How to Make a Team in Three Easy Steps

Soccer Tryouts - Photo by SGFsoccer.com

First, there really is no easy way to make a team unless you have a combination of attributes a coach, scout, or manager is looking for. A lot of parents ask the question, “how does my child catch the eye of a coach or scout, and what can they do to make a team?”

In essence, it’s different for every team, every coach and every sport. Talking with a number of coaches and scouts across Ontario, I’ve come up with the big three things most coaches and scouts look for at all levels of sport – skill, compete level, and yes, parents.

Skill – Without a doubt if you don’t have the skills to participate at a certain level, you won’t make the team. In hockey, skating and puck control are huge. If you can’t skate, you can’t play, period. If your child is consistently being cut, focus on skating, a coach might take a great skater for a role and work on developing the rest. In all sports – ball control in basketball or soccer, tackling and catching in football, passing and spikes in volleyball – skills are crucial. And believe it or not, skill doesn’t come as simple God given talent. Skill takes thousands of hours (most experts agree on the number, ten thousand) to develop.

Skill can definitely catch a coach’s eye, so if you have young kids, lock away the video games and give them a ball, it will change the rest of their lives. But as we all know, just because a player is highly skilled, doesn’t mean they’ll perform well.

Compete Level – In simple terms, compete level is how hard someone is willing to work. A less skilled player might score more goals simply because they work harder than someone that has a full toolbox of skills. Will you take a hit to make a block, or get a puck out, will you sprint back the court to play defense, will you run through first base even if you think you’ll be thrown out? It’s simple, to get noticed, you need to be competing every second of every game, and that starts with mental focus. I tell my players, if you don’t feel you’re engaged in the play, get off the ice, because you’ll help the team more by sitting on the bench.

Compete level is, for the most part, something you can’t teach. It’s the intrinsic drive to win. In hockey, I call it “my puck syndrome.” I want the player that always wants the puck. They will back check ferociously, take a hit to make a play, block a shot with their face, and is continuously moving their legs. After skill, or perhaps hand in hand with skill, compete level is a box every scout and coach wants to check.

Parents – Funny, you can have a skilled player, and one that competes hard, but a bad, nosey, annoying, or loud parent, can ruin it all. You think I’m joking? I guarantee you, scouts at high levels, meaning beyond Chatham-Kent, want to know what a parent is like. I’ve seen a player get crossed off a list because mommy stood 40 feet from a dressing room to give her little Billy an apple and water after the game.

When your child hits their teenage years, a parent’s role at a sports game is to drive them to the game, sit in the stands with a Timmies in hand, clap, and drive them home. You approaching a coach or scout is not helping, ever, at all, in the slightest.

You don’t have to believe me, but if you ever hear yourself saying something like, “I don’t know why Sally got cut from the team. I spoke to the coach after every tryout and he said he loved her skill and how competitive she was.” Ok, good skill? Check. Compete level? Check. Annoying parent who the coach doesn’t want to deal with all year? Check.

Work hard to develop skills, give kids the opportunities to play, encourage them to compete and be fierce at all times, and be a silent supporter. It’s not a math equation or a simple science. Picking a team is difficult and mistakes happen. Whether your child is trying out for tyke lacrosse, or the OHL, these three factors are always there.

So how do you make the team in three easy steps? 1. Practice your skills every day. If you aren’t practicing every day, for more than an hour, you’re not doing enough. 2. Compete all the time. Never give up on a play, be willing to sacrifice, and win every battle. 3. Tell your parents you love them before you get out of the car, and tell them you don’t want to see them again until you get back into the car. There’s your three easy steps.

Let the games begin.