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The SCHSL Rule States;

Soccer teams are limited to 16 varsity matches and 12 junior varsity matches and two invitational tournaments. One invitational tournament may be played one week prior to the first legal playing date. The earliest date for a pre-season tournament is February 22. A school may play 18 varsity matches and one invitational tournament with a written request from the school and approval from the League Office prior to the beginning of the soccer season.

The rule does not state that a "PLAYER" may not compete, it simply states that a "TEAM" may not compete....

RE- SCHSL Rules---

Unfortunately the rule may state "TEAM" but the interpretation that is almost always covered at the rules meeting is "INDIVIDUAL."

Once a player reaches 12 matches DRESSED or played in a season, they are done for JV. Once they reach 16/18 DRESSED or played matches for the season they are done period until the playoffs begin.

The same scenario is supposedly true for pre season with the rule being 2 games/ 1 tournament- 4 games 1/tournament for JV/Varsity.

I may be wrong on this as I often seem to be, however that is how it has always been explained to me.

Now…. whether or not individual coaches follow the rule is another thing entirely too. It has been explained to me that some coaches will move varsity players down to JV for matches if the Varsity is not also playing and then say that since it was “just a JV match” it doesn’t count toward the 18 “Varsity” matches they can play……This would be a No-No as I have had the rule explained to me.

Just my understating of things……

You know...it used to be stated in the handbook that an individual could not participate in more than 16 games in any combination...and now I can't find that rule in this year's handbook. This could bear investigation; unless I'm just looking in the wrong places, that seems to have been deleted!

I was talking to a guy the other day and he played soccer back in 92 and he told me about how one time they beat their arch rivals 28-0 just because their arch rivals beat them 30-0 in football that same year. I brought up the debate here with the 19-0 situation and he said "kill them with everything, no matter what". He calls it "killer instinct".