Too much too young?

Through all the annoyance and irritation, it’s the little things that make this job worthwhile. After practice tonight, one of my best player’s parents approach me looking for advice.

‘Do you think our boy is too young to specialize in soccer?’ they ask.

‘How do you mean?’ I reply.

‘Well, he loves baseball and football too but we think his best chance of a college scholarship is soccer and we were wondering what you think.’

Obviously I’m very touched that they’ve sought out my counsel so I pause for dramatic effect before answering.

‘I can tell you this guys. He’s a great, great soccer player and now that he’s turned 10, it’s about time he started to specialize in one sport.’

‘That’s what we were thinking,’ says the mother who obviously wears the pants in the marriage.

‘It’s never too early to start getting serious,’ I continue. ‘I mean it’s only seven or eight years now until he’ll be heading off to college. Do you really want him wasting half of every year between now and then playing sports where he has no hope of getting a scholarship?’

‘Yeah?’ says the father, in an uncertain voice which makes it sound like he’s not quite on board with this idea. ‘It’s just I was reading a thing online that said you should allow kids dabble in as many  sports as possible for as long as you can.’

I shake my head and roll my eyes before launching into him.

‘Ridiculous!! Just ridiculous! Where was that? One of those namby-pamby, politically correct sites that recommend every player gets equal playing time and tells us it’s wrong to keep score until they turn 12. That’s fine if you want your kid playing intra-mural at college while you pay fifty grand a year in fees. But if you want a four-year free-ride, he needs to concentrate on soccer. Now!'

I don’t mean to emasculate the guy in front of his wife but he’s asking for it. She continues to berate him as they walk towards their car. No more games of catch on the front lawn for that dad. Another victory for the beautiful game.