Normal for High School ball?

[JPIerce@piercecons.com]

Is it a normal practice for a high school coach to keep players on JV throughout the regular season and then start them in the playoffs?
Last year, we had a catcher who received all-district honors who was replaced by a freshman in the first playoff game. While I thought the freshman was the better player all year, I couldn't help but think it was odd that the coach did this. Also had a freshman pitcher who played JV all year that won 4 games in the playoffs, and played in the field when she didn't pitch.
This year, we have freshman who is in the same boat. The coach has her on JV, but when asked said "I am really going to depend on her in the playoffs", and "she is going to be an impact player for the varsity. once the JV schedule is over, she will start on varsity." WTH?

 

[RubberBiscuit]

It's a pretty complex decision, or at least it can be, for a head HS SB coach to determine how to keep good chemistry, keep each level of teams healthy, and reward the individual underclassman that is a better player,.... all at the same time.

I am a BIG fan of zero-entitlements. But that's just me. I have seen programs protect the upperclassmen and squash the young stars at all costs and visa versa. No sense in promoting all the young stars and kill the JV team and tick-off all the upperclassmen to leaving to the point the organization is kaput though.... (problem being so many expect entitlements... "My DD is a senior therefore she must play" .vs. "My DD is a club player therefore she must play varsity".......)

 

[YOCOACH]

It seems to me that the HS coaches have one of the toughest coaching jobs in all of softball. The TB and college coaches "only" have to win, or at a minimum show vast improvement. IMO the HS coaches not only have to win and show improvement, they have to juggle the sense of entitlements from both the upperclassmen, their parents, the JV players who should move up whether through quality play or expectations based on which class they are in, their parents, the TB players coming in and their parents.

IMO, your HS coach has a team consisting of mostly upperclassmen that can, for the most part, be good enough to get them to the playoffs. Again, IMO, it seems as if once the playoffs are reached, all entitlements are off and he will play what he feels are the best 9 to take them as deep towards the championship as possible. IDK how everyone else feels but I completely disagree with this strategy. If I were the HS coach, the best 12-15 would make Varsity and they would continue to play throughout the HS season. To play the entitlements to get to a certain point and then take the PT away from them when it really counts seems completely unfair to me. After all, they were good enough to get them there. If certain players are not good enough to continue on and get replaced by these JVer's moving up, then they should not have been on the Varsity team to begin with.

Edit to add: This all conjecture since we would need much more information.

 

[MsDinosaur]

It seems to me that the HS coaches have one of the toughest coaching jobs in all of softball. The TB and college coaches "only" have to win, or at a minimum show vast improvement. IMO the HS coaches not only have to win and show improvement, they have to juggle the sense of entitlements from both the upperclassmen, their parents, the JV players who should move up whether through quality play or expectations based on which class they are in, their parents, the TB players coming in and their parents.

IMO, your HS coach has a team consisting of mostly upperclassmen that can, for the most part, be good enough to get them to the playoffs. Again, IMO, it seems as if once the playoffs are reached, all entitlements are off and he will play what he feels are the best 9 to take them as deep towards the championship as possible. IDK how everyone else feels but I completely disagree with this strategy. If I were the HS coach, the best 12-15 would make Varsity and they would continue to play throughout the HS season. To play the entitlements to get to a certain point and then take the PT away from them when it really counts seems completely unfair to me. After all, they were good enough to get them there. If certain players are not good enough to continue on and get replaced by these JVer's moving up, then they should not have been on the Varsity team to begin with.

Edit to add: This all conjecture since we would need much more information.

I dunno, YOCOACH. If your conjecture is correct, it seems to me that this coach has done a decent job of juggling all the opposing interests here, while still getting the team to the playoffs and giving them the best chance to win once they're there. I hesitate to say anything bad about his choices.

If you compare the HS season to pool play and the playoffs to bracket play, isn't this akin to what many TB coaches routinely do on the non-highest competitive teams to promote player development and keep the team happy and unified? --Get everyone playing time during pool and then go with your best in bracket?

