Why jv at all

[djcarter1966]

Help me understand this? DD will be a HS freshman next year. Freshman & Sophomore's are required to take a PE/Gym class. As an option, they can play a sport generally during the last class period (e.g. softball) which fulfills their PE/Gym requirement throughout the school year. Is this not essentially playing school ball year-round? The "official" season is February - May but these players are practicing together starting Day 1 of school year.

BTW - you see a drop off of Juniors/Seniors on JV/V because they are not required to take PE/Gym anymore.

This is the way things worked when I was going to school basically your last class PE was your sports if you were an athlete and once season started that's when practice started but they don't do that here anymore, guess it still happens in other parts of the country.

Anyway to the original question I think once you dropped to a certain number probably under 18 or so it would stop making sense to have JV but it's hard to say what that exact number is especially when the games are not at the same time. If we could do this we would have had some V girls come down and get more playing time and a few more JV girls go up to get some Varsity experience but that's not really an easy option when games are at same time.

We had about 25 girls come out so it just about perfect, everyone could play there was a clean break. No varsity players came down to play but we did have two JVers go up every now and then....and those same two girls were also on the bench during playoff run.

 

[MNDad]

Help me understand this? DD will be a HS freshman next year. Freshman & Sophomore's are required to take a PE/Gym class. As an option, they can play a sport generally during the last class period (e.g. softball) which fulfills their PE/Gym requirement throughout the school year. Is this not essentially playing school ball year-round? The "official" season is February - May but these players are practicing together starting Day 1 of school year.

BTW - you see a drop off of Juniors/Seniors on JV/V because they are not required to take PE/Gym anymore.

Generally the rule is HS coaches can't be a part of any softball specific training outside the HS season. Any training above and beyond that is ok. Many schools have kids who aren't in other sports play voluntary fall or winter leagues coached by parents or other non HS coaches. HS coaches can never require a kid to play on a certain travel team or play their sport year round that I know of.

 

[Phathead]

Generally the rule is HS coaches can't be a part of any softball specific training outside the HS season. Any training above and beyond that is ok. Many schools have kids who aren't in other sports play voluntary fall or winter leagues coached by parents or other non HS coaches. HS coaches can never require a kid to play on a certain travel team or play their sport year round that I know of.

Attendance or certain team legally NO as the rules address this. Can they imply that lack of attendance or playing for another team can have negative consequences happens all the time here.

 

[wild man]

Here is my take on what I think you are asking. I believe that the first duty of ANY youth sports coach and or program should be to give the kids a POSITIVE EXPEREANCE. There are a lot of kids who will never play a sport of any kind past HS. A huge amount of the kids who start college end up dropping out to get a job. Playing j.v. gives them a way to see a sport first hand and they will enjoy that sport a lot more all their lives. It also gives some players a chance to develop into Varsity level players that without that J.V. program they wouldn't have gotten the chance. The other thing is some kids aren't sure if SB is for them, J.V. can give them a look at it without the pressure of a Varsity squad and then they can decide if they want to keep working on SB or stick with another sport.

I have seen Freshmen that barely made the J.V. team but worked hard and were starting Varsity as Sophmores. J.v. Has its place I think anyway.

 

[BobInMadison]

Just speaking as a parent here --
There is a lot of value in participation in a sport, beyond the win/loss column.

DS tried track as a freshman, only made the freshman team. Great experience. He took up rowing for cross-training, and gave up track because he fell in love with rowing and rowing is all year round.

DD #1 played softball as a freshman. They didn't have very many freshmen, so they put all of them, plus a couple of sophomores, onto a JV2 team (the same as a freshman team except sophomores can play as well). She did really well on the team, but decided not to play softball again afterwards. Still, a really good experience. She led her team in hits, HR and stolen bases.

DD #2 tried track as a freshman. An injury before her first meet took her out for the season, and she really has no interest in running track as a sophomore, but it was good for her to have the chance to run with the team for a while.

For all those kids, just being on a lowly freshman team was a great experience. None of them are in those sports anymore, although DS only dropped track, which he really likes, for rowing, which he loves (he is on his college (D-3) rowing team now. Even has an outside shot at making Nationals in the next few years, which is really fantastic for a D-3 rower).

DD #1 did have a lot of talent in softball, but was only playing for the fun of it, and to hang out with her friends. She worked hard so as not to let her friends down, but it was just a social activity for her, and some good exercise. Some of the girls on the team weren't good at all, but it was a good social activity for them, and they got good exercise, and got to represent their school in a sport.

From a parent's POV, the more kids that have an opportunity to participate, even if the kids are bad at the sport, the better.

 

[Eric F]

I see JV like rec league. It's a place for kids that are new to the sport, or experienced, but not talented. For those who have the desire to work hard to improve, and the talent to learn the skills, a spot on the Varsity team can be earned.

 

[Yellowjacket]

Most established programs use JV as an extended tryout for the varsity program. It's a place where you can develop talent until they are ready to play varsity level ball. In order to make this work you need to have enough talented players to field 2 teams. Rome wasn't built in a day, and building a program takes time.

 

[marriard]

This is hard because the level of play for high school can be so varied....

The local 6 teams right near my house:

#1: 40 girls came out to tryouts. 35 of those play TB. They kept 30 players over the two teams. 6 travel ball players (mainly 9th graders) didn't make either team. No freshman made the varsity, only 2 sophomores did. Favourite to win their division in State again
#2: 40 girls came out. They kept 24 and cut 16. All 24 play travel. Good team. Probably win their section and may make states.
#3: 17 girls came out. They just kept 14. Most play travel
#4: 'no cut' private school. 40+ kids came out. Any who stick around dress for games. 11 play varsity no matter how many are on the bench. 12 play JV games. Rest might or might not get in games. The 11 varsity players who play are all high-end 'A' players and they will again compete for a state championship. Most of the players who will play JV are also A travel players or at least high-B. The other girls get a uniform....
#5: 23 girls came out. A JV and a V team form. Some will sit the bench in varsity and play more JV innings.
#6: 11 girls came out. That is the V team. They will get rocked all year. Fortunately it is a small school so they really only have to play two or three travel heavy teams in their season and it will be over before you blink.

For team #1, #2, #4 - you better play JV if you expect to make varsity the following year. Only one freshman has made varsity in the past 6 years and she barely played (in fact she played more JV innings that season)
Team #3 normally has enough for JV and will again next year when they have 9 freshman expected to go to that school.
#5 use JV to keep their end of bench players in innings and ready just in case they are needed. Also gets their #2 and #3 pitchers innings so they are ready to go if needed.

I am sure there are a lot more varieties of HS V and Jv makeups and ways it is in place than this. I can think of 7-8 other programs who also do it differently than this just in my area.

 

[CoogansBluff]

This is hard because the level of play for high school can be so varied....

That's what I was fickin' to say. I've seen varsity teams where rec players were valued commodities because at least they'd played before. And I've seen JV teams made up entirely of travel players, including D-I prospects paying their dues in a seniority-based program.

 

[Osric]

Most established programs use JV as an extended tryout for the varsity program. It's a place where you can develop talent until they are ready to play varsity level ball. In order to make this work you need to have enough talented players to field 2 teams. Rome wasn't built in a day, and building a program takes time.

True. And for a building program, the politics of the situation must also be considered. By this, I mean that for many schools, if a sport opts to NOT form a JV squad, then it will be very difficult to get that squad back in the future because the AD will find other programs that need the money for that sport. So, by dropping a JV program (even a weak one), could easily mean that you are forever losing the development aspect of JV ball.