Anonymous wrote:Not having a horse in the race it seems like the school is relying on club soccer to develop the kids versus reserving JV for freshman and sophomore's to develop into varsity players as it was when I grew up.

I no longer have a horse in this race anymore either since my son graduated a few years ago. From my experience, some HS have very qualified coaches that have played at a high level, now coach both club and HS, and consistently field good teams.

But many HS have coaches, who have coached for years at the HS, have no concept of the game and how it should be played. It was ugly to watch and ridiculous that someone was actually getting paid and not trying to understand the game better.

I'm 100% sure that there were multiple parents that could have coached better and would have done it for free.

Anonymous wrote:Lots of juniors on JV as well. Is this the norm?

yes

Not having a horse in the race it seems like the school is relying on club soccer to develop the kids versus reserving JV for freshman and sophomore's to develop into varsity players as it was when I grew up.

At some schools, JV is reserved for freshmen and sophomores. At those schools, more freshmen make JV, but a number of juniors never make the jump from JV to Varsity.

Depends on your school. The bigger the school the more competition there "could" be. Everyone's "normal" is different:

There are 17 9th graders on the South Lakes JV roster so I would say 5 is really low.

There are 12 freshmen on JV at CHS this year and only one junior.

Only 5 freshman would be basically impossible to make the team.

It's just a numbers game and priority always goes to the older players who keep tryout.

I am not saying you're naive, but HS soccer and Club soccer value loyalty and longevity players over new players with good skill sets.

Coaches want players with heart. Players who will comeback next year after they are cut the first year. That is more valuable to the coach than a 1st year player expecting to make the team.

And it's just a numbers game... each team can only take so many players. By chance were you able to watch the tryouts? The tryouts I saw last week had over 100 kids pulling for about 40 slots between the 2 teams.... JV might consist of 4 fresh, 10 soph and 6 juniors... Varsity might have 2 soph, 6 juniors and 12 seniors. -Just gotta keep at it.

It depends on the size of the school. When my son was a freshman on JV, the team was majority sophomores but I can’t remember the exact breakdown. I think there were more than 5 freshman but definitely less than 10. The composition of jv and varsity vary every year at our HS.

It’s luck if the draw hue how seniors graduated the previous year when freshman are trying out.

If you look back 5 years ago students who were seniors last year and graduated had their sports season affected by COVID. So there were fewer kids at some schools playing sports.

So it’s like a domino. If not many seniors graduated last year then maybe only 5 spaces were freed up.

So the norm is to be cut as a freshman, and then come back and make the team as a sophomore?

Anonymous wrote:That is actually a huge amount of freshman.

There's not a freshman soccer team. Its JV and Varsity only.

That is actually a huge amount of freshman.

sadly, yes.

Lots of juniors on JV as well. Is this the norm?