Money for Goals

While running down the soccer field with my team, the girls were having fun laughing, kicking, and then scoring!  Our team scored!  On the way back to our side of the field, the girl that scored shouted over to her Mom "You owe me a dollar!"  I looked at her and I said "Your Mom pays you to score?"  And she said "Yep." 
As a coach, it is my "volunteer responsibility" to make sure the kids know skills, how to dribble, throw ins, goal kicks, and sportsmanship.  Sadly, I cannot teach them sportsmanship when the majority of parents think that soccer is an individual sport and think that their kid is the "best in the world" if they score a goal.  On our second day of practice I said to the girls after our scrimmage "That was great that _______ scored.  Did she do that on her own or did you do it as a team."  And a few of the girls answered "On her own"  Now they are 6 and don't really know any better but soccer does not happen with one player.  Of course you can have one really good player on a team, or even two or three. The point is that as parents we need to encourage the players as a team and teach our children to compete against the other team not their own team.  It's not all about the goals... soccer is about teamwork, skills,  building character, defending, supporting, and having fun!