SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Junior Varsity Soccer age of players

Did not know I needed to reply. Sometimes, though your theory doesn't work like it is supposed to. That was my only point.

Traveler, I'm a little confused. When did you make a point? "Was" translates to the reader that you made this earlier, but I cannot find it.

When does this theory not work like it is supposed to? The best kids make the team and the rest work harder to get there next time. Help.

Flag-man...
I have never heard of that rule. Even when I was at Riverside during our top years, we did not have a middle school or level below JV team. We had Freshman and Sophomores on the JV team. Drew Stephen was one of the first 8th graders to play JV.

That could not be a blanket SCHSL rule b/c then smaller schools like Hanahan (where I was for a year) would never be able to field a JV team b/c many of those schools rely on a mix of 7th-sophomores to field a JV team. It could be a school-by-school rule at schools where their feeder schools may have a middle school team or there is enough talent and interest to field a B-team. I do not know of many true middle school soccer teams as opposed to many schools that have middle school (or B-team) football and basketball teams.

I know that Brookland-Cayce has a level below JV (I think they call it a B-team) so maybe Kevin or Kyle could speak a bit clearer on this issue. I think that anyone 8th grade or up should be eligible to play varsity. If you have enough skill to make a varsity team, you have enough skill not to get seriously hurt.

Why don't those kids just play club in the spring instead of high school? Seems middle schoolers should be playing U13 or U14 during this time.

Talon, interesting point. In the case of the boys, most 7th & 8th graders are not physically mature enough to compete with sophomores on the JV level, so these kids, for the most part, are just playing U-13 & U-14 club.

With the girls it is different. Talented 7th & 8th grade girls are able to compete with sophomores in high school. These girls play both club and JV during the spring and it is very demanding on their time.

In our area, these girls are getting quality club coaching once or twice a week during the evening and competitive club games on the weekend. At the same time they are training all week with the HS JV's and playing games for their school.

The best part of this experience is that they are becoming exposed very early to a winning HS tradition, they feel part of the program as they wear the school colors and ride the bus with the varsity. The worst part is when they have a JV tournament over a weekend (Irmo) and have to choose between the JV game and the club game.

Our JV middle schoolers are not club players. Hopefully, once we get them involved in JV, we then try to get them involved in club soccer.

It varies from community to community, but we use our JV (particularly with middle schoolers) to hook them on soccer. In other areas, the kids grow up through the club and evolve to JV at the HS level.

Our HS coaches are also club coaches, so it makes more sense for the kids to play JV where they can play/train five days a week rather than just 4-5 hours per week. It's also good that they get to play against older, bigger, stronger, faster players as many of our kids have to be ready for the varsity level by 9th/10th grade.

We really emphasize the HS aspect and hopefully make it "desirable" for the kids to aspire to play for the HS team.

Beginning with Talon, all of these are valid points.

There are many different scenarios at work here. To get right to the point of Talon's post, it could be a matter of economics for some. Why pay for training two days a week, when you can get free training 5 days a week? You would then hope that the better training is received with the club, but if it's the same coach, is it? I applaud the HS involvement at CSRA and am hopeful that at SSC the level of HS involvement could increase.

In other scenarios, players that play up sometimes will forgoe the Spring U14 club season to play JV at the HS in the Spring.

It's very easy to understand the middle schooler, which is U14 eligible to play club, but what about the freshman that is still U14 eligible? I don't think a choice should have to be made, between HS and Club.

In other cases, there are some players (boys) that have the maturity and skill level to play JV during their respective U13/U14 seasons. Some have even played on smaller (SCISA) Varsity teams. Pinewood had 4 U14 club players on the Varsity roster this year. I can say, I'm very proud to look at the one State Championship ring already on the dresser, with one more coming from this past season, and still have 4 years of HS play remaining.

In the end, it's a very demanding schedule, one not to be taken lightly. It also requires a cooperative arrangement between the respective coaches. In our case, the club season took the priority over the HS play, given that it was the "in season" play. We were able to work it out, missing only a couple of HS matches, against weaker opponents.

I wish our school would allow our middle schoolers to play outside of the district. I think it would definitely help our younger kids get better and keep them playing soccer. We've lost several girls to volleyball, softball, and track lately.

So what would be the reason for not having a B-team in Middle School? Our 7th and 8th grade boys play JV. We do have a few 9th graders. Is it better for the 7th and 8th graders to play B-team before they play JV or does it even matter?