High School Program Information

[Gambler Bob]

DD has about 1900 total students. They play 4a classification which is for schools with more the 1600 students. They have a pretty good program but generally not in the top 10 for Illinois.

Coaches are excellent. I would say her high school coaches are every bit as good as her travel coaches if not better. They field 3 teams, V, JV, and a fresh/soph team. I don't think they cut anyone this year. Every girl on the Varsity team plays travel ball at varying levels. They had a very good class of freshman come in this year. 4 freshman on varsity, two of them are pitchers. Should be very competitive for the next 4 years.

In general the schedule is if Varsity is playing at home JV and fresh/soph are on the road and vice versa.

 

[CoachJD]

Does your High School make cuts to the roster? How many girls do they keep? Do they have Varsity and JV teams? Is the JV team ran together with the Varsity team or are they their own independent team (practice alone, travel alone on occasion). Have they ever struggled to field a team? How do you feel travel ball impacts the high school team?

The most interesting thing about this thread is everybody's interpretation of what is considered a small school.

We're small, but far from the smallest. About 265 students in 9-12, which means we're 1A (IL has 4 classes based on school size). But almost every school we play is bigger, often significantly so. This year only two schools on our varsity schedule are smaller. Almost half the schools on our schedule this year have 1000+ students. That's mostly by design. It's very important to me that we play and beat many of those schools. Despite being a 1A team, we do have JV. I can think of only one other 1A school in our area that has a JV team.

We've only made cuts in two of seven seasons. I like to have 26-28 players. This year we technically have 25 playing (we kept 28 but for various reasons unrelated to the team we lost a few), but a couple are on a hiatus and a couple of the JV players do not show up regularly. I don't quite have enough players to drop them outright, but the JV girls who are there all the time play over them. This year, I had a rash of transfers: three varsity players left before/early in the school year (including the twin sister of my starting catcher). Three others who would likely have competed for varsity spots transferred or got in trouble/were asked to leave during the school year. That really hurt us and it's why I have to keep around a couple girls who I'd rather be without.

Varsity and JV mostly practice at the same time early in the year, and once games start they split up some. Very much one large group and not two distinct teams. My two JV pitchers are both varsity players who play down to pitch. I'll call JV players up as needed, though I've done that less often this year so far. I have a new coach who's taken to our program quickly, so he's starting to do more independently with the JV team. Typically, if neither team has a game, full team practices. If one team has a game, the other will practice. We don't travel together because our school has two 15-passenger vans, so if we're going to the same place we just split by team.

The only year we struggled to field a JV team was 2021, but we were entirely online for that entire year. I had 17 or 18 players that year. Our JV "team" was 5 or so girls who came to every varsity game, and I'd get them in here and there where possible.

Travel has no impact on our HS team because athletes are not allowed to participate on non-school teams during the school season. Travel for HS ages shuts down during the HS season.

Oh, we're a K-12 school. One of the reasons I don't struggle for players, though we do always have a bunch of HS players who have never played before, is that we have had 13u/10u teams for years. This year I expanded to two middle school teams. We currently have 24-26 playing at that age group, and that does not count the three best 8th graders. All are travel players, and they're too good for that level. I'm having them just play with our HS girls in the summer instead of wasting time on the 13u team. Something always goes wrong for us, but I think our varsity team could be really strong next year. Not state title strong, but we should be better than all but the top 3-4 public schools in the city.

 

[CoachJD]

We have V and JV. We do have cuts. Our school is 1,100. We keep 22 in the program most years but this year, we kept 24. We practice together most of the time but find time to split off into V and JV. I coach almost all of the hitting and, at times, the V defense. We have 3 paid coaches and I am a volunteer. Two other former players volunteer a lot and so, we sometimes have practice with 6 coaches there. All of the coaches except the HC and one assistant are former players of mine so I am so proud of them and how they have grown.

How do you manage such a small roster with injuries, academic ineligibility, the random reasons for missing, etc.? Do you ever have days where V/JV both play and you barely have enough?

 

[IndyHScoach]

School size less than 300
Have never cut.
This year only 13 players.
JH program is growing, this year 20+ no cuts

We are in a small rural area and had some girls play travel and stopped due to being priced out. Still have about 4 playing travel.
Participation in our area is low at all schools. It is rare to find a small to medium sized school with a JV.

I am finding that I enjoy only having 13 girls compared to 16-18. But I never plan to make cuts so that we do not scare off anyone that would consider playing.

 

[Cannonball]

How do you manage such a small roster with injuries, academic ineligibility, the random reasons for missing, etc.? Do you ever have days where V/JV both play and you barely have enough?

We have occasionally had injury problems but with the way we practice, we can call up a JV player who fits in and knows what we are doing on the varsity. We don't have academic problems. Grades are one of the criteria for making the team. The vast majority of our players are at the top of their classes. With one or two exceptions, the JV plays the same day the varsity plays. In our area, they play at the same place. We have a varsity and jv field as does all schools in our conference. Most area schools are the same. If we need a player from the JV, we just send a runner down to get a player.

 

[Cougars]

With one or two exceptions, the JV plays the same day the varsity plays. In our area, they play at the same place. We have a varsity and jv field as does all schools in our conference. Most area schools are the same. If we need a player from the JV, we just send a runner down to get a player.

Always interesting to see differences.

Our schedule is setup where if V is playing at home, JV is playing the same school at their place. If both schools have a F team (not often), they usually play wherever the V is playing. In most cases, the schools have a second "JV" field, but it's typically a large step down in quality.

 

[nchesher]

1300 or so kids in our HS - Varsity and JV and both are stacked with travel players and there were a few cuts as far as I know. Our school is very fortunate to have a great program.