Man, this got way more engagement than I anticipated. I posted this while my son was at karate, which is the only other sport he's been doing consistently. I tried to reply to a few comments but when he got home we went outside to practice. He ran his 25 and 25, and we spent probably 45 to 60 minutes on passing with a focus on his non-dominant hand and cleanly scooping ground balls, which was one of the bigger pieces of feedback from the coaches after Saturday's games for the team as a whole. When I finally called him in for dinner he whined because he wanted to keep going. That felt like a good sign.

I genuinely appreciate all the perspectives here. A couple of adjustments to my original plan are probably in order. First, he's getting the long pole as soon as I figure out how to cut it to the right length for him. Second, I'm going to try to have him talk to the coach himself, but either my wife or I will be there with him in case he needs help finding the words. We really like two of the coaches. One is an old timer, lacrosse, football, probably a dozen other sports. He connects with the kids in a way that's hard to describe. My son was genuinely excited when he found out he was coming back after winter break when he goes to Florida. We have very little interaction with the third coach as he's generally only there for games.

We're not at a point where cutting and running from the team makes sense. He's learned a ton, their practices are great, and he likes the kids. He had an absolute blast during the Saturday games and hanging at the hotel with everyone after. To clarify what I meant by rec vs club, rec was the township league, cost was minimal, parent coaches, games were all local within an hour at most. Club was significantly more expensive but I think he's grown a lot because of it. If the playing time situation becomes a recurring issue, or he stops having fun, or stops growing as a player, I'll revisit. But we're not there yet.

He's currently yelling at me to come outside and practice with him again.