As a coach, I have to disagree that running tunnels is a great way to get players ready to play. This is about the only functional thing to do in a small area. 4v2 possession is good as well but not for very long. Both of these activities are good to warm-up with but are not terribly game related. Plus, players get bored with these very quickly. Both are good for about 4-5 minutes before getting stale. Many of my teams have had to warm-up in the circumstances you describe and they are never as ready as if they get a decent amount of time on the game field. When you were a player, did you like having 5 minutes on the game field to warm-up?? When you got that short of time, did you feel as prepared as you would have liked?? What if you were playing at a school that had no place to warm-up besides the game field?? How can you allow player to warm-up long balls or warm your GKer up on this tight of an area??
I want some 5v3 or 6v4 to goal. That is a better way to get players ready for a game. Varsity players do not deserve reduced quality warm-up time in order to make a JV game longer. As a coach, I will never support sacrificing varisty warm-up time for longer JV games, unless it is an in-town game. With that in mind, JV players deserve the right to have a full half time in order to recover and put forth their best effort in the second half.
I still say that if you are traveling a great distance, then keep the JV game at 30 minute halves and a 10 minute half time. The Varsity game should then start 20 minutes following the completion of the JV game. A local game may be able to have 35 minute JV halves b/c travel time is not as big of an issue.
The JV game should have no OT and the Varsity game should be two 10 minute periods of golden goal.
