Why don't middle schools have soccer programs?

I'm sure that there may be some out there that do, but Mesquite doesn't.  Anybody know of a reason why they don't have soccer programs in the middle school systems.  You would think that it would help our age group improve through additional coaching and touches on the ball.  I assume it is because they have limited money and prefer to put it on football and basketball.  Just figured it was too quiet on here.  

Likely its that it would take an additional resource. To hire a coach to just coach soccer isn't practical to a lot of administrators. What's sad, is Mesquite ISD has a huge amount of schools and more than enough students to fill soccer, football, and basketball effectively with a talent pool that would only help the senior schools. Think of the money the high schools would get by winning more state championships, etc. Hello Plano, Richardson, Lewisville, and others...

Private schools have programs

I spoke to an AD about this issue a few years ago, and there were 3 significant issues that cause districts to turn away from it...

1) Any money they use to pay for refs, uniforms, coaches, busses etc. is coming from somewhere. With state funding cut, the funds are just not there...

2) Finding A person who will coach can be done, but finding a true soccer coach who teaches a specific subject is difficult-which leads to the third issue...

3) Where is your kid gonna learn soccer-from his history teacher or the guy you pay $3K to? And which team takes precedence? And when that coach told your kiddo to do something "wrong"...per your paid coach??

The districts that do play typically have a 1 month season, and it a total crapshoot as to who coaches the kids (level of soccer knowledge), how playing time is distributed (play top kids or play all 20-25?). I definitely understood his perspective when we spoke. He wasn't dismissive, but the headache involved was going to be massive on the front end (developing positions and schedules) and throughout (monitoring programs, assigning refs, etc.).

At a certain point, even as a serious soccer nut, I would find it difficult to support a program that used a "coach" who had NO idea what to do...who put my kids in injury jeopardy because they practiced/played against players with little skill that weren't going to get much better with said coach, and created constant conflicts with the team I pay for. I went into the conversation thinking we should have those teams, but came away with real reservations about how smart it was to divert funds into those programs...

Our school district has it.  I remember the first year they were amazed that over 80 boys showed up.  They were expecting to have a hard time making a team!

LISD has a soccer season in April-May. The schools forst play three or four games and then they do a kind of championship of three days. the level is pathetic. most middle school coaches are football coaches and have no clue of what soccer is. it's a total waste of time.

That's how my wife's high school team was.  They put an assistant football coach over the girls soccer team.  He came out to first practice and asked the girls what the rules were.  My BB is signed up for football because he wants to do something other than PE.  I just worry about injury, I keep trying to talk him into trying out for kicker.

Beast_04 wrote:I'm sure that there may be some out there that do, but Mesquite doesn't.  Anybody know of a reason why they don't have soccer programs in the middle school systems.  You would think that it would help our age group improve through additional coaching and touches on the ball.  I assume it is because they have limited money and prefer to put it on football and basketball.  Just figured it was too quiet on here.  

Frisco and Lovejoy do. McKinney and Plano do not. The former have newer schools with very nice tracks/football/soccer fields while the latter are older.

Charter Schools do have a MS soccer program - not all though. Rules are not as tight, saw a HS girl in one school play for the middle school because they did not have a HS team (This charter school runs from K-12th).

And they also play for state!

Longview ISD does.

Beast_04 wrote: I just worry about injury, I keep trying to talk him into trying out for kicker.

My BB goes to Arlington ISD and this is their first year to have a Middle School soccer program.
Beast, I worry about the same things and even said the exact same thing to my son about the kicker position.  It's rare that you see a decent kicker in Middle/Junior High School.
I keep telling myself that he will just get additional touches on the ball that I'm already paying school tax for anyways.  Another concern I have would be that less skilled player may be more prone to play dirty against a skilled player out of frustration of getting owned during 50/50 and one on one situations a large percentage of the time.  I guess we'll see in May when season rolls around.

striker11 wrote:

Beast_04 wrote: I just worry about injury, I keep trying to talk him into trying out for kicker.

My BB goes to Arlington ISD and this is their first year to have a Middle School soccer program.
Beast, I worry about the same things and even said the exact same thing to my son about the kicker position.  It's rare that you see a decent kicker in Middle/Junior High School.
I keep telling myself that he will just get additional touches on the ball that I'm already paying school tax for anyways.  Another concern I have would be that less skilled player may be more prone to play dirty against a skilled player out of frustration of getting owned during 50/50 and one on one situations a large percentage of the time.  I guess we'll see in May when season rolls around.

playing dirty can be dealt with! bigger concern is the clumsy challenge from less skilled players. BUT YES MORE TOUCHES EQUALS GOOD

For what I saw when I watched my son play, the more skilled players don't get more touches when they play with less skilled players. they actually get less touches as the ball is lost in the mess and they may never get close to it! and the pace is so slow that it is not worth even going to watch the games ... HS soccer is supposed to be better as the pool of players is larger and several schools have very good soccer coaches that motivate good players to show up and play.

Laroja_2012 wrote:For what I saw when I watched my son play, the more skilled players don't get more touches when they play with less skilled players. they actually get less touches as the ball is lost in the mess and they may never get close to it! and the pace is so slow that it is not worth even going to watch the games ... HS soccer is supposed to be better as the pool of players is larger and several schools have very good soccer coaches that motivate good players to show up and play.

as with DA, PA, Classic, high school is an opportunity to get more touches during practice. the game is not where the results come from........

You are right, he did get more touches during practice. but forget about the games!

Can not complain. My son is a GK, and playing HS Soccer at Charter school he got more shots at him in one game (or sometimes in one half) than in the whole season.

He is at a smaller charter school, so less player in the pool compared to the bigger ones.