The RUNNER-UP for Soccer Environments

For the third edition of my rankings of soccer environments that I have played in, I will be discussing a small private high school. This is the second-best experience with soccer I have ever had. As always, it will be ranked on atmosphere, schedule, coaches, teammates, training sessions, facilities, and the level of competition.

               Right off the bat, or foot I guess, is the atmosphere of a small Christian private school. To put it simply, it was great. There was a competitive air about it, but there were many players that were there for recreation and casual play. Similar to the public school, there was a mix of guys who were looking to play college soccer, and some who are looking for time outside the house. But unlike the public school, every player had a competitive drive that took over in high pressure situations. One of the most important and valuable things of the team, however, was the fact that it felt like a family. I felt like I was going to war with my brothers every time I stepped on that field. I had a good group that pushed each other to be better every day. We focused on building each other up and supporting each other. With that said, though, it made it more difficult to criticize others because they tended to take it personally.

               One major aspect was the cost. Private school is already expensive, but they also charged a fee to play a sport.

               The schedule was like the public school as well. We trained every day, unless we had a game, which were spaced well apart. What was interesting, though, was the fact that we did not have any games scheduled for Wednesdays. Instead, we would have a practice that was only an hour, as opposed to the typical two. This was to allow people to make it to Wednesday night youth events or church services that they had.

               The coaches were great. I had some problems with my coach freshman year due to coach's son problems, but he stepped down the next year and the coach that replaced him was the best coach I’ve ever had. He was incredibly knowledgeable and communicated well. He turned a team of players that were not the best in individual skill into a team that could compete at a relatively high level. He had great training sessions that were filled with lots of intensity.

               Speaking of competition, the level of play was low. It wasn’t the best soccer; however, the interesting thing was that the teams that we played were very similar in skill to us most of the time. It made for a lot of good games that made for interesting watches.

               The facilities were good. We had one field to train and play on, which caused us to tear our field up sometimes, but it was a good field with good goals. The gym was small, and we didn’t use it.

               Overall, a great experience playing at a small private school due to the family feel and the great coaching. The setbacks were outweighed by the pros, but it was not good enough to beat out my final option, which I will discuss in the next post. See ya then.

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