SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Junior Varsity Soccer JV Playing

If in club...is JV necessary?

Lots of fun when the 7th & 8th grade girls get to hang out with the varsity. Bus rides, meals, practices, awards banquet, etc.

Very, very dependent upon your child's objectives with respect to soccer, e.g., does he/she want to be the best player in the nation or does he/she want to focus first on fun and second on soccer?

My daughter voted "no" on playing JV back when she was in seventh and eighth grade -- she decided she'd rather work with club teams and on her own to become a better player and didn't see JV as helping her achieve that. She always intended to play varsity and loves doing it but doesn't seem to regret not playing JV.

Simple question... tough answer....

To me ...It depends

If you are in the 7th or 8th grade, are in high level club soccer, I would not participate in JV. There is no benefit, school socialization and all.

If you are in the 9th or 10th then club should be no issue, unless you are in a high caliber team, and that team is working during the spring. Which one would beg to question why you are not in varsity?

I realize that some schools cannot field a JV team if the players are not available. But I see no reason to field a JV or B team with 7th and 8th graders if they are already competing in high caliber teams. Long term it will be better for the HS to have them develop in club.

For lower level players,it would be better to get more touches, if the JV instruction is good.

Therefore highly dependant on the circumstances.

Chico & Futbol,

I have to respectfully disagree with you both. I'm limiting the scope of this discussion to girls.

Chico, there is lots of room between being in the US National U-15 pool and being a rec/low level club player. There are those who still want to focus on soccer over fun, but enjoy, and benefit from, the JV HS experience. It's not simply either/or....you can play HS JV and still make Clemson's roster 5 or 6 years later.

I think it should be up to the child...Period.
Somtimes kids want to play with their friends instead of the all star from Georgia on the national team and there is something to be said for school pride

Hurst, my friend.... deja vu all over again.

We will continue to repectfully disagree as we have discussed in the past.

It would be better if the 7 and 8th graders were in a middle school team instead of the HS JV (their team/school spirit are in the middle school not in the HS). Even then I will stick to what I stated above.

I have a child in middle school...no school spirit there

futbol & cht,

Ironically two of my JV soccer-playing daughters also doubled as middle school cheerleaders in 7th & 8th grade! (while playing competitive club at the same time).

Goooooooo Bulldogs!!!

>>[Hurst66] It's not simply either/or....you can play HS JV and still make Clemson's roster 5 or 6 years later.<

You absolutely can. You can also marry Julia Roberts if you look like Lyle Lovett. Heck...you can marry my wife if you look like me! All sorts of weird things happen.

Maybe some kids in middle school care about college...mine didn't. My kid just wanted to be a better soccer player. She made a choice at that time to go to Greenville and practice with what was then GFC. I'm pretty sure she'd make the same choice today.

Does that mean it's the only choice -- or even the best choice -- for every kid out there? Of course not. If a kid is good enough, then he/she can make all sorts of decisions that are non-optimal and still have things work out for them. I took the question as more of a "what's optimal?" versus "what's possible?"

P.S. Please note that I've repeatedly defended high school play -- this isn't a club versus school bias -- this is simply a discussion of managing a short-term conflict between club spring season and middle school soccer.