Left out

[Theoldashtree]

One of my sons coaches (off his own back nothing to do with the club) paid and invited 8 of the team including his son to play in a tournament at a premier league ground as a treat leaving my son and 1 other out.
All the boys were obviously really excited and talking about it so my son and the other knew they were the only 2 not invited. This also meant the tournament the team should have been playing in had to be cancelled because of no players so my son wasn’t able to do this either. Would you be annoyed or am I overacting? 💔

That sounds incredibly unfair to your son and the other boy. Have they given a reason as to why they were left out? I’d definitely be questioning this, especially as this affected your son’s other tournament.

That's absolutely awful what the hell is the coach thinking?? I would be so angry about this.

I’d be annoyed, it’s nasty to leave two out and it impacted on the club. Is there any one you can speak to?

Is there any chance that there’s a reasonable explanation? Like the other boys are all at in the same class at school whilst your DS and the other boy are at a totally different school so it was actually a school mates outing that unfortunately happened to clash. If not though I’d be so angry as it’s horribly unfair not just to exclude 2 boys but also to forfeit the tournament as a result. Is there someone higher up at the club that you can speak to?

It depends. Tournaments will have a max number of players per team that can enter, presumably this one was 8. If there aren't enough players at the club to enter 2 teams or only one team allowed per club, then players will get left out. Some tournaments also specify whether you enter a mixed ability team or your best team. It is definitely harsh on the kids who get left out but this kind of thing is very difficult for coaches to balance out totally fairly.

It has happened to my son (though thankfully nothing as exciting as a Premiership ground) because he wasn't in the A team. I just explained that it's a competitive club, he wanted join them because of that and this is the downside.

Was it a limited numbers thing?

What’s the other parent said?

Thank you all. Xx