# Soccer moms and dads

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soccer-moms-and-dads/1024508>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Tags:** football-soccer-fifa\
**Created:** [November 2, 2025, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soccer-moms-and-dads/1024508 "2025-11-02T21:26:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2025, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soccer-moms-and-dads/1024508/21 "2025-11-05T15:27:08Z")

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> [@ricepad](#):
>
> I have seen it, not just in soccer but other sports, where parents (usually but not exclusively the dad) ride the kids hard, pushing them to excel so they can either win a college scholarship or make it in the pros.

My uncle played football at a university here in Ohio. He was obsessed with the game, and decided his son (my cousin) _must_ follow in his footsteps. My cousin played football in primary school and high school, and my uncle spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on private coaching for him. Everything in that household revolved around football. The problem was that my cousin was a good but _not_ excellent player. My uncle had connections at his alma mater, and the next thing you know, my cousin was on the team at this college as a wide receiver. I looked up his stats. It shows one reception and five yards for 2012. Heard he sat on the bench most of the time. A lot of money for nothing, if you ask me.

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**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2025, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soccer-moms-and-dads/1024508/22 "2025-11-05T16:36:05Z")

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A similar story - when my daughter was around 8 or 10, she did gymnastics, as many girls of that age do. A friend she had at the time had an older sister who was apparently very good and being coached by some local competitive gym/trainer/coach. Her parents saw stars and dollars in their eyes, so the whole family picked-up and moved from California to Texas so they’d have a chance of being coached by the Karolys. Never heard from them again, and you haven’t heard of this girl, either. She’d be in her upper 20s now.

Another family that had a couple kids in my son’s pee-wee football league moved to Texas so the kids could play football year-round. Ya know, so they would have a higher profile and be seen by college scouts!

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