The competitive edge...

I often wonder, at what age do schools move from "everyone plays ball" to "we only play those on the team that are good because we want to win."

I sit at the middle school football game and wonder, why does my (step) child not get to play. Is he injured? Did he miss a practice I didn't know about? Or does he just suck at playing the sport? The reason really does not matter but the unasked question of "Why doesn't the coach play my child?" did cross my mind and then the thinking began...

Maybe to be competitive, he had to have begun playing optimist football shortly after birth (would that be the crawl version of flag football?). Perhaps he should have begun playing in kindergarten. While we finally agreed to optimist football the last two years he was eligible, did this mean he didn't learn enough to play on the middle school team? Don't worry, the questions are all rhetorical and don't really require an answer but that is my thought process.

So, after three weeks of practices and being the oldest player on the team, I wonder if he just doesn't have the talent, if he has an injury, or if he just isn't one of the coach's favorites...

*done whining because I don't want to be "that" parent*