7 am game time? WTF?

I see a 7am start time for a 2007 F2 SCDSL game this weekend. Is this the new normal??
12 year olds waking up at 5am to arrive by 6:15am for warm ups?

I know club soccer has grown a lot. And I know that field space isn’t easy to come by.
But come on!!! Ain’t nobody want to get up that early on a Saturday to watch anyone play a sport. And ain’t no kid gonna be ready for peak performance at that time of morning.

http://scdslsoccer.com/_element_display/#/73496/teams/95377299/95963398-95377411/TEAM.html?dummy=1568005489569

Last year we had numerous 7am games for my daughter's 06 team. driving from HB to Oceanside and Silverlakes required a 4:30 wake up call on numerous occasions. SMH
 
Hey at least its not at a tournament in North Carolina and its like 34 degrees out and drizzling.
DD had one of those games against a team from New York. Our team was warming up when the NY team arrived. They were walking onto the field with their long sleeve jerseys and matching warm up pants. Our team was wearing the mish-mash of cold weather gear that SoCal teams scrape together. As the NY girls were walking by, our coach had our team lay down on the ground and roll around in the mud after which he said something like, "Now you're already dirty and wet, so don't worry about it". The NY team walked by with their mouths hanging open. I don't think they recovered from the shock.
 
Honestly not sure what I'd do if it was my kids game.
Show up because you've committed to the team and it's not cool. Or don't show up as sort of a protest / advocate of youth safety and happiness.

OMG Tim, you’re becoming the “get off my lawn” guy! Suck it up! One game in a blue moon at 7:00 am really? I’d take a 7:00 am game in the Fall on a Saturday any day over a 2-3 pm game. You’re done early and have the rest of the day to watch college football or do whatever. As for the kids, c’mon these are 8-12 year olds, they can play at any time. Shoot, in my late teens, I’d get in at 5 am stone drunk, and get up for an 8am game and still get a triple double!
 
OMG Tim, you’re becoming the “get off my lawn” guy! Suck it up! One game in a blue moon at 7:00 am really? I’d take a 7:00 am game in the Fall on a Saturday any day over a 2-3 pm game. You’re done early and have the rest of the day to watch college football or do whatever. As for the kids, c’mon these are 8-12 year olds, they can play at any time. Shoot, in my late teens, I’d get in at 5 am stone drunk, and get up for an 8am game and still get a triple double!
Typed up this long response before I took at look at the schedule again. Looks like it's been changed to 8:00 am. Hope it was just an initial typo and that we won't see any league games before 8:00 am in the near future:

Here's what I had typed out:

Not my kids game. Not really my problem. But if this is going to be the new normal, it would be nice to know in advance what we are in for.
I've seen 7:45 am games in a rec league where the community based fields are extremely busy and this was the only way to get all games in for the day. And for a summer tournament that had more teams than they expected.
But I haven't seen a giant complex like Great Park have games this early yet. And if there is a good reason for a game this early - I'd like to hear what it is. There doesn't appear to be a game booked on that field with SCDSL past an 11:10 am start time.

I just saw a recent Aspen Institute study that said soccer has lost 475,000 players in the US over the past 5 years.
https://assets.aspeninstitute.org/c...5.2117620836.1568155801-1597910033.1568155801
"Soccer participation continues to decline. While the two most popular sports for kids ages 6 to 12 either grew participation in 2018 (baseball) or only slightly decreased (basketball), the number of kids in that age bracket that played soccer dropped by 3%. It’s even worse for soccer when taking the long view. The sport lost 474,000 kids ages 6 to 12 in five years. More kids have stopped playing soccer than the combined number of newcomers and returning players to the sport. In a change from a decade ago, soccer’s participation rate is now closer to that of tennis, the fourth-most-played team sport, than it is to baseball’s and basketball’s."

Kids quit sports for lots of reasons. Getting up at 5:30 am to get to a field by 6:15 am might be a good reason to quit if a kid is already on the fence with her love for soccer. Or if she loves the sport, but doesn't get to play much. There's no guarantee that a 9:00 am game will make her stick around either.

I'm sure the referees are thrilled to be there that early too. Actually, maybe they are. Parents will be half asleep. If a 2 parent family, it's likely that 1 parent stays home to sleep. And it's unlikely that grandma and grandpa (usually the most unruly sideline dwellers) will be dragging themselves to Irvine that early.

Good news for the team manager, is that you can probably leave the EZ-Up at home. Won't be much sun to worry about.
 
Only in SoCal...where the state is considering mandating all public K-12 schools not starting prior to 8:30 am.

Welcome to the world of kids wrestling. 6 am weight in to make weight, then immediate breakfast to be settled for 9 am first match. Then 2 more matches over the next 3-5 hours.

Not to mention all the farm / ranch kids across the country up everyday for a couple hours doing chores before most folks alarms go off.

It builds character... they'll be fine.
 
Typed up this long response before I took at look at the schedule again. Looks like it's been changed to 8:00 am. Hope it was just an initial typo and that we won't see any league games before 8:00 am in the near future:

Posted yesterday at 3:47 pm

" TYPO ! The next game is at 9:20 am for that field . "
 
Love when people jumping the gun....One of our games is listed at 4 am. I'm sure it's a typo and will be changed soon :)
 
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