JV or Varsity?

[flash277]

With school ball coming up in a few months, my 10th grader DD will be trying out. Knowing the team and the coaches, I feel she will make the varsity team, but she won't be playing alot, since the girls at her main positions (2B and RF) are seniors, and truthfully, they are better players. She I encourage her to stay on a varsity team, where she won't play much, for the "experience" and a playoff run?....Or should I encourage her to tell the coach she would like to play on JV, where she would start every game and probably bat cleanup (plus her best friend is on the JV team) but there will be some bad competition and no playoffs. . She not sure what she wants to do. She also plays 16U TB so varsity pitching is nothing new. Anybody been in this situation?

 

[Vertigo]

Is there the chance for her to be double-rostered? Some teams around here will do that and pull up the JV girls for some of the varsity games.

 

[MNDad]

She’ll learn a lot more from practicing with the varsity team even if she’s not a starter. IME it’s better to compete at the highest level possible. Playing JV there’s no one pushing her and most girls would get bored or frustrated with the lower level of play.

DD was the #3 or #4 pitcher on a couple of the travel teams she was on and it was awesome! She played basketball and sat most of the season on varsity because the seniors were better. That experience was WAY better than playing with the freshman the previous year who didn’t give a shirt about the team.

 

[sluggers]

She I encourage her to stay on a varsity team, where she won't play much, for the "experience" and a playoff run?

Suggest she play varsity.

You have a rare opportunity to teach her valuable life lesson. Take advantage of it.

TB's biggest problem? There is almost no competition for playing time.

If your DD is going to *PLAY* in college (as opposed to watching the game from the bench), she has to learn how to win playing time. This is like life--you come into a job, and you have to earn the respect of your co-workers, boss and clients.

How does she get playing time?

1) She says a lot of, "Yes, coach" and "thank you, coach".
2) She works harder at practice than anyone else.
3) She is the first one at practice, and the last one to leave.
4) She doesn't complain.
5) When asked if she is willing to play CF, LF, 3B, SS, or 1B she says, "Absolutely."

This is a true story:

There was a kid on my DD's HS team. She was the #2 pitcher. Everyone knew she wasn't as good as the #1.

But, the #2 always worked her rear end off. She stayed after practice. She stayed after games. She never whined.

My DD couldn't let her hard work go unrewarded.. She started letting her pitch more. And, she delivered.

She ended up playing D1, and was all-conference pitcher.

 

[MadBandit22]

With school ball coming up in a few months, my 10th grader DD will be trying out. Knowing the team and the coaches, I feel she will make the varsity team, but she won't be playing alot, since the girls at her main positions (2B and RF) are seniors, and truthfully, they are better players. She I encourage her to stay on a varsity team, where she won't play much, for the "experience" and a playoff run?....Or should I encourage her to tell the coach she would like to play on JV, where she would start every game and probably bat cleanup (plus her best friend is on the JV team) but there will be some bad competition and no playoffs. . She not sure what she wants to do. She also plays 16U TB so varsity pitching is nothing new. Anybody been in this situation?

Why can’t she bounce between both JV & V?

 

[MightyMO]

I wouldn't worry about it until you have to worry about it. You said that you think she'll make varsity and not play much. The coach may put her on JV for that reason or he may put her on varsity and play her more than you think. There's no reason to prepare for it a couple of months before you even know.

That being said, I agree with MNDad and sluggers. She will grow a lot more as an athlete and person on a good varsity team learning what it takes to earn playing time.

 

[flash277]

Why can’t she bounce between both JV & V?

That’s not done in our school

 

[Eric F]

In addition to playing Varsity, I would also encourage her to be open to playing any position the coach might ask her to play. Being versatile increases her value, and her chances to get in the game.

 

[Cagman]

Since you describe her as a marginal varsity level, as a 10th grader, she should be playing jv and moving up to varsity for their games as a roster player if needed. No real reason to only sit the bench on varsity. It will be the coaches decision. Or maybe the HC has asked which she prefers?

On my HS team, jv and varsity practice together for the most part. Sure, jv has a few girls that will probably never play varsity, but it isn’t like the girls aren’t decent players.

Jv games here are about 60 min timed games and we drop dead right at the time limit. HS sports is about varsity and those games start on time. And if we need to play double header due to weather, the jv games get cancelled.

Not sure how your school does it, but we have 2-3 jv girls dress for the tough varsity games. There are some rules about the # of total games a girl can be rostered for, but I don’t recall it every being questioned. No one will raise an issue with a bench player being on a roster.

Best of luck this year! as A huge fan of Hs athletics, these should be a great 3 years for her!

 

[djcarter1966]

Guess if the rosters are big enough coach won't bring up JV players regularly. My DD was the JV captain and MVP her Sophomore year so varsity coach rostered her for the playoff games along with another girl kinda as a thank you for all the hard work...but I'm in the camp with the other posters don't borrow trouble just let it play out, maybe she rides the varsity bench, maybe she earns more playing time at Varsity, maybe she leads the JV team there are different lessons learned from each scenario and who knows which one she might need right now.