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“Wrong-o. These policies are already in place all over America. They were here ten years ago in Oregon.”

I'm coaching an under ten year old girls team in a Southern state and it's about the same here. For the little ones it's supposed to be about fun and learning the game and not so much about competition. They know whether they win their games or not obviously but at the tournaments they don't really rank the teams. Everybody gets medals usually. I don't know that it's all that horrible to do it this way. There is still definitely a component of competition, but it's not all about the competition. Some teams are just going to be a lot better than other teams because at the younger age you're going to have some kids who are far advanced over others in skill and knowledge about the game, and basic motor skills for that matter. Were still teaching them the fundamentals. Some have played a few years and some are there for the first time playing any sport because their parents just wanted them to try something like that out. We're supposed to give them all fairly equal time playing and try not to be too hard on them or make it all about winning or loosing. This year by the luck of the draw we got some really good girls on our team, won our last game 8 to 1 even though we kept our best strikers playing back as much as possible. Honestly I don't like to win by that much because I know how my daughter felt when her team would get beaten that badly before when she wasn't lucky enough playing with others who really shine. I used to think it was stupid to de-emphasize the competitive aspect but I'm starting to get converted a little because there is still plenty of competitiveness but not so much that we are discouraging kids who are still just learning about the game. We switch the teams up every season and some of the kids that come from the teams that never won will end up being just awesome when they get to play with better players.