Irmo 3-1 over AC Flora, pre-season scrimmage last night in Irmo.

Ridge View 5
South Florence 0

Dutch Fork Boys JV 11 RNE 0
Half score DF 5-0

Mid-Carolina 0
Batesburg-Leesville 1

Tues night-
Irmo 6-0 Airport

Girls: Hilton Head 2 - Beaufort 0

Boys: Hilton Head 2 - Beaufort 0

Wando defeated West Ashley 3-1 in Girls JV
Wando defeated West Ashley 5-0 in Boys JV

Pinewood Boys JV 3
Academic Magnet JV 0

ridge view 3
chapin 2

JV Boys -- Airport 1-0 (pk) Brookland-Cayce
JV Girls -- Airport 1-0 (pk) Brookland-Cayce

Kyle, I thought JV games ended in a tie. That's what we were told a few years ago. It is a ref decision or are there any regulations?

I noticed in the program from Viking Cup that no 9th graders were listed for Wando's varsity squad. Does anyone know if this is the case? That would have to impact the strength of their JV team.

lpaf

2004, per SCHSL rules, NO match may end in a tie except for tournaments in which tourney rules may be altered. This applies to all Varsity and JV contests.

Kyle --

Is there a maximum number of players who can be on a varsity team, and can JV players (9th graders, of course... we don't want to talk about 8th graders) be "brought up" midway through a season? This used to be the rule in football in the dark ages, I know. Thanks.

lpaf

LPAF -- There is no "max" on roster size for varsity. Freshmen (or sophomores for that matter) can be brought up during the season for play with the varsity.

Thanks.

lpaf

Pendleton defeated Westside 3-1

Lugoff-Elgin JV - 3
Camden JV - 0

I looked at Wando varsity too , and saw only 18 players. By necessity that must have forced more sophomores and freshmen on JV than normal.

IMHO, none of the major 4A schools should have underclassmen on their varsity squads. Having sophs and freshmen playing up most likely means an upperclassmen (who has no other option) got bumped. Wait your time, pay your dues, I don't care how talented you are.

Watcher, where do you draw the line? What detrmines a major school froma minor school? And why only 4A? There are some very good 3A teams that can beat most 4A teams (Eastside and Riverside for two). Only playing upper classmen is nice theory, but the fact is that most coaches want the best players on the field and sometimes that means that a younger player will beat out an older one.

I'm not drawing a line, I'm just making a general comment and it certainly can apply to other divisions. I'm simply saying that Wando (or fill in the blank with whoever you want) should have a field full of junior and senior players at tryouts. If they don't, then they need to look in the mirror and ask "why".

And yes, I'm saying that maybe one, or some, of those upperclassmen are maybe not as talented as a few of their younger classmates. But as I said, the upperclassmen have no other school team to play on and in my opinion, this is one reason high school is different from club. Every decision shouldn't be made with winning as the only goal in mind. Should it be the top goal? Maybe, even probably. But, high school athletics or any high school extracurricular activity for that matter, are supposed to add some spice to the education equation. It's not always about wins and losses.

It's nice theory, but I can only see that happening where you have a large number of strong players tryout for the team year after year. A coach can then make an "in house rule" to where only Seniors and Juniors make Varsity unless there aren't enough to go around. If you have a program that has been struggling or is not an Irmo or Wando, then I doubt the coach will do that if he has some strong young players to pick from.

Monday Scores:

Dorman JV: 1
Riverside JV: 3

First: Pendleton defeated Palmetto 2-1

Second: Watcher, I understand what you are saying about extracurricular athletics adding spice to education but at the same time the reality is that it's not rec league anymore. By the time you hit the JV and Varsity ages it does move from everyone gets to play who wants to play and everyone should play every game into more of a let's get the best players playing and try to win. That being said I still try to get every one of my players in each game (almost to a fault, nearly cost me tonight). I think you'll find that the best and most successful programs year in and year out not only play their core group of starters but also some of their younger players or even back ups so that the program keeps their playing experience up regardless of injury or graduation.

Let me leave you with this question: If you bump a ninth (or even tenth) grader down to JV simply to save a spot on varsity for an upperclassmen what 7th or 8th or other player are you going to cut who then loses out on the opportunity to play for the school team? If you keep a senior just for the purpose of keeping the senior you could be squeezing a player out of soccer who might have ended up being a contributor to your program.

Girls: West Ashley 6 - Hilton Head 0

Boys: Hilton Head 3 - West Ashley 0

quote:

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Originally posted by SC_cap'n:
Let me leave you with this question: If you bump a ninth (or even tenth) grader down to JV simply to save a spot on varsity for an upperclassmen what 7th or 8th or other player are you going to cut who then loses out on the opportunity to play for the school team? If you keep a senior just for the purpose of keeping the senior you could be squeezing a player out of soccer who might have ended up being a contributor to your program.

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Well, I think I would say that the 7th or 8th grader has plenty of future opportunities to play for the high school team. And if he's that great of a player, I would imagine he would be playing club ball in the spring anyway, not high school.

I understand what all of you are saying, no one can argue against fielding the best team possible. My perspective is from my experience with Wando, who traditionally has dozens of players on varsity and JV. Certainly, many/most schools do not have that deep of a pool and I have no problem with those schools putting underclassmen on a varsity team. So, my point does not apply to the majority of schools.

However, I still maintain, for those schools that have a deep pool, picking a slightly less talented upperclassmen over a 9th or 10th grader has merit.