JV or Varsity?

[Cougars]

Might be different once you reach the age for V or JV, but my son had a similar situation as a freshman. His high school has an A and B freshman baseball team. He made the A team, but wasn't a starter. His coach leaned heavily on the starters, so the bench kids didn't play much. Everyone is different, but not playing really burnt my son out on baseball. He's a senior now, but "out of the blue" over winter break he mentioned that he wished he had made the B team, so he could have played a lot and got more experience to improve.

 

[GoRight]

I actually dread high school season coming up. My DD played at a private high school as a freshman. Played every inning on JV and had a great year. Batted clean up. Lots of fun. Moved to a public high school as a sophomore. Never saw the field. Mind you this school is not a softball power house. Coach had her team set. I feel like she just didn’t want to deal with changing her line up. She also told my DD she was too slow to be a catcher. (My daughter would play any position if asked). I think she was judging her on her base running. She is not fast on running by any means. Behind the plate she is very agile and is an incredible blocker. She holds the runners well too. She had a very successful Fall on her 18u Gold team. Also last Spring on the high school team her hitting confidence started taking a beating because she saw she just wasn’t getting a shot to even compete for a position. So she felt extreme pressure to preform at the plate. Luckily she bounced back and had a great Fall. Now going into her Jr year she has multiple D3 schools and two D1 talking to her. (One D1 School she is meeting up with the coaches in a few weeks) How does she handle this? I don’t even think her high school coach knows she is being recruited. She literally plays kids that don’t care, some quit TB. A few have terrible attitudes. Yet you have a kid on the bench that is busting her butt to get recruited. One of her D3 coaches told her pretty much he isn’t very concerned with high school ball so don’t send a schedule. Also last year’s catcher says she isn’t coming back this Spring. I’m not sure if this is true but if it is, it may open up a spot for my daughter. I just want this coach to realize she has multiple colleges talking to her. She’s not doing her any good for recruitment. I wonder if it even matters? Trust me it’s not an attitude problem with my DD either. She’s actually too nice. Very quiet off the field. A bit of an introvert. On field and in dugout she’s louder. Cheers a lot.


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[CoachJD]

Right Coach, but do you try to get everyone in once in awhile?....Or do you just start the top 9 every game and not worry about the bench warmers.

Last year we had 13 on the Varsity roster at the beginning (eventually elevated a Freshman because she was my best defensive player). The two who played the least were a senior who hadn't played since Freshman year and a Sophomore who also played in JV games. She made the team because of her speed, though she hit fine in limited plate appearances. I think her only start was Senior Night. She may have started one other game where we played two innings before the rain came. She finished with 10 GP, 8 PA, and 18 innings on defense (because of the terrible weather last spring, we only played 13 games). The sophomore earned a roster spot, but was a backup 1B/C. She played in JV games, too, but for varsity she played in 8 GP, 12 PA, 17 innings on defense.

Last year, we had a Top 9 and then a pretty steep drop off for the other four. And, quite frankly, I did a pretty poor job of constructing the roster. I had three bench players who all were basically the same. Individually I think they all earned their spots, but it didn't make for the best possible team. The three who were basically the same type of player essentially got a start every three games during the regular season. They didn't always hit in those games.

 

[Megobee]

I didnt read everything, so i apologize if this has already been said. What do you all think of the varsity team and coach? Do you respect them?do they demonstrate character? Is playing time earned by work ethic/performance or on ability to brown-nose and/or parental involvement in boosters?

if you respect the organization, then being part of the team just for the experience would probably be worthwhile. On the other hand, if this coach leaves you scratching your head and the organization seems full of politics and drama, maybe the JV “experience” would be better.

that being said, if it were my DD#1-she would prefer to play at JV. If it were DD#2- she would want To play Varsity, period. So find out what your DD wants to do and support her decision.

 

[djcarter1966]

In our area, the pitching at JV level was woeful and of no benefit. Having at bats against pitching with no movement, no accuracy and no pace will not allow any growth at all in my opinion. I've never actually seen a JV game and am only relying on info from my kids but they are who would know.

It is far better off to practice with the varsity, getting to face the primary pitchers in practice and if you are able to get some in season at bats, tremendous.

