SOCCER DAD

Journalist Murray chronicles his experiences as the parent of a soccer-loving daughter.

This memoir offers an eye-opening account of the hypercompetitive world of elite travel soccer—the primary pathway for most American players to top-level collegiate programs. As it happens, college soccer coaches don’t spend much time watching high school games; instead, they recruit players at regional tournaments, which bring together myriad talented players from a wide area. Murray knew very little about soccer when his young daughter started playing in a mid-2000s “Lil’ Kickers” program in Chicago—and he knew even less about travel soccer. In these pages, he aims to educate parents in similar circumstances. To that end, his book describes the joys and camaraderie of competitive athletics, but it dwells more on the challenges that families face—specifically detailing the financial strains and the tremendous time commitments required by competitive travel sports. Over the course of the book, Murray notes the pressures that the sport put on his family life, which became dominated by his daughter’s college-sports ambitions; the sport was no longer a source of recreation, he writes, but a means to an end. One of the book’s most striking aspects is its discussion of how parents get children involved in sports at very young ages; Murray’s own daughter started at the age of 3, and he writes about a parent who recommended a specific coach for 4-year-olds. The author also effectively notes that many parents voiced disapproval of parents “living vicariously” through their child’s athletic accomplishments: “That’s not said much anymore, because it would hit too close to too many homes.”

A clear-eyed survey of the tradeoffs of elite youth competition.