Question: Dear Jonathan,
My son is a subscriber to your list. He is a sophomore in high school.He missed his freshman year due to a torn acl. He worked hard over the summer and made his high school varsity this spring. He had several good games and then was pulled in the third game for a freshman goalie. The coaches initially told him that he and the other goalie would rotate halves which they did for several games.
At one game the other goalie was playing very well and they decided not to put John in for the second half. Since then the other goalie has played all of the games except for the second half of one game which was blow out. The coaches never gave him any explanation why he lost his position or is not playing..
The other going goalie is a good player. He is a freshman. John has always wanted to play goal and has done so since the sixth grade and he sees his next two years as potentially a backup.
I know it is extremely frustrating for him. He will play goalie for a select team this summer. Should he look at learning another position as backup to being a goalie so he at least get some playing time? He is a good athlete who is in an excellent shape and works out five days a week during the off season.
I apologize for the long e-mail but any advice you could provide would be greatly appreciated.
Thank your consideration of my request.
Sincerely,
(name witheld)
Answer: Hey there. Thanks for writing. I actually had this exact question from a parent in California recently so it’s pretty fresh in my mind. I’m actually going to polish off an article that I will send to you on this exact topic.
The short answer is: yes.
I was a pretty impatient kid. I hated sitting around. And by my freshman year I turned into a pretty good athlete. If I ever split time with a goalie I usually picked up a long pole and played longstick middie because I liked to score. (Enough of getting shot on. I wanted to inflict my own damage.)
But all in all I hated sitting, or backing up, when I wasn’t in the cage. I’ve written about how to make the most of not being in the cage, but in the end NOT being in the cage sucks. Plain and simple.
About the coach issue. That is unfortunate. And I hate to tell you that I don’t have a real answer for you. There is no easy answer there as I can’t speak for the coach.
Now should your son play another position because you feel the coach has something against him? I’m not one to back down to a challenge. You’re going to have to play that one by ear and be brutally honest with yourself over the situation.
Should your son take up a different position just in case the coach is a jerk and you don’t think he is going to play goal for this guy again? Maybe. I would take the attitude of maximizing practice time. If he is a good athlete he can play anywhere. I was, so I know how that goes. I actually played attack my senior year on the man up. They’d pull me. Put in the back up, and give me a short stick to play up top as a middie.
Now your son loves the position and that counts for a lot. I would highly recommend he goes to camp this summer as a goalie. His goal would be to be so darned good that he comes into school next spring and is THE dominant goalie. One thing I learned in sports is that if you are not far and away the best at your position you leave yourself up to weird coaches with odd agendas. So because your son loves the position and he is only a freshman he has plenty of time to be good.
I hope you take this experience as a good one. You can look at it and be pissed at the coach, or you (and your son) can look at it like this: There is obviously something this coach has doubts in about your sons play. The goal here is to look extremely critically at your sons play (this can be soooo hard as a parent and a player. You need to really step back and look from a distance. This called the “your baby is ugly” critique). In my goalie critiques I deal with this on an almost daily basis. Kids think they are a stud and I can pick them apart. It’s just an objective third person to look at his game. You will also get that if he goes to camp this summer, hopefully.
So I hope that helps. Let me know if you want me to expand anything.
All the best,
Jonathan –
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