A soccer player trying out for a new club should tell their current coach directly and ask for a written development plan. Coaches often feel betrayed because roster size affects their pay, but transparency gives them a chance to support the move instead of resenting it.
How do you try out for another club team without pissing off your current club team? Transparency is always the name of the game. We pretty much never recommend that you would secretly go try out for another team. Now remember, this is your life, it is not your coach's life. So your coaches, you have to make sure they have their best interests in mind, and sometimes they don't have your best interest, they have their own. So they may say to you, if you go try out for another team, you'll never be welcomed at our club again, which is pretty unreasonable. At the end of the day, we're all trying to play for have fun and play soccer. But that's how these coaches can be, because they kind of feel betrayed, and they're like, why are you leaving? We put so much energy into you, and you're a good player, and I don't want you to leave. It's usually from, you know, the fact that they like you. They also get paid a little bit more based on how many players they have on their roster sometimes, especially if they brought the player in. Sometimes the clubs will give them a bonus. So you leaving literally could hurt their livelihood. So when you're gonna leave, it's best to be transparent and say, look, I love this team, but you "You know, my goal is to play at the Division I level," or, "I've been told this," and they may come back and say to you, "No, no, no, we can help you." And then if you sit down and say, "Look, I want a plan. Write out a plan for me on how you're going to help me play college soccer." And if they write you a good plan, maybe don't leave. But if you feel like they're not going to be able to help you every day and the coach is still, you know, frustrated that you're going to leave, then just be very transparent. You say, "Look, coach, I am going to try out for these other teams. I don't know if I'm going to make it. I really like being with you." and I'd like to stay. And as long as it comes from the athlete and not the parents, the coaches are 99% reasonable to go, look, good for the kid, he wants to play at a higher level. I used to want to play at a higher level when I was his age. If you want more help, give me a call, link's in the bio. Bye.
