This is an interesting post because it got me to thinking about the arrogance of club soccer. Many of these coaches, when they're not nailing a player's divorced mom or selling merch out of the trunk, come off as pretty dismissive of parents. In some ways we do that to ourselves. To your point, you want a coach that develops. I think all of us would agree on that. Yet what do the parents, especially of younger teams, want all the time? Wins. Those are the parents that yell, call, email and otherwise make a good coach lose his or her mind. It's a bit of a self inflicted wound. Maybe some of these prima donnas aren't 100% to blame for their behavior. That shit gets old as a parent. Imagine a good coach dealing with it year after year.
I played the game from my youth, and coached (w)rec(k) level teams when they needed a coach, so in many ways parents were just glad they had someone that knew the game and showed up so the kid could play. I never coached a high level club team and deal with parents... with or without a large checkbook. You bring up a ton of valid points... like play for development, play in good chemistry environments if you can because toxic teams kill, ignore the Jones family and their hiring of special coaches, screaming at games, buying expensive cleats, college recruiting services, D1s, etc.
In the end, there has to be a passion for the game. Most of these kids become great because of passion, work ethic and good coaches. Not all the other bullshit.
Oh my gosh, the hell I took was insane. I was helping a Doc that needed goals to save his job most of the time.
