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Sport's Role in Society... Let's Not Forget
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Last month, students took over council at City Hall in Toronto to evaluate and critique the budget and social issues that affect the city. Their results made front-page news in the local section of The Toronto Star. The main issue that grabbed the headlines was regarding the cost of the new 48 million-dollar police target-shooting centre currently being built. Students cited that vandalism and violence often stems from youth's not having other things to do to occupy their time and is the root of the problem. They state that the city is in dire needs of community centres and with 48 million dollars, the students felt that the money should have been used to build four new community centres. |
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Although I somewhat agreed with what the students had to say, I often question if sometimes, the answers to violence and vandalism aren't staring us in the face. For example, in my local community just outside Toronto, the local soccer club fails to provide enough soccer programs to meet the demands of 15 and 16-year-old boys. Last year they stubbornly stopped taking registrations once the customary allotment of two teams were filled and told kids that there was no place for them to play even though some have played with the club since age 5. This is happening again this year and the reason, according to sources, is that there are not enough fields for them to use. |
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The club registers about 4,000 kids annually. Surely fields can be found. In fact, keeping kids between 14 and 19 involved in any sport is much more important than any other age group. Things can be rearranged to accommodate 40 or so extra kids for this special age group. Practice time can be reduced for younger teams or younger age groups can be limited to allow field space for teams to be added. However it be done, house league level kids of this age who still want to play soccer are truly in it for the fun and not a potential scholarship or professional career. It keeps kids occupied, gives them a social group to belong to and allows them to play a game they enjoy. Is this not one of the main roles of sport in our society? |
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It disturbs me to see clubs not cater to this need especially when you read stories like the one in the Toronto Star. It does not cost 12 million dollars to provide sports for this group, just a bit more effort from adults who run youth sports programs. The older house league age brackets often get neglected because they will not provide future National Team players and because these kids often take longer to decide if they want to play. But this is the way it is with teenagers. They wait to see what their friends are doing and it takes forever for them to make a decision because they often have a lot of things in the air, such as jobs, summer school programs, family vacations etc etc. We need to plan for this and be there for our youth when they need us. Not abandon them. |
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The local Park's and Recreation Department can get involved by issuing field permits to clubs only if they cater to this age bracket. I'm not sure how often this problem occurs across Canada but it's happened two years in a row in my local club, which I will refrain from mentioning. |
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Clubs must be flexible with this age group. We cannot close the book on this age group simply because we can't make last minute adjustments to cater to them. I know there is more work in organizing last minute registrations due to computer registrations and equipment needs but we are not talking about that many kids in relation to the big picture. Keeping teenagers involved in activities that interest them is a key to any trouble free society. Soccer clubs must do their part. Quite often sport losses kids too early and I believe all too often we start kids too early in organized sport and by the time they are entering their teens, they will have already lost the excitement for the sport. From ages 4 to 14, most kids will have collected 10 participant trophies, won at least 1 or two league championships or playoff championships and collected a wall full of team pictures and attended enough banquets that they will dread going to another one. And that's only house league kids! |
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The success of any sports program, in my opinion, is in how many kids are still playing a sport in their teen years between 14 and 19 and not by how many National or Provincial championships they have won. Those clubs are doing justice to their community and need to be recognized. If I were to invent an award for soccer clubs it would be awarded to the club that registers the most kids (house league or rep, boys and girls) as a percentage of their total registration that are between 14 and 19 years of age. If all clubs strive for that formula you will find that our National Teams will have a bigger pool of players to choose from over time and that our National programs would improve. |
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Although I'm not about to give any awards, I'm glad to report, that in 2003, the Whitby Soccer Club added two eleventh hour house league teams to accommodate U16 boys. Well done and keep up the good work. Now if I could only get my local club to do the same. |
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A note to head coaches: do not ignore this important group and talent level because although they may not be high calibre players, you are doing something more important in your community and these players will thank you for it much more than many others. |
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Remember that players, who stick around and want to play recreational soccer at this age group, really enjoy the game and are most likely to become coaches someday. Plus they also tend to be fans of the game. Fans we so desperately need so that the rep players we work so hard to develop, will actually have someone who wants to come and watch them play. |
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And besides, who's to say a late developing player will not come out of U16 house league. In fact one of Canada's highest paid players in the history of Canadian Soccer was in the same boat at 15. His story for another day.
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Thanks for reading,
John DeBenedictis
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