This summer, I had a super quick Audible that I really enjoyed. We’ve had several posts on navigating youth sports, from why they are awesome to how they can be detrimental. What I was missing was a non-biased first-hand parent account.

What I liked about this short memoir from David Murray is that he fully admits that he’s not “sporty”. He knew nothing about soccer. He wasn’t going to be a de facto coach, and he wasn’t going to push his daughter to uphold a family legacy. This is his parent story of how his daughter, Scout, started in kiddie soccer and followed her soccer goals all the way through her graduation at Ohio University.

Soccer Dad by David Murray.
Blurb: Soccer Dad is the story of a soccer-ignorant, sports-ambivalent writer who saw his daughter from the kiddie leagues through the travel-sports gauntlet to a coveted Division I scholarship. And then realized his work had only begun.

David Murray’s daughter, Scout, loved soccer from toddlerhood. Her drive and skill pulled the Murray family into the world of youth sports—one as culturally obsessive as it is economically exclusive, where each new achievement presents more challenges.

Youth sports is fun, but it isn’t simple—especially for parents determined to raise a rounded human being.

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