My son has played on some very good teams. we have had kids miss games, we have had coaches miss games. Lighten up people. It happens. It is the lie that is wrong. Period.
The whole commitment issue is obvious. My son never missed a game, etc. You make a commitment and that is that, but........Let us look at it from another point of view. Coaches, would you want a player who has decided he is burned out in the middle of a summer season to show up day after day and be miserable and quit the game altogether? I saw it happen to an extremely talented player. I care about the kids. I would not be happy about it, but I would tell him to take some games off, get some sleep, have some fun and call me at a predetermined time. I would not punish him for being burned out. I would for lying. I get a little disturbed by the "I won't play him" attitude if we are taking about a burned out teen with too much on his plate. I would hope most of you travel coaches are there to develop players and not "just to win". The teams interest comes first, but I would like to be able to care about my players as well. So many of these posts take an opposed point of view. Sometimes it is not black and white.