At what age does a kid need to start playing basketball to make the varsity team by high school?

[Anonymous]

Let’s assume the kid will be 6’0” by high school, so a pretty average height

[Anonymous]

Depends on how big the school is and how competitive the Varsity team is. I assume
you mean public school since many privates recruit. At a large public, he needs athleticism and skill. 6'0 is on the small side. It doesn't matter what he starts, its how good he can get by 10th grade.

[Anonymous]

My DD only player rec for 3 years and her small private MS for 2 years and made the JV team as a freshman. This is mcps.

[Anonymous]

A boy or girl? My son made Varsity (NoVA public) after starting AAU play in 5th grade. My daughter made varsity after starting AAU in 6th grade. Both stuck with it, played JV first and Varsity by 11th grade. Many boys from his AAU teams did not make the team, but all of hers did. Neither of my kids were stars, but it was a great, although intense, experience.

[Anonymous]

My son played rec through 7th grade and was probably the best player in his rec league. He started AAU in 8th grade and dramatically improved in that year it was too late. He just missed at high school tryouts, and I think that if he had started AAU even in 7th grade he would have made the high school team.

[Anonymous]

As others mentioned, part of it depends on how competitive a school is.

We know some schools where a good portion of the basketball players play travel. ie not just aau but they travel around the country for tournaments.

But there are also some schools in the area that are more low key. But they usually get blown out by the schools with more competitive teams.

Then it also depends on how athletic the player is. Where we do know some players that didn't really focus or play basketball until later on but still did relatively well and got a decent amount of minutes in the rotation. But these players also played other higher level sports and had that drive and coordination.

And playing yearround or high level by itself doesn't necessarily guarantee success. Where in multiple sports, including basketball, we see yearround players that have issues in making it on school teams and just difficulty succeeding at higher levels. A lot of it is they never really developed the skills, mentality, etc.

But it is beneficial to have exposure to that higher level of basketball. Even the same refs call games differently depending on the level of the league. ie you'll see the same refs at local rec leagues also officiate tournaments in the area.

Also OP is talking about varsity level which can be very competitive. Then it's not just making the varsity team but also getting decent playing time on the varsity level.

We see a lot of very good players quit basketball because they're only getting a handful of minutes on their high school teams. Some of these players were standouts at camps, their nonschool teams, leagues, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD only player rec for 3 years and her small private MS for 2 years and made the JV team as a freshman. This is mcps.

Oh, girls? Kids can play rec and make the HS team. Its completely different for boys.

[Anonymous]

Do they have talent?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD only player rec for 3 years and her small private MS for 2 years and made the JV team as a freshman. This is mcps.

Much, much easier for girls vs boys.

[Anonymous]

At our large nova public, all of the freshman team players play year round travel/aau teams. I assume it gets harder from there.

[Anonymous]

To be honest, the amount of time invested to get good enough to even sit on the Varsity bench at the big public schools is NOT worth it. Let alone the crazy number of hours in the off season and during the HS season they spend practicing.

Only the best athletes will play. Your kid could be doing a ton of other more worthwhile activities with the same amount of time.

[Anonymous]

6’0” by the time they enter 9th grade is on tje taller side so they would have a better chance of standing out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:6’0” by the time they enter 9th grade is on tje taller side so they would have a better chance of standing out.

sounds more like they will end up at 6-0 which could be 10th or 11th, so not helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:6’0” by the time they enter 9th grade is on tje taller side so they would have a better chance of standing out.

For the average every day person, 6'0 isn't a bad height. And there are shorter players(under six feet) who play on high school basketball teams.

But honestly the average height is closer to 6'4 to 6'5. Where by around 6th or 7th grade you'll start seeing 6'0 players. Some of those players are constantly asked about their age/grade and they insist they're at grade level and the age for that grade level.

I see some aau teams that appear to select on height where all of their players are on the taller side. And have seen tryouts where the coach isn't even paying attention to what's going on until the end where they line everybody up by height.

I don't agree with it and don't think you need to be tall to play basketball. But just saying six feet isn't considered tall for youth basketball.

[Anonymous]

My son just played freshman basketball at a large public. Half the freshmen in the program were 6'0 or taller. On the varsity team, only 3 out of 14 were below 6'0.