What makes the Carr System special?

Let more kids play through increased access.

Most families, approximately 70%, cannot afford the financial burden required to play soccer in America.  We never turn a player away because of money thanks to our community support through the Let Them Play Foundation.

Keep more kids playing through increased positive experiences. 

Why do 80% of kids quit the game by age 12?

The Pressure to win big for “The Club” – typical scenario for Club coaches looks something like this: 

A Club Coach of a 5 to 11 year old team tries to beat other teams as soundly as possible so that they can prove they are worth the money the parents are paying them and so after the game they can approach parents on the other team and tell them how much better their child would be at their Club. This Club Coach feels pressure to win at early ages and win big so they can attract the perceived best players to their club for the purpose of trophy hunting and for their own financial security of having more players in “The Club”. 

The effects of repeating this process over and over and then playing up an age group to beat older kids or beating boys with an all girls team results in most of the players on the teams they beat feel inadequate and end up leaving the sport because they feel, and their parents feel that they don’t like soccer and they have no future in it. 

If you remove the pressure to “Win at All Costs” because there is no recruiting in the league then a better educational environment is created. Winning is deemphasized and true development of every player becomes the focus not the score. This is accomplished with our Preparatory League that is school based and therefore movement from one team to another is eliminated. 

Let all young players have an equal opportunity to learn. 

Here is another typical scenario in youth soccer:

The Club coach has successfully gathered most of the best 7-11 year olds onto his team by recruiting and has beaten all the other teams, which causes most kids in that age group to quit. Within his team are a lot of good players, but because winning at all costs is still the priority some of the players will now be asked to play only one certain position and some may only play a half or less of each game. Some are never given the opportunity to play in the middle of the field or have a leadership role because even though they are in the top 10% of all players in their community they are in the bottom half of the peers on their team. They get fewer opportunities to learn and become less confident in themselves thus enjoying soccer less and become more likely to choose a different activity that they enjoy more or feel more confident with. 

The best player at 8 is almost never the best at 18 and grouping the best 8 year olds together significantly diminishes the potential learning for all players. The Preparatory League allows all players the opportunity to learn because it does not eliminate players by grouping the early developers together.  

To become better at soccer it is best to practice and play soccer.

Lets continue our Club team scenario from above:

Since the Club team has now beaten all the local teams in their age group and the age group above them they naturally feel they need to travel to play in tournaments and even leagues in different cities. They say to a parent things like “In order for your child to develop they have to play against the best competition, and our Club plays against the best in the nation”. Or “If your child wants to play in College then they need to travel to the best tournaments in the country.”  So now the team at 10 years old and sometimes younger is traveling hours from their local community multiple times in a season to play. 

This obviously requires lots of time and money. Time spent traveling instead of training and money spent outside their community that could have been invested in a college fund. The added burden of time and money often drives even more players away from soccer. The Preparatory League retains more players in every age group to create a high quality and spirited local league where the players can be on the field training, playing and improving while saving their money for other worthy causes.