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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Depends.  Besides dealing with the obvious emotional issue and disappointment the question is what’s next?

First - you, as the parent, should already know why they did not make a given team.  It can be a close run thing, or it could be pretty obvious.   The question is - as far as a school sport - does getting cut mean they are done with that sport (at least as far as school is concerned)?  Well if they are a senior - obviously.  Other than that - maybe.

[b]Let’s take a basketball team.  A full varsity team might have 15 players.  A school may have a JV team, and even a Freshmen team.  The JV will be a mix of better/bigger freshmen and sophomores, and maybe a junior or two.  The varsity will be seniors and juniors and maybe a very good sophomore or two.  It all depends on school size and the kids trying out.  Lots of schools have only JV and Varsity.  A freshman who does not make JV as a freshman, but still plays regularly is certainly in the mix as a sophomore.

Yes - kids who played and practiced as freshmen have a leg up, BUT - and it is a big BUT - there are two key factors that enter into it.  1.  Kids grow in high school.  Last years 5’5” freshman is this years 6’0” sophomore.  2.  Coaches get good looks at kids over a season.  They are looking to find new players to replace the bottom third of the team from the year before.  They want to do that.  So if your kid is a freshman or sophomore who got cut, and he or she likes the sport - stick with it.  There is next year.[/b]

I will also say though - parents have to be realistic here.  A Star of your middle school soccer team may not ever make a varsity soccer team if the school has a good number of club players who do not typically play middle school soccer.  The kids know this because they basically know their classmates.  The parents can be surprised if it is their first kid through the process.

Finally - there are quite a few no cut sports that a good athlete can have fun doing.  Didn’t make the basketball team as a freshman?  Wrestling then.  Lots of first time wrestlers as freshmen (girls too).

Other no cut sports - Fall:  football, x-country, swimming (boys or girls depending on which runs Fall or Winter).  Winter; wrestling, swimming (which ever was not in the Fall) indoor track, Spring; track.  Your school will also have other sports where they are always looking for kids making them de facto “no cut”.

Two of my daughters early club soccer friends were not as good soccer players as they got into their high school years.  Athletic but just didn’t love soccer.  One switched to X-country and enddd up running for a Big10 school. Another switched to lacrosse and also played for a Big10 school.  You can make a change in high school and do well.

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You're assuming the school cuts existing players. Ours doesn't so a freshman who doesn't make the freshman team faces very long odds unless variety the prior year was unusually senior heavy and pulls more up from JV than normal. [/quote]

Sure they do.  Kids come and go between freshmen and senior years.  An early maturing kid who is a 5’10” freshman can play forward or even center on the BB team.  But, by their Sophomore or Junior years they are done.  It’s a thing with guys obviously.  Mostly on the girls side they are physically mature by 16.  Guys could just be really starting to hit their growth spurts.  No coach in the world is going to say “ we don’t want a really good player, because they didn’t play on a freshmen team”.

What coaches at many schools will do is not cut a senior who has been playing on a team for x years.  But, “not cut” does not mean “play”.  That Senior will be on the team and will play as much as their relative ability allows.  Maybe the play a lot.  Maybe they hardly ever see the field.  As long as their attitude is good then absolutely keep them.  My daughter’s high school soccer team got a big influx of quality players her freshmen year.  6 freshmen made the varsity team and started.  This could have been a problem, but the coach kept all returning players and they had a big team.  Not a huge problem as the older girls were basically nice to the younger girls and the younger girls were not really around them outside of practices and games.  Juniors and Seniors don’t have much contact with freshmen.

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