Please help me understand Junior Varsity and Varsity

[Anonymous]

I have not played sports and this is all new to us. Our son is a sophomore and got selected for Junior Varsity baseball at his HS. He loves baseball but an average player at best. We are really glad he is able to make the team.

Can anyone who is knowledgeable with HS sports please advice:

1. Do all the players selected for JV get to play in the games this season?
2. Next year as a Junior can he still play JV or his only shot at playing is going to be at varsity level?
3. How difficult is a jump from JV to varsity?
4. Do players take private practice or is it just whatever practice they get at school?

Thanks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have not played sports and this is all new to us. Our son is a sophomore and got selected for Junior Varsity baseball at his HS. He loves baseball but an average player at best. We are really glad he is able to make the team.

Can anyone who is knowledgeable with HS sports please advice:

1. Do all the players selected for JV get to play in the games this season?
2. Next year as a Junior can he still play JV or his only shot at playing is going to be at varsity level?
3. How difficult is a jump from JV to varsity?
4. Do players take private practice or is it just whatever practice they get at school?

Thanks

1. The JV players play on the JV team. Whether a particular player gets much playing time depends on how good he is compared to other players on the team. If he's a weaker player on a JV team, he might just get to play if his team either has a big lead or is far behind.

2. If your player is average and makes JV as a sophomore, it's more likely that he'd cut next year than that he'd play on JV again as a junior. Usually juniors are only JV if it's their first year playing at a school and the coaches want to see if the player has development potential. If your son's case, they'll be able to make that assessment this yar.

3. A good JV player has a chance to make varsity as a junior or senior.

4. At the high school level many players may be working with private coaches on the side but it's not mandatory.

[Anonymous]

I've also seen JV players being "pulled up" to Varsity late in the season. I don't know what the roster rules are(does someone on Varsity have to leave the team?), but it happened on my DS' JV basketball team and my other DS' JV baseball team. In both cases, towards the end of the season, the best player was all of a sudden playing Varsity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've also seen JV players being "pulled up" to Varsity late in the season. I don't know what the roster rules are(does someone on Varsity have to leave the team?), but it happened on my DS' JV basketball team and my other DS' JV baseball team. In both cases, towards the end of the season, the best player was all of a sudden playing Varsity.

This doesn’t happen a lot. Temper expectations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've also seen JV players being "pulled up" to Varsity late in the season. I don't know what the roster rules are(does someone on Varsity have to leave the team?), but it happened on my DS' JV basketball team and my other DS' JV baseball team. In both cases, towards the end of the season, the best player was all of a sudden playing Varsity.

Varsity teams have playoffs; JV teams do not. So if the JV season is over it’s not uncommon to move a few players to Varsity for the playoffs. Those kids will typically make Varsity the following year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've also seen JV players being "pulled up" to Varsity late in the season. I don't know what the roster rules are(does someone on Varsity have to leave the team?), but it happened on my DS' JV basketball team and my other DS' JV baseball team. In both cases, towards the end of the season, the best player was all of a sudden playing Varsity.

This doesn’t happen a lot. Temper expectations.

1. The JV player brought up might have shown extraordinary abillity.
2. Injuries on the Varsity team.

[Anonymous]

Going to a low rated high school greatly increases your chance of playing varsity. Look at great schools ratings and pick a low rated one for high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Going to a low rated high school greatly increases your chance of playing varsity. Look at great schools ratings and pick a low rated one for high school.

If it’s a low rated school with a lot of Black kids there could be a lot of competition to play basketball. If it’s a low rated school with a lot of Hispanic kids there could be a lot of competition to play soccer.

So it’s one thing if you’re talking about lacrosse at Lewis but another if you’re talking about basketball at Hayfield.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Going to a low rated high school greatly increases your chance of playing varsity. Look at great schools ratings and pick a low rated one for high school.

If it’s a low rated school with a lot of Black kids there could be a lot of competition to play basketball. If it’s a low rated school with a lot of Hispanic kids there could be a lot of competition to play soccer.

So it’s one thing if you’re talking about lacrosse at Lewis but another if you’re talking about basketball at Hayfield.

I assume PP means low rated for their individual sport.

Don't look at the racial demographics, look at how the team has done.

[Anonymous]

Very dependent on the sport.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Going to a low rated high school greatly increases your chance of playing varsity. Look at great schools ratings and pick a low rated one for high school.

If it’s a low rated school with a lot of Black kids there could be a lot of competition to play basketball. If it’s a low rated school with a lot of Hispanic kids there could be a lot of competition to play soccer.

So it’s one thing if you’re talking about lacrosse at Lewis but another if you’re talking about basketball at Hayfield.

I assume PP means low rated for their individual sport.

Don't look at the racial demographics, look at how the team has done.

I don’t think Great Schools rates individual sports so not sure how you’d reach that conclusion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have not played sports and this is all new to us. Our son is a sophomore and got selected for Junior Varsity baseball at his HS. He loves baseball but an average player at best. We are really glad he is able to make the team.

Can anyone who is knowledgeable with HS sports please advice:

1. Do all the players selected for JV get to play in the games this season?
2. Next year as a Junior can he still play JV or his only shot at playing is going to be at varsity level?
3. How difficult is a jump from JV to varsity?
4. Do players take private practice or is it just whatever practice they get at school?

Thanks

1. The JV players play on the JV team. Whether a particular player gets much playing time depends on how good he is compared to other players on the team. If he's a weaker player on a JV team, he might just get to play if his team either has a big lead or is far behind.

2. If your player is average and makes JV as a sophomore, it's more likely that he'd cut next year than that he'd play on JV again as a junior. Usually juniors are only JV if it's their first year playing at a school and the coaches want to see if the player has development potential. If your son's case, they'll be able to make that assessment this yar.

3. A good JV player has a chance to make varsity as a junior or senior.

4. At the high school level many players may be working with private coaches on the side but it's not mandatory.

OP here. Thank you so much for the thoughtful and very helpful response.

Thanks also to all who responded.

[Anonymous]

OP,

Sports are a great way for a freshman to assimilate into a school. S/he may not ever end up playing a varsity sport and may be disappointed, but it is still a great learning experience.

Youth sports and a trophy for everyone do not teach kids about life. Resiliency is extremely important and sports are a great way to learn.

Remember: you learn more from failure than success.

And, physical activity is good.

[Anonymous]

Our school's baseball program is very competitive (won state in recent years)

Freshmen and sophomores usually ride the bench for the JV season if they are not starters. We know if kids who had 1-2 at bats and innings their first season and not much more than that sophomore year.

Very talented freshmen and sophomores play as starters and go up to varsity when needed. These kids play almost every inning unless something is off.

Our school cuts enough very talented baseball players to field a 3rd competitive team. Such is sports in ffx county.

You will have to ask other experienced baseball parents from your school, as every program is different. At our school, a sophomore with average skills who barely made the cut for JV will not see any playing time, unless all the starters come down with covid or something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Going to a low rated high school greatly increases your chance of playing varsity. Look at great schools ratings and pick a low rated one for high school.

If it’s a low rated school with a lot of Black kids there could be a lot of competition to play basketball. If it’s a low rated school with a lot of Hispanic kids there could be a lot of competition to play soccer.

So it’s one thing if you’re talking about lacrosse at Lewis but another if you’re talking about basketball at Hayfield.

Lewis is in a tough predicament. Now that they're down to less than 1700 students they're struggling to fill out rosters. They had 7 field hockey players in total this season. Couple years ago volleyball was on the brink of cancelling the season due to lack of participation. Baseball is in the same boat, they may not have enough to field a JV team.