Your mileage will vary...the starting JV pitcher on my DD team was the #1 pitcher on her 16U travel team. Each game she saw girls that she beat during travel ball and even her teammate #2 pitcher starting for their varsity squads problem was the #1 pitcher on our Varsity team was a stud D1 recruit, All State everything who pitched shutouts and hit HRs all day long. Literally on any other team she would have started hands down.

 

[djcarter1966]

I probably will get hated on for this but I don't like the double rostered swing type situations. If a kid is not in the top 12-13 then they are a JV player. JV is the place to learn and grow to tryout for Varsity the following year. Over the last 5 years there is a trend of kids who play "swing". What that usually means is that the coach is unable or unwilling to have a difficult conversation with the player to tell them that they didn't make Varsity. Last year on our playoff run between conference, sectionals and states we played a lot of games which in some cases were set last minute and in June where most kids were done classes. We had a few who said "I wish this run would end so I can go to the beach". The leaders on the team took care of that quickly but these were the JV players who were pulled up to make a team that was originally 13 players now 22 kids. I can't blame some of these kids who knew they would never play. JV players, for the most part, (Here comes the pain) may not have the same commitment to the sport as a Varsity player. And it would be understandable that they have other more important things to them, going on.

Rostering 22 kids is silly. But thing is those kids know they can't say no to the coach and get on their bad side. My DD rostered up from JV for playoffs but it was only two kids from JV so they had like 16 on varsity and they still knew they probably wouldn't play.

 

[uncdrew]

My DD is a good player, she could hold her own on Varsity. Some people have a story about a player busting her rear and gets a starting spot. But we all know that for every player who busts her rear and gets a starting spot, there is another player who equally busts her rear and stays on the bench. My DD is like most DD"s here, she wants to play, not sit on a bench.

Yup.

Your DD has two more years to play Varsity. Playing time and having fun are far more important IMHO than riding the bench in hopes you get better through osmosis.

Every situation varies. My DD's high school has a great JV team and a great V team. Neither has slackers. Quality of play is high on both. In general it's younger studs on JV, who will almost all move on to Varsity soon.

 

[Rick M]

Just curious from the perspective of the HS coaches who have posted here: are the rules different for pitchers? Are you more likely to roster extra pitchers on Varsity just because you may need arms, or would you rather have them get innings at the JV level?

I'm pretty familiar with the pipeline at the high school DD will be attending, and there are no pitchers in the two grades ahead of her. There are two who will be seniors when she's a freshman.

 

[Vertigo]

I’ll just give our experience (player parent). Our team rostered 2 pitchers last year, dd and a freshman. Both TB players. The freshman got the starts for most of our out of league games and our conference games against the weak teams. She did not play JV where she probably would have pitched every game. Some games they’d split between dd and the freshman once we got some runs on the board. They complemented each other well. I’m not sure why more high schools (if they have the option to do this) don’t use more arms if they have that luxury. I guess it would potentially affect chances of getting post-season accolades for pitchers since there will be less innings pitched but it truly helped to keep each pitcher fresh and gave them opportunities in the field as well.

 

[BT3100]

I’ll just give our experience (player parent). Our team rostered 2 pitchers last year, dd and a freshman. Both TB players. The freshman got the starts for most of our out of league games and our conference games against the weak teams. She did not play JV where she probably would have pitched every game. Some games they’d split between dd and the freshman once we got some runs on the board. They complemented each other well. I’m not sure why more high schools (if they have the option to do this) don’t use more arms if they have that luxury. I guess it would potentially affect chances of getting post-season accolades for pitchers since there will be less innings pitched but it truly helped to keep each pitcher fresh and gave them opportunities in the field as well.

I guess it depends on the Coach and the competition that the team faces. I would like to see my DD split time in the circle (she pitched 23 of 25 games last season). I do think that it depends on who the #2 is and the goals of the team. Our coach wanted to rank #1 or #2 in the District to get a good seed for playoffs.
Looking back we had 7 games decided by 2 runs or less and all 1-0, 2-1 games so maybe he didn't have much of a chance. We did have games where we were up 10-0 early, I can see him making the change at that point.