This is a really good question. It can occur with footballers in new settings, particularly underage, and females in particular, where they are unsure of their teammates and their status within the group.

Sometimes some underage state squads and regional rep squads can have too many players who have been selected over a few years. They can be a bit too sure of their status and standing within the team.

I had issues with an Under 14 regional rep squad with this. The best thing I did was send a player off the pitch from a SSG at a training session.  He spat the dummy when I changed a rule where one team was dominating another, to 1 touch per player, to even the game out.

His parents were livid with me. He never made any rep squad again. Until he apologised I wasn't having him back in the squad. He had been in regional rep squads for years. He was a bit too sure of his standing within the team and saw himself as one of the leaders of a particular clique within the  squad who perceived themselves as the leadership group - which may have extended to  ostracising new players - like your daughter's scenario.

I immediately went out and looked at players in U 14 club teams who had just missed  the cut in the original trials. They were nervous and didn't perform to their best in trials. I brought 2 new players into the squad.  I bent the rules and increased the squad to 17 instead of 16. The 2 new boys trained the house down - displaying  a superb  attitude, desperate for an op to make the regional rep squad and the state team.

I also told the rest of the of the rep squad none of them were in there  as a divine right. If any of them who were sympathetic to  their former teammate and his attitude, they could walk off the ground   then and there , and I'd replace them with more players hungry for their spots in the rep squad. And that only 16 were going  to play in the state championships, not 17. That the player who missed out, if it was  a close football criteria  decision as to who made the cut, it would be attitude on the training track that clinched the 16th spot. I rammed home that there were many footballers  out  there desperate to take their places. One of the new guys was joint captain within a few months, voted  by his peers! 

Probably mention  it to the coach or an assistant in the state program, that your daughter is feeling diffident in the squad. One would hope most coaches in this scenario, are good at assimilating new players into  the team, particularly the youngest in the age group.

However, football coaches  vary in this aspect of player management. Not sure if the state coach does this? In some exercises there can be two teams playing each other in SSGs, and there are 'fickle' players (McEvoy). The fickle player  plays for whichever team is in possession. This  enables them to always be in the scenario where players will be looking to pass to that player as part of a team unit with the ball.

I'd suggest your daughter being the fickle player quite a lot would enhance her levels of confidence as teammates should be looking to pass to her.

Another one is off the ball when her team is in possession, to both point to where she wants the ball  delivered to her (usually to run into space), call the teammate's name on the ball, and try and anticipate the best place to be, fractionally before the teammate  receives the ball. 

Better players pass to the players in the best position - not the status of who is calling  for the ball. Whether the state coach has emphasised this, it is better to open a diagonal passing lane in advance of the player on the ball to receive it. Straight balls played are only effective if a player has no opposition marker close to them.

Another useful strategy is is to check - move in one direction, to shake  a marker, then change direction to  create  space of the opposition marker.

Even in pro ranks players differ in their ability to do this. Usually the checkers are the strikers who are  constantly  closely marked. DMs often need to improve this facet of their game. Even at international level, fans reading this will have noted how some DMs are static whilst an opposition player is sitting tight on them. Instead they need to check.


I have also been a teacher of 35 years standing, as well as a  state assistant coach at underage level.   Another teaching strategy for  the coach to do, is to single out anything your daughter does well, in front of the whole team. This should  enhance her status within the group.

 I've  done this a lot when coaching mixed  gender NTC and rep teams  playing each other. The males tend to think they are superior to the females. It is true in athleticism, skill and strength,  but  I've singled  out the game sense of the female players in front  of the entire group,  and to ask some of the overly confident male players what they would have done differently  in front of the entire regarding their  poor decision-making. To see the females  beam as they explain what they they did to  cover  for the poor game sense of their male teammates, created a more egalitarian team spirit!

Hope some of  this helps!

The only problem is suggesting a couple  of these strategies to a state team coach! 

 

Past experience in those state rep teams is some coaches and TD's / managers come under scrutiny and pass that scrutiny onto players and micromanage every part of the game and life of the person/athlete. This can sometimes place an anxiety in players to where they become docile and find it difficult to express who they are as a player as coaches also find they themselves under a similar microscope... support your daughter through this as it can truly damage her experience in the game, it could even force her out of the game if she can not manage to mindfully recognise what she is able to control and not control in those environments.  

As a parent encourage her to enjoy the different experience and to keep the love of the game and mastering her own game...
This is the same for a young boy or girl in the same situation 

Dont lose hope... Rep teams take a while to "gel" and being the youngest may mean your daughter feels intimidated.. After all, her club team-mates are (am assuming) girls and boys she has known/played with for ages. Just tell her she is "awesome"   thats my 2 cents :)

Hey football lovers,

I was wondering if anyone experience anything like this or any feedback will be appreciate it.

I have my daughter which she is very passionate about football, and she is currently under the girls STATE program, she has always been playing with boys and she is still playing with the boys in her club.

One of her strengths is her fighting spirit and determination ... She plays amazingly in training and game-day with the boys but when she is at the STATE program is like a different player. Very timid and shy. 
She is the youngest girl at the program - Is there anything i could do to help her.

Thanks