At a time of year we all hear of clubs/coaches dropping kids, due to ability, moving them across teams to keep the ‘A’ team winning, and generally writing certain kids off, for their own egos.
I actually enjoy, get more reward, and probably get a bigger ego to be fair, coaching the lesser ability kids. Yes we don’t win as many trophies, but that doesn’t mean we achieve less!!
When the entire squad has each others backs, winning and losing together, playing as a team, respectful to each other, and their opposition, I see young men growing up before my eyes, take football out of it, these are life skills, all learnt with a smile on their faces, no pressure, developing to win, not winning at all costs and calling it development!!
Now as for writing kids off, never do it, ever, you just don’t know what’s in there, I have a mixed ability bunch, they all get exactly the same game time, regardless of the score. We have had situations when we’ve looked at our star man on the bench, wishing he was on, as we are respectfully competitive, but its not his turn, how does the lesser ability player develop without game time?
As the season progresses, I now start getting my trophies, as these players score their 1st goal, or use a skill they’ve practiced for hours in a match, watching the top scorer at 8years old, move over to allow a penalty which he won to be taken by a player that hasn’t scored before, all making my cabinet bigger and bigger.
Now for the biggest win of all, its tournament time, we have to win to progress, star players sits on the bench, one of the weaker players in his place, its a tight game, a quick sub, and no doubt we qualify….but no, its not his turn….a quick passing move from midfield happens falling to our so called weaker child, written off and given token appearances by previous coaches, he holds the ball up, turns his man with a drag back takes a touch, bang, bottom corner, 1-0!!
We are celebrating like we’ve won the cup, the kid come good, 2 mins later, he latches on to a through ball, 1st touch, goal, he’s done it again!!
We are going through…..and the written off child did it for us, getting mobbed by all!! His face at that moment, was my cup win, his dads world cup win, the fact we got beat on penalties in the next round irrelevant, as a team, we won our cup, because we didn’t write a certain player off!!!
And for the record, he’s not stopped scoring since, something clicked, he had an opportunity, and took it, kids develop at different rates, give them all the same chance, you’ll get your reward, and they’ll never forget that someone believed in.