One of the most difficult things for a parent must be to face the intense and absolute disappointment of his / her child. It cuts to the bone and makes you feel utterly useless as a parent. I wish there were ways to protect their little hearts, or at least know the fool proof way of giving them a shield to protect them somewhat more.
We had a really unfortunate experience with a soccer club here in Canberra. The initial coach told them she did not actually want to coach them, then actually stopped coaching them, then to top it all, halfway through the season, they decide to disband the team that she plays for.
She has four options available to her, ranging from playing in boy teams (not an option - she will be annihilated) to playing with girls 2 years older than her either in the same division or in a higher division than what she played for. Only 4 girls in the disbanded team got the opportunity to play in the same age group but a division higher.
How does this promote mass participation in sports?
Of the 4 options available to the girls in the disbanded team not one was to have all the girls play in one team, with enough of them to have a full team with reserves, and give them all a turn to have a weekend "off" - which becomes option 5 (compliments of my clever husband)!
She was incredibly upset and sobbed her heart out when we told her. She is the kind of person that gives her absolute all in what she does, and she loves playing soccer!
She is going to give the "two years older than her" girls team a go, rather bravely we think. I really hope that ths will be good for her, and that she will get game time and not pitch up every Saturday without the opportunity to play.
Oh, and to add insult to the injury we can be refunded the club fees, but nothing is mentioned about the national registration fees or the money spent on club uniform and soccer boots!! This after we were told that the girls cannot come to one training session to see if they want to continue (seeing as they played hockey in SA but considered changing to soccer), we needed to pay the club fees in full before any participation.
Lets hope this ends better than what it started.
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