Anonymous
01/22/2026 09:28
Subject: Re:My son is riding the pine as a freshman
This is very typical.
From what I see, he has a few options: 1.) Work his butt off at practice and in the weight room. Practice on weekends. Get better now.
2.) Lean in to strategy, seeing the floor. Make himself valuable as a teammate and practice player.
3.) Get on an AAU or other outside team to get himself more playing time.
From what I see, he has a few options: 1.) Work his butt off at practice and in the weight room. Practice on weekends. Get better now.
2.) Lean in to strategy, seeing the floor. Make himself valuable as a teammate and practice player.
3.) Get on an AAU or other outside team to get himself more playing time.
Anonymous
01/22/2026 09:20
Subject: My son is riding the pine as a freshman
Anonymous wrote:As PP have said, this is common. My kid barely played as a freshman. Grew six inches in a year, made JV, now is a starter - and a couple the kids who peaked as freshman stopped growing and get less playing time. A lot changes between freshman and sophomore year.
Same thing happened to my son. A year makes a difference. And get with an outside team/coach.
Anonymous
01/16/2026 08:45
Subject: My son is riding the pine as a freshman
Anonymous wrote:My son is on a freshman team - billed as "development." Well the same six kids play all game, every game and the same six kids ride the bench and get one minute of playing time ice cold in the fourth quarter. My kid is getting demoralized. Advice?
I would not worry about it. That’s pretty normal. Even freshman teams play pretty competitively. I think you need to reframe it for him - he made the team, but other players are still better. Have HIM ask the coach what he can work on. If he does and grows (physically, but also skills-wise) in the off-season, next year could be completely different.
Anonymous
01/15/2026 13:57
Subject: My son is riding the pine as a freshman
Anonymous wrote:Double edged sword. The team is developmental, but the players have to be competent enough to play some semblance of “basketball” out on the court. If your child is riding the bench, the coach is signaling that the child’s skills are insufficient to allow for a flow of play to occur. Typically this signals the child is way behind skills wise or not coordinated. You need to be extremely honest about the situation to know what comes next.
It sucks, because the kid likely needs reps to develop the skills to play, but hard to do develop while on the bench. That’s where work away from the team is very important. The child should be independently improving skills/coordination in order to earn more playing time next year.
Having said that, the most important questions are:
1. What does the child want to do?
2. What is the child’s physical developmental status? This is a much harder position if he is closer to his terminal height. You’ve probably noticed that SKILLED undersized players get lots of playing time on developmental teams. Coaches figure that an undersized kid that can hang with more developed peers is going to look great when growth catches up.
3. How coordinated is the child? That’s is a skill that can be refined, but not really materially developed.
Time is not on the player’s side. By junior year, unless he is super raw with lots of potential, it is make varsity or it is over. Basketball eventually ends for everyone. No shame in that. Just be prepare yourself and the child for that moment.
Many large publics will have some juniors on JV, especially if not a lot of seniors graduated the previous year.
Anonymous
01/15/2026 13:26
Subject: My son is riding the pine as a freshman
Anonymous wrote:Double edged sword. The team is developmental, but the players have to be competent enough to play some semblance of “basketball” out on the court. If your child is riding the bench, the coach is signaling that the child’s skills are insufficient to allow for a flow of play to occur. Typically this signals the child is way behind skills wise or not coordinated. You need to be extremely honest about the situation to know what comes next.
It sucks, because the kid likely needs reps to develop the skills to play, but hard to do develop while on the bench. That’s where work away from the team is very important. The child should be independently improving skills/coordination in order to earn more playing time next year.
Having said that, the most important questions are:
1. What does the child want to do?
2. What is the child’s physical developmental status? This is a much harder position if he is closer to his terminal height. You’ve probably noticed that SKILLED undersized players get lots of playing time on developmental teams. Coaches figure that an undersized kid that can hang with more developed peers is going to look great when growth catches up.
3. How coordinated is the child? That’s is a skill that can be refined, but not really materially developed.
Time is not on the player’s side. By junior year, unless he is super raw with lots of potential, it is make varsity or it is over. Basketball eventually ends for everyone. No shame in that. Just be prepare yourself and the child for that moment.
LOL. Where do your kids play? Kids in the DMV can play “some semblance of basketball” by kindergarten, and dunks in middle school games are not unknown.
Anonymous
01/15/2026 09:22
Subject: My son is riding the pine as a freshman
This is the age old battle between:
1. The parents of the stronger players who believe the coach should play to win which means keeping the best players on the floor. This is the same approach the Varsity (usually uses)
2. The parents of the weaker players who think the team should be about developing all the players and making sure all them get at least some playing time.
Most coaches are competitive by nature. And it pains them to watch large leads disappear with the less strong kids on the floor. This also drives the parents of the stronger players crazy.
From my experience, more practicing is unlikely to close the gap between players who are 15 years old.