 

[YOCOACH]

I dunno, YOCOACH. If your conjecture is correct, it seems to me that this coach has done a decent job of juggling all the opposing interests here, while still getting the team to the playoffs and giving them the best chance to win once they're there. I hesitate to say anything bad about his choices.

If you compare the HS season to pool play and the playoffs to bracket play, isn't this akin to what many TB coaches routinely do on the non-highest competitive teams to promote player development and keep the team happy and unified? --Get everyone playing time during pool and then go with your best in bracket?

Absolutely MS. That was the comparison I was trying to make. I wasn't trying to show disrespect in any fashion. I was just trying to give a possible explanation for the coach's actions. That being said, if I were in that position, I would be playing the best 10-15 I had. I just don't feel that it is fair to have a team full of girls that took me to the point of playoffs and then bring in better players to further the team effort. As a TB coach myself, that would be akin to taking my team to a tournament, having my team get the number 1or 2 seed, get me to the semis and then bring in one of the top pitchers in the area from one of my other organizational teams to help me win the championship. I just feel it is disrespectful to my full time players to do this. I would much rather have that particular pitcher on my team to begin with since I would have had the choice at the start of tryouts. As either a HS coach or TB coach, I would be hard pressed to coherently explain why I made the decision to bring in better players to my team and their parents. After all, my team got me that far. If they can't take it home then we deserve to lose and it's my fault for not choosing the best team I can field at the very beginning. That being said, I strongly believe that the HS coaching position is one of the hardest as far as juggling all of the wants/expectations/entitlements/etc. etc. goes. I applaud all of the people that are willing to take on that responsibility.

Edit to add: If it were a player injury situation in which my team would not be able to field 9 players to play, which I have to say, I have in no way inferred from the OP, then all bets would be off.

 

[Greenmonsters]

Unless this was all clearly explained up front by the HC, I think you'd have some pretty angry players sitting the bench (and even on the field) come playoff time. IMO, that doesn't create a winning attitude and, additionally, it puts tremendous pressure on the call ups to perform at a level of competition that they haven't previously experienced. Not my cup of tea, thanks.

 

[smddad]

Nothing is "normal" in school ball.

 

[RookKev]

IMO, the girls on the bench know why they are there. They might not like it, but if there are underclassmen which are better players, they already are aware of it. I'm sure some might have a few grumblings, but, for most players, it's obvious who the best are.

 

[wichita]

Here's a different angle to this dilemma so you have your varsity team which doesn't have the best travel players on it and some of the better travel kids are demoted to the "JV team...... Now here's my beef with coaches that do this type of thing ...... most of the kids that play travel are trying to go to college on scholarship to play college ball and some of these high school coaches could care less if he sticks a kid on JV. Now I know that college coaches very rarely go to high school games (at least out here)so that wouldn't matter, but imagine a college coach looking at a profile of some kid hoping to go to college to play ball and she sees that this kid couldn't even make her varsity team.....her profile just went through the shredder.......now maybe this is a bit extreme but i think you get the point. Now I know a lot of you on this board are high school coaches and believe me I'm sure you guys are great softball coaches but for every one of you great coaches there are 50 coaches out there that thinks that the softball world revolves around them and most of the time there just using talent from their respective travel coaches to win games.

 

[Lenski]

Is it a normal practice for a high school coach to keep players on JV throughout the regular season and then start them in the playoffs?
Last year, we had a catcher who received all-district honors who was replaced by a freshman in the first playoff game. While I thought the freshman was the better player all year, I couldn't help but think it was odd that the coach did this. Also had a freshman pitcher who played JV all year that won 4 games in the playoffs, and played in the field when she didn't pitch.
This year, we have freshman who is in the same boat. The coach has her on JV, but when asked said "I am really going to depend on her in the playoffs", and "she is going to be an impact player for the varsity. once the JV schedule is over, she will start on varsity." WTH?

Is there a rule at this school that Freshman must play JV ball?