My kid announced her desire to play in goal at U8. From U8-U10 she split time with another keeper and continued to play on the field. She became the only keeper on her team at U11 and that held through U16. We’re currently in the process of changing teams and she’ll be one of at least two anywhere she decides to go. We believe the built in competition and camaraderie will be good for her.
Through her younger years, we constantly asked her coach to try to add a second keeper. It’s a great deal of pressure for the whole family to be the only one, no matter what is going on with school commitments, family commitments, or injuries. We’ve scheduled vacations around tournaments, left a National Cup game and changed in the car for prom, and played through more sprains, strains, and pulled muscles than I can count, with nothing but crossed fingers and layers of tape. It used to make me both proud and pissed off to have my kid in goal with a badly pulled quad or sprained ankle, while a field player was missing for their cousin’s friend’s dog’s birthday party.
ETA, she was very disappointed when HS started, because she was hoping for a second keeper and some field time. Though she can’t hang on her club team on the field anymore, she would be a mid-level player on her HS team. Unfortunately, she wound up being the only keeper there as well. Sigh.
Same experience here. Last year, he played regardless of circumstances, even with a pulled muscle, a twerked finger, or cold. Only times he didn't was in an early game where he had a 102 fever (we drew the line there)....coach put in the alternate (who was the lead striker): bad for them (our offense which was built around the kid collapsed), bad for my son (alternate is superathletic and did a great job leading to the kids to make comparisons), bad for the striker (who blamed himself for losing the game anyways); and at one game near the season end where both the striker and son went out (you can imagine how that game went). I'm sure nobody would have told him he should play injured (not me, the coaches, the other parents or the kids)....still the pressure was there to not let everyone down. That's why we were so happy another goalkeeper came on board (as we had been requesting)...the weight wouldn't be all on his shoulders.... but sadly they didn't manage that well at all.
At his new team, it looks like he will be the lead/only GK so we'll be dealing with that again and I'm already altering summer plans to make sure we are here for the tournaments.