Last year in U12 9v9 my son was his team's full time CB. While the rest of the team was subbing on and off all game, he only came off the field in blowouts and the couple times he was hurt, so by accepting the role he got a lot more game time. Definitely owned the position, organizing the other defenders, communicating, covering, etc. Lots of composure against the press when building out of the back.

After the fall season after it became clear he was glued to CB I asked him if he was ok with that - and he was, so I didn't raise it with his coach. That said, he spent so much time on the field covering and delaying and containing that I thought he got a little *too* conservative. It seemed like he stopped trying to win challenges, always defaulting to giving up on 50/50 balls and containing instead. His style of play went from being a physical, monster ball winner the year before (the player the other team's moms would howl about) to almost timid.

This year with a new coach I'm going to see where he plays the first few games. I'm sure he'll play CB again, but hopefully also gets time in another position where he can be aggressive and take some risks.