cover their inability to develop players)
• Have you watched that coach actually coach during training and games?
• Ask the coach, if they truly believe they have the best players, would they step aside if a more qualified coach wanted to coach the team?  Have they personally sought out a more qualified coach?

Here is my final question: Had a league been left alone and somebody plucked out the best fourteen players at U13 instead of U10, would it be the same fourteen players? Were they able to predict, with great certainty, who would be the best U13 players when they were U10?

This is not about being fair or appeasing the masses.  This is about keeping more players playing and developing a wider pool of competent players when they emerge into their teens and looking to jump into and compete in the elite streams.