Process F.C.

Listen up folks 👀

“Youth soccer in this country is problematic”

John Hackworth, former 🇺🇸 U17 coach and current Director of Coaching for St. Louis City SC, spoke to ESPN on his experience coaching his son's youth team in 2012 and dealing with youth soccer parents in this country — saying it’s ‘problematic’ for soccer in this country:

“It was a typical weekend youth tournament, with two games on a Saturday, another on Sunday morning and possibly a final that afternoon. As such, he decided to spread out the playing time on Saturday and make sure every kid started at least one game. That didn't sit well with one parent.

"In between games, I had a mom go ballistic on me because her son didn't start in the game," said Hackworth, now the director of coaching with MLS expansion side St. Louis City SC. "Another kid, who she didn't feel was as good as her kid, started on that first game on that Saturday morning."

All of this happened at the under-11 level, but Hackworth encountered similar behavior at even younger age groups.
"You would think that I had no clue what I was doing, and all these people wanted me to coach because they knew I [coached professionally]. And yet at the same time, whatever it was that I did, that they didn't agree with ... some of the communication was just outrageous. So I do think it's commonplace in this country, and the reality is that it is problematic."

(via Jeff Carlisle/ESPN)

Always!