Playing up (School Ball) ???????

[Lance Steckler]

Is it only me? I find it odd that middle schoolers can play on a HS team? Are these schools under one roof? K-12? Private School?

kentucky as a state allows 5 or 6 years varsity.

 

[JoeBob]

My DD is a freshman. In our state 7th graders can play Varsity for 6yrs. In fact if you move a 7th or 8th grader up they are REQUIRED to play 50% of the time.
The majority of my DD's friends are Freshman and may or may-not make V.

It seems to me that the V squad is going to stay the same way this year an next year so she potentially has 2years of minimal play.

 

[Intheboondocks]

My DD had to play varsity starting in 7th grade just so the school could field a team, however, it would have been better for her to play JV and get more ABs anyway. I know it helped my son in baseball.

 

[uncdrew]

I'm sure some of you have had to help your DD make this decision. Suppose your DD is asked to play for the Varsity School team but she's JV age eligible. It seems like the offer to play up is mainly as a backup and she's probably not in the starting lineup.

Is play time more important than quality of play?

The quality of coaching at both V & JV levels is mediocre.

Happened for both of my DDs. You get moved up to Varsity you likely play much less. But of course it depends on the team, position, etc. In some cases, the 9th grader asked to play V will play every inning.

You can probably sense how it will play out. And honestly, I'd go with the one that gets you more reps.

But as said above, it's been my experience that any and all highschool simply pales compared to travel ball.

 

[4Martini]

My DD had to play varsity starting in 7th grade just so the school could field a team, however, it would have been better for her to play JV and get more ABs anyway. I know it helped my son in baseball.

My daughter is on the bubble - would probably be a heck of a JV pitcher- but her batting and fielding could well pull her onto V. I worry about her not getting much in the way of pitching reps - since they have two pitchers already- one of which is a stud. So not really sure which benefits her more. They graduated a lot of offensive power though- so I know Coach is looking for hitters and she should be able to help.

 

[Northball]

ohio you get 4 years max of varsity. nobody uses 8th grade as a varsity year to skip senior season.

Interesting. Sounds like an unnecessary burden on small schools who may need 8th graders to fill a roster.

 

[marriard]

Is it only me? I find it odd that middle schoolers can play on a HS team? Are these schools under one roof? K-12? Private School?

In Florida if it is the same campus/principal middle schoolers can play on the HS teams.. and it doesn't effect eligibility so we have players who play 6 years of HS sport at some schools. Mostly private and charter schools. Not all small schools either...

 

[lostcreek1]

In Alabama you can play varsity in the 7th grade, with 6 years of eligibility.

 

[daywalkerdad]

I'm sure some of you have had to help your DD make this decision. Suppose your DD is asked to play for the Varsity School team but she's JV age eligible. It seems like the offer to play up is mainly as a backup and she's probably not in the starting lineup.

Is play time more important than quality of play?

The quality of coaching at both V & JV levels is mediocre.

If you have not, I would watch them both. It is hard to say depending on the gap in competition level of both. Some areas jv is good enough for valuable reps other ares it is not.

 

[LEsoftballdad]

In NY, you can play varsity from grades 7-12. It's up to the individual districts as to whether they allow it or not. My district only allows 7th grade kids to play zero contact sports, such as tennis or golf. Once they reach 8th grade, they can only move to varsity, not JV, unless there's no JV team, which we don't have for softball. Some of the surrounding districts allow 7th graders to play up, though.