I guess you could call it that at least me as his super proud dad will call it that.

He’ll be 9 next month and has played outdoor for like 5 years now. For the past couple years I have tried to get him on an indoor team without any luck. Last fall got contacted by a coach that has seen him play asking if he wanted to play indoor.
So we joined up. It was a double winter season with 2 8 week sessions. 1st 8 week session came to an end and the team went 7-1-0 winning the session.
Never played in a league where they give a league MVP award and league leading goal scorer trophy so that was interesting to see. Our goalie got the league MVP and another kid got leading scorer for the league.

Now that we knew about these trophies my son said he was going to get league leading scorer for the second session. Well, for 2nd session they went 8-0 once again winning the championship for the session and sure enough my son won the league leading goal scorer trophy and their goalie got MVP again.

A couple days after the season ended our coach called and asked if my boy would want to play in a 4 week developmental mini session.
I asked the boy and he said of course. Next day coach called back letting me know there was a small caveat to the mini session and that was that the championship team is not allowed to play in the mini session and each team gets to pick a player from the championship team to play on their team for the mini session and my boy was the 1st kid a team wanted.
Kind of a weird thing but my son just likes to play and since we had a three week break before Spring outdoor was to start and it was just a game a week figured sure he still play.

Turns out if you get invited to play for another team you don’t have to pay the league fees for the mini session which is $100.

So in my eyes he got paid $25 a game for 4 games!

We just finished up the mini session and went 2-2 (this team did not win a single game in the 2 regular season sessions) so in book that was outstanding.

Then to top it all off my son got League MVP for the mini session!!!!

Sorry, for my proud dad rambling!!

You have every right to be proud. Good Job, Dad!

Congratulations Dad!

I traveled the country and parts of the world through soccer.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: PR64,

Congrats to BOTH parents for such a fine job. As long as he is happy and wants to continue playing . ........................... drill sgt.

Fantastic

The getting paid part was a bit too convoluted for me to follow but I got the important part. Great job raising the kid, great talent, and I get your excitement about not having to pay the fee. That would put a smile on my face too. You have a reason to be proud.

Naturally, you're proud, but an eight year old boy getting paid for sports? I don't understand. How in the world is that right, and what is he being taught in this respect? From this point on, when will he stop expecting to get paid?

I can't be the only here who questions this. Young people being paid for sports when it has forever been that they do it because they enjoy it. I do not understand.

quote:

I can't be the only here who questions this.

You're not.

Congratulations to you and your son.

Very cool they comp'd the fee for him.

Sounds like his participation on the team helped them to win two games. Good for that team as well.

HK Ag

quote:

Turns out if you get invited to play for another team you don’t have to pay the league fees for the mini session which is $100.

So in my eyes he got paid $25 a game for 4 games!

Much inline with Para's comment, as long as this is your issue and not an entitlement being taught to your kid, I wouldn't dwell on that too much or emphasize that to him, IMO.

quote:

Originally posted by 229DAK:

quote:

I can't be the only here who questions this.

You're not.

Most definitely not. And it’s not just about the money, what about the joy of the sport? My husband just sent me a picture yesterday of a winning team that my son may be on in the near future (with trophies, etc in front), and not one of those children were smiling or appeared happy … and these are without question, children. 10, 11 years old. Wtf.
That being said, congrats to your son - obviously he’s worked hard to get where he is. I hope he’s having fun playing the game itself!

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Naturally, you're proud, but an eight year old boy getting paid for sports? I don't understand. How in the world is that right, and what is he being taught in this respect? From this point on, when will he stop expecting to get paid?

I can't be the only here who questions this. Young people being paid for sports when it has forever been that they do it because they enjoy it. I do not understand.

I think the kid isn't getting paid. His entrance fee of $100 for the 4 games is waived because he got invited to play for one of the teams.

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Naturally, you're proud, but an eight year old boy getting paid for sports? I don't understand. How in the world is that right, and what is he being taught in this respect? From this point on, when will he stop expecting to get paid?

I can't be the only here who questions this. Young people being paid for sports when it has forever been that they do it because they enjoy it. I do not understand.

I think the kid isn't getting paid. His entrance fee of $100 for the 4 games is waived because he got invited to play for one of the teams.

Correct. The boy is not being paid. I was being facetious with the paid contract business.
It save me $100, he has no idea they waived his fee but I certainly believe he absolutely earned it.

He’ll be getting the soccer kit of his choice for an extended season well played all while maintaining all As and 1 B in school.

I would label it a little scholarship.

Congrats to him and you, Black! You deserve to be proud. Sounds like he'll become an even better athlete as he matures.

Black you're entering a slippery slope!

My oldest son was a standout in High School in VA and go recruited to a regional soccer program after his first Varsity season. Price wasn't too bad (we had to pay) but then he got invited to a National travel program that spent the whole summer season playing in Europe... When I asked how much that would cost the coach said he really didn't know but if I just gave him my credit card info they would run it all through that. That set off a red flag and I was able to talk to the parent of another kid and he told me between $40,000 and $50,000 per season depending on which countries they were visiting...

My son was disappointed but he understood that it was a ridiculous proposition.

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
When I asked how much that would cost the coach said he really didn't know but if I just gave him my credit card info they would run it all through that. That set off a red flag and I was able to talk to the parent of another kid and he told me between $40,000 and $50,000 per season depending on which countries they were visiting...

That sounds like it included room service and the hotel fridge for the coaches. I would think it's on the coaches to drive the fundraising for that kind of money.

The posts above are a huge leap.

The kids only 8 years old.

The teams that go to Europe and do tours are part of a business plan. There are grifters that I’ve seen over the decades.

I know that I traveled to Europe a couple times but we had a ton of fundraising to pay for the trips. We did a lot of crab feed’s etc where the players were the servers. I was an adult when I did the trips and it was during and after playing college ball. I never paid a dime to go.

Why all the doom and gloom…slippery slope stuff