Sarah is in her 4th summer of soccer this year.

She's doing really well compared to her past years but I'm just so frustrated.
#1, we're at the mercy of the volunteer coach that she gets assigned to. I'd say 1/2 the coaches are pretty illprepared and of those1/4 are just downright bad coaches.
Sarah's coach this year isn't bad, but she's not good either.

#2, we're at the mercy of the other kids and parents on the team.

this year, there were 9 girls signed up on her team. There are to be 5 girls on the field to play. Right off the bat, 2 girls quit (they were friends) which left us down to 7 girls. Only 6 have been showing up to each game the past several games which means the poor kids have to run just about the entire game with very few breaks inbetween.
Last night's game - we had to forefit the game because there were only 3 girls ready to play at the start. We played an unofficial game with borrowed girls from the other team and 'sisters'.
Trickling in.... came 2 of our team girls but what gives?
one was 20 minutes to a game and the other didn't make it until after 1/2 time!!!


And I have to say that Andrew's coach isn't much better. She's late to every game (yes, I had to start the game with the kids last week because the coach nor the assistant coach had shown up on time.)
she's forgotten the t-shirts for the other teammates (long story but it took her 3 weeks to 'remember' to bring the game shirts)
and the things they're teaching the kids in practice just don't cut it. ... sigh...

and I know I shouldn't be complaining because I'm not willing to get out there and volunteer to be coach. But DANG IT!!
Its totally irritating to know that I really honestly could do it so much better. (if only I had the time)

I know how you feel. We've had AWESOME coaches and then coaches that you just wonder why they even bothered. I have a feeling I'll be coaching Kaitlyn's team this year. I'm always involved in eveything the girls do and I drew the line at soccer b/c I couldn't handle anything else. I'm hoping Julia's soccer team has coaches move up with them to the next level.
On the level of parents, something needs to be said. They joined a TEAM sport and they need to be there for games because there isn't a TEAM without them.
I hope it gets better for you. Julia never really realized when she had a bad coach for some reason but you can tell the difference when they would play games and got their butts kicked. This is the first season we'll be keeping score so I'm thinking it won't be that easy to hide anymore.
I hope your kids are at least having fun even though it's frustrating for you.

We had a similar problem with soccer this spring for Abigail. It's really frustrating to put the effort into it and have other people not give the same consideration.

so now they're down to the minimum 5 girls.

we only have one more game (this Thursday) but this past thursday, it was 102 outside and the kids had to borrow girls from the other team again. That meant they had to run the ENTIRE time because there were no substitutes in 102 degree heat.
I actually felt sorry for them