quote:
I don't know where the rule is written, but the rule that I heard is this: If the feeder middle school to a high school has a middle school soccer program, then a player must play on the middle school team and is not allowed to play JV. It may be a school per school rule, a school district rule, or statewide. I'm not really sure.
Per HSL rules, a 7th or 8th grader cannot play on a high school JV team if their middle school offers interscholastic soccer. However, if they don't (and they don't in my district, Lexington Two) they can play for the JV team or a B-Team if one is fielded.

We (Brookland-Cayce) had a B-Team in 2002 and 2003, but did not have the B-Team the last two years due to district funding (or should I say "non-funding"). We are attempting to revive our B-Team for 2006 and it looks promising. Since the team is comprised of 7th and 8th graders we try to schedule accordingly. The other negative of not having a B-Team the last couple of years, means that we have tried to keep as many kids as interested on the JV team which makes for a "playing time" nightmare when faced with 25 players for a 60 minute match. On a B-Team those players would have a chance to play much more.

The problem some schools are having (i.e. Richland #2) is the fact that the district is allowing for middle school soccer, but restricting them to only playing their own district schools, thus no outside matches. Of course, this is done to restrict travel dollars and is understandable, but it does hinder the amount and quality of matches available for their schools.

If any other schools are planning on having a B-Team or JV teams comprised largely (not necessarily wholly) of 7th-8th graders, please contact me in regards to scheduling matches for our B-Team in Spring 2006 at kevin@scsoccer.com.