It would of been nice if our team was more competitive this weekend during the tournament, but honestly we just don't have the talent nor the commitment to be one of the top teams, which made the weekend even more miserable. On top of it feeling like mid February opposed to spring outdoors. Nonetheless, I would of been really pissed if a miracle had happened, some how we placed 6th and I was sitting here making reservations for Denver on July 4th weekend to watch 7th grade lacrosse and deal with the non sense of some parents, only for our team to get knocked out of the running by the second day.
If you knew your team didn't have the talent why would your coach even put the kids through it. Hoping for some miracle? Why as a parent if you were against it, would let their kid play? You have choices here.
You put your team into a tournament like this even though there is not chance of winning because the team gets to play against really good competition. For some it can be a deflating experience. For a coach, child or parent it is an opportunity to measure themselves against the best to see what they are doing well and where they need to improve. Some coaches walk away saying "we did okay but we need to improve on this or that in order to be competitive". Some kids walk away thinking " I was able to stop the best attack player or I beat a great defender". This gives the kid the confidence to continue playing and working to be better. It's not always about winning. If you are not one of the top six you can choose to look at the weekend as a failure or you can take the small victories achieved and build on it for your kids future success. Winning is great but if you never lose you will not learn anything.
That's one theory, but if all coaches thought that way, obviously all don't, there would of been many more teams at the qualifier. Future success is only speculation, but in the here and now, I can guarantee the six top teams were; committed, prepared, made changes during tryouts, and sold on their coach's overall plan as a team. But don't lead your group into battle if you know they will be over matched, if so in the end your the only one to blame.
That is the dumbest thing I have heard. This is youth lacrosse and not a battle. If that were the case then most college teams shouldn't bother putting a program together because they know they won't make the NCAA tournament. You probably shouldn't bother going to work because I can pretty much g'tee you are not the top 6 in what you do. Mind your own business and don't raise our sons for us. Our kids may not be on the top 6 teams and that is okay don't tell my kid to give up and to measure his ability based on one tournament.
By the way, i have learned over the years, the biggest instigators on this site tend to be parents of kids that don't get much playing time on the top teams. This sounds like you and your justification for keeping your son on a top team even though he is not playing that much. You may point to a ton of stats and say he scored x # of goals this tournament but it was probably garbage time. There are going to be kids on the teams that did not qualify that will blow the doors off your kid, if not now then in a couple years because they are actually playing.
