Softball vs Soccer people.

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Aug 27, 2019
640
93
Lakewood CA.
This may be an odd topic but what the heck. My oldest (17) is a TB player and my youngest (13) is a club soccer player.
I wanted to make an observation. Compared to softball families soccer people are freaking crazy. Full disclosure I'm also a soccer ref.

Just comparing the civility between this forum and the soccer forum I frequent it is night and day. Don't get me wrong there are a lot of cool people at the soccer forum but there are also a TON of A-Holes. And here the vast majority are cool and the jerks are few and far between.

Is the reason because soccer is a bit more popular at this age level and the possibility for play (especially for boys) beyond collage a factor? Am i just imagining things?

I know softball have people that get crazy and yell at umps but it is taken to a whole different level in youth soccer. Club soccer is a HUGE business.
 
Apr 16, 2013
1,113
83
I've never been around the soccer scene, neither of my kids ever played. I might have just missed it, but here in NC, I see soccer academies but a lot more softball/baseball. My most local town just created a high end soccer complex, trying to cash in on the sports travel $. When I saw those super nice LED lights going in, I thought we were about to get a super sweet set of local 'ball fields. Imagine my disappointment when I found out they were for soccer! This is the first set of fields I've seen like this anywhere in my state. I'm sure they're out there, but every town seems to have a good set of 'ball fields. I'm scared of thinking that there are WORSE sports parents out there than what I'm used to!
 
Jul 29, 2013
6,782
113
North Carolina
I'll just say it......I hate soccer! I never played it, my kids have never played it, I don't understand it! Maybe me saying I hate it isn't fair.........nah I still hate it!

Our HS, it's a private Christian school, real small school. The AD there played D1 soccer :rolleyes:, so obviously it's THE only sport that matters at our school, and it's shoved down everyone's throat daily!

I helped coach a State Championship team in 2018, in 2019 we were one out away from winning back to back States and just fell short, so we were runner-up in 2019 and ranked number 2 in the State before the tournament.

During the State championship presentation in the gym in front of the entire school, the AD was standing beside me and I handed him the trophy and asked him when was varsity soccer going to be able to put one of these in the trophy case out in the lobby?? You have no idea how much his go to hell look made my day! Yeah, I hate soccer for a reason!
 
Last edited:
Mar 14, 2012
14
1
You are so right. My daughter plays High level travel soccer and the parents are insane. Way worse than baseball, softball, or basketball parents. It’s unbelievable sometimes. Soccer players have very few stats (unless you are a scorer), so everyone thinks their kid is much better than they really are.
 
Aug 27, 2019
640
93
Lakewood CA.
You are so right. My daughter plays High level travel soccer and the parents are insane. Way worse than baseball, softball, or basketball parents. It’s unbelievable sometimes. Soccer players have very few stats (unless you are a scorer), so everyone thinks their kid is much better than they really are.

That is very true.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
May 16, 2016
1,024
113
Illinois
Interesting topic.

I played soccer up to 8th grade, also played organized tackle football starting in 6th grade . Once high school started I only played football. Football and soccer were in the same season you had to make a choice. I personally never thought soccer was more popular than baseball/softball in the United States.

As far as the most obnoxious parents go, that award goes to basketball. I am not in the club soccer world. The only soccer club I even no of is the Chicago Fire organization.
 
Nov 26, 2010
4,784
113
Michigan
This may be an odd topic but what the heck. My oldest (17) is a TB player and my youngest (13) is a club soccer player.
I wanted to make an observation. Compared to softball families soccer people are freaking crazy. Full disclosure I'm also a soccer ref.

Just comparing the civility between this forum and the soccer forum I frequent it is night and day. Don't get me wrong there are a lot of cool people at the soccer forum but there are also a TON of A-Holes. And here the vast majority are cool and the jerks are few and far between.

Is the reason because soccer is a bit more popular at this age level and the possibility for play (especially for boys) beyond collage a factor? Am i just imagining things?

I know softball have people that get crazy and yell at umps but it is taken to a whole different level in youth soccer. Club soccer is a HUGE business.
This forum is unlike any other. Go to other softball forums and the jerks are allowed to run rampant.
 
May 29, 2015
3,731
113
Even though I had a daughter who played soccer in college, we never did the club scene. She didn't even start playing until her junior year of high school.

That said, I have only seen one parent kicked out of a college game and it was in soccer. You have to be a special kind of special to get kicked out of a college soccer match.

On a bit of a tangent, we saw a major exodus of girls from high school softball to high school soccer. The coaches were the major factor (softball driving girls out, soccer welcoming girls in), but from a student-athlete standpoint the girls had a better chance of playing in soccer (more positions, more opportunity, more player-friendly coach). Likewise, we saw a large jump in track numbers ... girls figured out soccer and track provided a lot of standing around time to socialize. Seriously!
 

radness

Possibilities & Opportunities!
Dec 13, 2019
7,270
113
Aside from running all the freakin time :)
At lower competitive levels
Soccer seems easier for anyone to play.
Vs
More skillsets of Softball.

Makes sense how someone mentioned not much stats for soccer players, so parents emotions have no compairison of their kids.

Agree about the positions in Soccer being more interchangable too!
Same skill sets.
 
May 22, 2015
410
28
Illinois
DD and my oldest boy both played club soccer for a few years. I agree with your observation....soccer parents can get crazy lol. I never played it growing up so I just sat in my lawn chair and watched. Parents running up and down the field barking at their kid the whole game. My kids both said they never really could here what any of the parents were yelling anyways lol.
 

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