Times are tough

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I'm a Boys under 14 soccer coach in the town I live in. My team is for the not so athletically gifted players. We are a travel team, but we play in the recreation division so it isn't as cut-thoat as the competive divsions. Of course this means that sometimes there are horrible mismatches as some teams have more talent then others. I have always found this interesting. In the competitive divsions most games are won by at most two goals. In recreation, it isn't uncommon to find one team win by double digit goals.

I am also on the board of directors of our town soccer club. This gives me a fair amount of input and knowledge on the inner workings of our club and the regional governing body we belong to.

Enough with the background, here is the story I wanted to tell.

In the fall season of 2008 I had a home game and while we were warming up a kid came up to me and said he wanted to play. Well, that isn't allowed as he wasn't registered and didn't have a uniform. I talked to him a bit and found out he was the proper age to be on my team, so I explained to him on how to register for the spring 2009 season. Well the deadline to register for the spring was 12/15/08 and I didn't see him registered. So, I contacted some of the parents on my team whose boys are friendly with him to find out what was going on. I didn't have much luck.

Well yesterday the kid calls me at the office. I have no idea how he got my number, but I was glad to hear from him as I love to promote the game and introduce it to new kids. He tells me that he registered online and paid the late fee, but he wanted to know how to get a uniform and how much they were. I told him that he was supposed to order it over the website and I believe they are $60. There was a moment of silence and he tells me that he didn't have any more money. I asked him what he meant. He then said he spent all of his Christmas money and the money he made shoveling snow this winter to register for the spring season.

Well, I have to tell you, my heart damn near broke. During our entire conversation he was translating what I was saying to other people in the room with him and vice versa to me what his sister was saying. I say sister as I have since come to find out he is living with his older sister and there aren't any parents involved.

This is where being well connected is crucial. I told him not to worry about it and I would take care of it. I then filled him in as best as I could as to our schedule, etc. After I got off the phone with him it took me a few minutes to calm down and start the ball rolling. I will be damned if this kid doesn't get his registration fee and late fee refunded to him and a free uniform to boot.

The town I live in is a rich suburb of Boston. It may not be the richest of the suburbs, but the people do quite well for themselves. I have always known there are people in the town who are not that well off, as our Boy Scout Troop is always raising food donations for the local food pantry, but this was my first actual experience with it. A thirteen year old shouldn't have to deal with this. Thank God he had the confidence to track me down.

Next, I have to figure out if he as any idea how to play or skills. I believe he is South American so maybe he knows more about the game then I do. I can only hope

 

I believe registration is $80 per season and I'm guessing the late fee was probably 10-20 dollars.

I've been getting e-mails from my fellow members of the board of directors and it looks like the general consensus is to waive all fees and provide a uniform. The only concern is if we are allowed to do so. We may have to pass a bylaw as it appears there is nothing in our governing document allowing us to do so.

 

The only problem I see with waiving the fees and giving him a uniform is the precedent you'd be setting. And good luck working that into a bylaw change - there would have to be a discretionary aspect that would just be ripe for abuse.

It would probalbly be easier just to raise funds to buy him a uniform. While refunding the fees would be a nice gesture, I think the fact that he was willing to pay them in the first place shows that he isn't looking for a handout, and refunding them might put an idea in his head that he should expect a handout.

In any event, kudos to you for trying to help him out, Snook.

 

The lower the financial threshold is, the more people will want to join the team. I work with homeless youths often, and there's this one kid who is also trying to become a professional (european) football player. At 17 he's already training kids, and working actively in his club. I wonder what he's even doing at a homeless centre, he's worlds apart from the emotional wrecks I see there. I have no qualms about giving him preferential treatment, because I know he won't abuse it, he needs all the help he can get, and he's definitely gonna make something of himself. He's really nice, clean and considerate to boot, I'm gonna miss him when he gets an apartment.

 

Who would have thought that the Snook had a heart. Sounds rather expensive to play football in your parts, when I played football as a kid I had to buy my own shoes and whatever clothes I wanted to train in. The club supplied the uniforms for the games. I think the member fee translated into todays currency would be around 30$ or so a year. We were pressganged into various fundraisers for the club though, lotteryticket selling, standing in stands during market days and other boring stuff.

 

Our first game of the season is this Saturday. I may have to start a new thread about the team.