I came back to this thread because my 9th grader just made the HS team. BUT, she's one of the lowest ranked players on the team and won't see any competitive match play this season. However, she gets to attend practices and games and can play exhibition matches. Like OPs kid, she's not an experienced player, has been at 1.5 hours per week clinic style lessons for years, so she's pretty happy with this result.

My experience is the high school team is made up of kids who play USTA tournaments year round and are decently or highly ranked. Makes it hard for a kid who only does a once a week clinic.