The following is an E-mail we just received from a parent of a frustrated H.S. player in reference to the last posting about teaching good soccer.

This type of frustration is found in many H.S. programs, but it is fair to say that some of the best H.S. soccer is being played at some of our local high schools. Also, one has to remember that H.S. soccer provides a whole slew of other benefits and experiences that cannot be replicated by club soccer.

Finally, Team Chicago Academy-Jaguars & Neuqua Valley H.S. Head Coach Joe Moreau made an excellent point at last year’s panel discussion about H.S. soccer when he stated:“I don’t buy it when players tell me that they got nothing out of the experience. There is always something to be gained from playing in a different environment. It is up to each player to make sure that they get something out of each of their experiences”. Truer words have never been spoken.

Here is the E-mail we received today – edited to protect the sender’s identity.

“I hope the “off” season is treating you well and this article definitely struck a cord with XX and myself.

While X H.S. is out to a decent start, watching these games is painful beyond belief in that playing the right way does not seem to be encouraged and bad play tends to be rewarded. The first two schools that we played are considered to be a couple of the better teams in the area and they seemed to be keen on the kickball style of soccer just like us.

Perhaps this is just a High School sort of mentality to just win no matter how bad it looks, but I am hoping that when it comes to the possibility of XX playing college there are programs out there that stress playing properly?

I am concerned with the present because I can definitely see the frustration building with XX in that she knows (not that she does it all the time by any means! :-) ) what TC has taught over the past years is correct and what she is hearing now is clearly the opposite. After every game now when she hears the team being told they did well she just thinks to herself that at TC we would have been running laps if we played like that!

Any words of encouragement or thoughts would be helpful."