Johnson County Park & Recreation District
Soccer is played in Ireland in the former British garrison towns of Dublin, Cork, Dundalk, Gortahork and Limavady. Oh, and Sligo.
Last week somebody sent me an email with a brochure showing Johnson County in Kansas with a proposed park of 167 or some other obscene number of pitches - for the kids. Am I in favour? No.
I like soccer. I’ve been to thousands of games in England and Ireland, at club, International, all-age levels, World Cup finals, European competitions, Olympic games, and even the MLS. And football being a winter sport, usually in the cold, and often the rain.
But there’s a reason soccer is the most popular game on the planet; all you need is something round and a surface. You don’t need money.
Growing up in Dublin we played on concrete and asphalt; we played on scattered broken glass more than we played on grass. We played with a tennis ball. We played with a bunch of socks rolled up and taped together. Round things roll when kicked.
Have you ever seen Ronaldo, Gasgoigne, Maradona, Ronaldinho, Rooney, Pele, or George Best, smile? None of them learned the joy of football playing on grass, let alone perfect pitches in recreation parks.
In Kansas City I have seen three-year olds being given leather footballs that professional men use. Kicking things is supposed to be fun. Kicking a hard leather football, when you’re a little kid, isn’t.
What Little Kids Don’t Need to Play Soccer
• Organized leagues
• Full size 5 regulation leather footballs
• Leather footballs
• Nets in goals
• Goalposts
• A bunch of parents at every training session
• Training sessions
• Team jerseys
• Dressing rooms
• Screaming parents at games
• Expensive replica kits
• Oranges at half-time
• Eight footballs to practice with
• A Win-Loss record
• Two referees
• A Referee
• An analysis of their physical, social and psychological needs
What Little Kids Do Need to Play Soccer
• To be let be kids.
They don’t need your structure, your fuss, or your direction; they don’t even need you to give them a ball.
Kids can pick their own teams, and then correct them if they’re unbalanced. Unless the unbalance is fun for all involved. They can intuitively work out what’s a good size area to play for the number of people playing. They can decide what consitutes goalposts, and that goal sizes need not be equal. And they can referee themselves because they realize there is no game if they don’t.
And if little Johnny or Jenny is alienated? Well maybe they’re the ones doing the alienating and they’d be happier inside reading a book.
I’m voting NO. Well okay I’m not, but only because I don’t live in Kansas and I don’t have a vote.
See Also:
• Seats at the Half-way Line
• Meeting Maradona in Ireland
• Munster Catechism of Sporting Cliche
• Reason to Leave Ireland #162
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