Lots of opinions here so let's muddy the waters even more. If you're willing and have the time to do the running, you should look for a situation that fits both your son's ability level and his desire to do multiple sports. As long as you and the coach of the sports are on the same page (whatever that may be), it's great that he gets exposed to both. We have football players, wrestlers, basketball players and now even baseball players (come on hitting practice in February) but this is the first year our coach has asked the kids to make hockey their priority (Bantam AA). If your coach is on board with you, you can make it work. Talk to the coaches, they're the key.

Here's a question for all the parents who want their child to play 2, or more sports. Why not be asking the football coach, who demands 100% attendance at the 4-5 practices a week to excuse your kid from a practice or possibly a Sat game? Why is the onus on the Hockey coach who probably only has 1-2 practices week?

The biggest problem I faced was those who played travel hockey and High School hockey and games conflicted. I had a deal with these kids. I let them choose a game over a practice, but I required that they play the travel game when games conflicted. However I let them have 1 free cut to play in a "rivalry" game.

First thing. This is a 7/8 year old player. The person is posting for help for a mite player and there are people mentioning AAA hockey, 14 year old players, etc.

Second. Instead of saying that this kid wants to play a sport that conflicts with hockey why not call it like it is. This kid wants to play a sport that is in season. Hockey is the "winter" sport that starts at the end of summer, goes through fall and through winter and then goes a couple weeks into spring. Last time I looked, my sons soccer season goes 4 months, baseball season goes 5 months and I checked two local youth football websites in the area and they both go 4 months and 2 weeks. As a coach I'm almost embarassed to tell parents that our hockey schedule will span close to 7 months.

Third thing. I'm a hockey coach, soccer and baseball coach and one GLARING thing that I notice every year is that most of the "hockey" only kids can't even hold a candle to the kids who play multi sports. Anyone who has spent as little as an hour searching the web has had to come across numerous articles on the Russian philosiphy "Develop the Athlete First" Kids who tumble, run, swim, climb, throw, jump, catch develop a broader and deeper athletic base for bigger and better hockey gains later.

Last thing. It is a tough call for any coach who has to deal with this situation. It's the coaches choice always in the end but I always try to look at the big picture. If a kid is going to have some conflicts at the beginning of the season I always try to keep in mind that it's our sport that goes for so darn long. (Obviously this thought process changes if a kid wants to do another winter sport like swimming, baketball. If it's a fall sport I am more understanding)

Coach Bill,

My comments were meant to be directed at both coaches not just the hockey coach. Most of the kids I know who "double dip" usually tell both of the coaches their first priority and it's up to the coach to decide if he still wants the kid. Fortunately for us, with one exception, my son's teammates have picked hockey as the first priority. That doesn't mean they didn't miss a game or two for something special like a rivalry but they were sure not to miss any league games and they made the tournaments. Some times it works well to have a kid missing because some of the other kids are asked to step up and also get some play time and situations they might not normally get.

Last season our Hockey team had a light schedule in the fall, We are all juiced to get the season going forgetting about how long the season is and how long it can really get. Schedulers need a 4 or 5 to 1 practice to game ratio in the August - November. Ramp up to TurkeyTime and plan on traveling more in Dec Jan , Feb , March. The early bird tournaments are just to early.

Terrific conversation, gang ... thanks for bringing light to this extremely h-o-t topic. A couple of brief comments: The common thread running between almost all of your posts includes the word "commitment." Where does the child and family stand in terms of their commitment, and commitment to which sport is the key question here. Both sports require this necessary ingredient and both constantly struggle against one another for the family to choose one over the other.

Secondly, one must keep things in perspective. I.E., what are the levels of play involved? What are the ages of the youngsters we're speaking about? If the family is involved in both sports but football is the "main" sport, then the childs' family should do the right thing and not make the commitment to play for a serious travel hockey program (and of course, visa-versa).

What competitive athletics promotes amongst our children is that the invaluable lessons of hard work, persistence, dedication and teamwork pay dividends over the long-haul and that to survive in this big, bad world of ours, learning how to adjust and adapt to the varying curve-balls of life is a necessary attribute for success in all that we do.

The integral message here is that while we all want the best of everything for our kids, we have to make choices "for the good of the order (team)." By placing your child's individual interests (to play two or more competitive sports in the same or overlapping season) above that of his/her teammates (in both sports) sends them mixed signals that it's okay to play 'both ends against the middle."

It's about fairness to your teammates. It's about honesty to yourself. I'm all for multi-sport athletes and I highly encourage all of my players to play other sports. But let's keep things in perspective. When it comes down to crunch time to choose between the travel football, hockey, soccer, etc. program, do the right thing and play one of those sports at a recreation level and concentrate your full commitment to the sport inwhich the child truly wants to excel.

After all, you wouldn't think of going to your boss and saying "Hey, I'd like to try this other job over here and split time between this job and that one for a while ... you don't mind, do you?"

Let 'em be kids, but teach them that life is all about choices and fairness, not always about getting what you want and when you want it.

'Nuff said.

I don't think you make the kids choose one or the other until high school. My son played both travel hockey and jr high football for three years. There were actually very few conflicts. The decision you have the kids make is which sport is a priority to them. It can be tough but there are a lot of tough decisions in life so this is a good way to teach them how to evaluate and decide. Once the decision is made(by your child) tell the coach, being upfront means a lot to most coaches. It may or may not effect playing time(depends on kids ability most often) but your child learns a valuable lesson in decision making and being honest and upfront. My son will this year be a freshman and the time commitment to football is much greater so this was the time to decide between one or the other. He's played hockey for many years and now had 3 years of football to make an educated decision. Hockey is his first love so hockey it is, but he has no regrets because he's had a taste of both. Let them try what they want athletically they'll let you know what's important and what's not. As for those that say "That's not fair to this team", tell me what's more unfair; not showing up for a practice here or there or not letting your child experience different environments and opportunities. There's plenty of time to get serious about anything in life let the kids be kids for a while. My son plays hockey at an extremely high level and his team will again compete for the state, regional and national championships in USA hockey bantam aa. His team has already finished 3rd at nationals two years ago peewee aa. I bring this up only to keep any of you that think playing both is wrong from saying it's hurt his hockey team or his personal game. It didn't effect either so let'em play.

Ask your doctor what his projected height and weight is going to be. If it's under 6' 200 pounds forget the football, he'll just get hurt at some point and won't be able to skate.