I’m one of 8 or so coaches at an U7 team of 30+ kids. Now that they’re U7, we’re starting to play league games and the club has told us we need to split into two teams.
At U6, we divided the team for training each week based on abilities. Some kids have been playing since they were 3, others were kicking a ball for the first time. The difference in ability was night and day so splitting made sense.
This year, when registering the team for the league, we’ve kept the same arrangement; split based on ability. Now, there are some in both groups that are certainly comparable, but a line had to be drawn somewhere.
The logic behind this was due to some of the players in the developing team literally playing one hour per week and being so far apart ability-wise from some of the top players that playing them together seemed unfair.
Now the season has started, we’re getting complaints from the parents (who were already informed of how the groups would be divided at the end of last season), about how they feel their kid should a) be in a different group with their friends, b) groups should be completely mixed and c) concerns about what will happen this season if and when the developing team plays matches and get battered each week (which is a real possibility).
As coaches, we can say as much as we want that the result doesn’t matter, but the kids don’t see it that way.
It’s too late for us to change without incurring costs and most of the coaches are still happy with the way it’s split.
Just looking for some advice on what we should do if others have experienced this?
