Post by Craig Lansing

As a coach of almost 10 years I have seen a lot of good and bad in the evolution of soccer over this time (I know many seasoned coaches could give you even more history than I). Today I am going to touch on a topic that is one of my biggest complaints that some coaches use to 'work' the system which is using GUEST PLAYERS at tournaments to win trophies.

Please understand that I am not against the policy of allowing a limited number of guest players and I can understand the need for it in today's game. As a general premise I understand that on any given weekend a team of 16 players may only have 13-14 available due to a over commitment problem in today's families and school coaches (not just in sports but including band, scholastic events and more) need to expand the seasons plus take a heavy-handed approach to absences even on the optional events (they make sure you know they are not optional if you kid wants to play).

So if we assume that we have a soccer tournament for my girls team with both Saturday and Sunday games I could be missing 2 for track and 2 for softball on any given weekend. So do I want to have a roster of only 12 players when we play 11 players on the field. What if an injury happens or someone gets sick? I, as a coach, would look to take a couple of extra guest players to fill in for those absent. But wait a minute, you just stated that your biggest complain is GUEST PLAYERS and you would be correct. So let me explain.....

I believe these are times a coach does need to bring a guest player:

to replace a player who is out due to sickness or injury
to replace a player who has another scheduled event and the parents have chose that event
to replace a player who has dropped out of playing
to replace a key position player - such as the goalie being out
to give a player on a lower level team some playing time up to gain experience (playing up and not down)

WHEN IS IT BEING DISHONEST TO YOUR PARENTS TO BRING GUEST PLAYERS?

I have been to several tournaments over the last couple of years that allow for 5+ guest players. In the situation above I may bring 4 guest players, as I explained, but I would not being doing so to LOAD UP the roster but simply give myself enough players. As a secondary thought maybe I should not be doing that tournament if I cannot get my whole team to participate. After all isn't my goal as a coach to develop MY team.

I see many second tier teams and so called pool play teams bring the top team players or ringers in to help them win a trophy. The coach is not doing anything against the tournament rules so are they really being dishonest? My answer would be YES they are being dishonest with the teams parents and here are my reasons why:

the coach is not bringing similar quality players and not having success because of his training development - creating a false reality to parents/players
the coach is only concerned with getting the wins - if the wins come is it because all the team players are part of it or because of goals being scored by the guest players
the coach has adjusted playing time by removing some normal starters or reduced other players time to different then what they would normally play - playing time should be about the same as it would be without the guest players or your coach is not being honest about the reason for guest players
the coach is watching other teams you play and recruiting their best players to guest play for him - you now see the boy who was the best player that you played two weeks ago as a guest player in your next tournament

Lets bring GUEST PLAYERS when we need them to fill in, use similar skilled players or give lower level players an opportunity to get some experience and not just use GUEST PLAYERS for the trophy.