But if there's one skill that might be developed it's shooting. Kids who can really score get into games.
1. The parents of the stronger players who believe the coach should play to win which means keeping the best players on the floor. This is the same approach the Varsity (usually uses)
2. The parents of the weaker players who think the team should be about developing all the players and making sure all them get at least some playing time.
Most coaches are competitive by nature. And it pains them to watch large leads disappear with the less strong kids on the floor. This also drives the parents of the stronger players crazy.
From my experience, more practicing is unlikely to close the gap between players who are 15 years old.
But if there's one skill that might be developed it's shooting. Kids who can really score get into games.
Anonymous
01/14/2026 20:10
Subject: My son is riding the pine as a freshman
Double edged sword. The team is developmental, but the players have to be competent enough to play some semblance of “basketball” out on the court. If your child is riding the bench, the coach is signaling that the child’s skills are insufficient to allow for a flow of play to occur. Typically this signals the child is way behind skills wise or not coordinated. You need to be extremely honest about the situation to know what comes next.
It sucks, because the kid likely needs reps to develop the skills to play, but hard to do develop while on the bench. That’s where work away from the team is very important. The child should be independently improving skills/coordination in order to earn more playing time next year.
Having said that, the most important questions are:
1. What does the child want to do?
2. What is the child’s physical developmental status? This is a much harder position if he is closer to his terminal height. You’ve probably noticed that SKILLED undersized players get lots of playing time on developmental teams. Coaches figure that an undersized kid that can hang with more developed peers is going to look great when growth catches up.
3. How coordinated is the child? That’s is a skill that can be refined, but not really materially developed.
Time is not on the player’s side. By junior year, unless he is super raw with lots of potential, it is make varsity or it is over. Basketball eventually ends for everyone. No shame in that. Just be prepare yourself and the child for that moment.
It sucks, because the kid likely needs reps to develop the skills to play, but hard to do develop while on the bench. That’s where work away from the team is very important. The child should be independently improving skills/coordination in order to earn more playing time next year.
Having said that, the most important questions are:
1. What does the child want to do?
2. What is the child’s physical developmental status? This is a much harder position if he is closer to his terminal height. You’ve probably noticed that SKILLED undersized players get lots of playing time on developmental teams. Coaches figure that an undersized kid that can hang with more developed peers is going to look great when growth catches up.
3. How coordinated is the child? That’s is a skill that can be refined, but not really materially developed.
Time is not on the player’s side. By junior year, unless he is super raw with lots of potential, it is make varsity or it is over. Basketball eventually ends for everyone. No shame in that. Just be prepare yourself and the child for that moment.
Anonymous
01/14/2026 13:57
Subject: My son is riding the pine as a freshman
Both my son and daughter started on the freshman team, then JV, then made varsity by 11th grade at a huge public school. Neither are recruited athletes but both were playing regularly as the first or second kid subbed in. It was fun but took a lot of work on their part, playing AAU, shooting in their freetime, training. They have to love basketball to make it happen. And a little height doesn't hurt.
Anonymous
01/14/2026 12:57
Subject: My son is riding the pine as a freshman
I do think op needs to s is how high school sports work. That said, you can have a great experience playing a HS sport without being the star of the team. It is a good time to talk to your kid about their goals. If they love the sport and want to work hard at improving, they should keep at it. They will earn a lot about cooperation, strategy, responsibility, leadership, etc.
Anonymous
01/14/2026 11:28
Subject: My son is riding the pine as a freshman
Public or Private?
Anonymous
01/13/2026 17:04
Subject: My son is riding the pine as a freshman
Why are people such meanies here
Anonymous
01/13/2026 15:57
Subject: My son is riding the pine as a freshman
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Has to train and work hard in the offseason.
My sophomore son played JV basketball last year and the first 2 games the coach only put him n for about 1 minute. He realized he needed him after that, the he started the rest of the season. This year, he’s a junior and clearly the best player on varsity.
Another kid was a freshman last year playing JV and got no minutes. This kid is now on Varsity and is like a 6th man getting lots of minutes over kids that got more playing time than him last year. Some get no minutes at all.
Must be a really small school!
No. We are talking about one of the more competitive schools in the DMV.
Then you need to help him manage his expectations. He is not a good enough player to get playing time in a competitive school. He'll get put in when the team is up and his playing won't screw up a win. Otherwise, he is going to sit on the bench. In the meantime, he needs to practice whatever it is that is holding him back from being a good player.
you are conflating OP with a later poster bragging about his junior .
Anonymous
01/13/2026 15:57
Subject: Re:My son is riding the pine as a freshman
Anonymous wrote:That’s really normal. Freshman get very little playing time unless they are already being recruited for college sports teams. And that only happens if they are exceptional players so of course they’d get a lot of play time.
If this is what your kid wants, it takes a lot of practice year round. Even then, only the good players get court time.
Its the freshman team. Freshman get lots of play time on the freshman team. Just not the weaker players.