Question

Im speaking in the western north carolina area, Is it a norm for high school football coaches to move 10th graders to varsity football, leaving there JV program to get beat each and every thursday night. Also most of these players sitting on the bench on friday nights.

 

If they're not playing, I'd guess they should be playing on Thursday and being offered to suit up on Friday. How coaches handle this specifically from place to place, that's harder to say.

 

I know here at A. C. Reynolds we have 9 Sophomores on Varsity, however all play, and none sit the bench. Here is our breakdown, 6 of them start on defense, 2 start on offense, and 1 kicker. We typically will not bring up a sophomore unless he will see significant playing time. Since we only have 10 Seniors we have no choice but to bring up Sophomores this year, however these kids are doing a great job, and most not all would be starting on a lot of teams.

 

at Ragsdale there are 62 players on varsity7 and only 3 sophomores on the roster and one is purely a backup place kicker.

The other two are a tight end/defensive lineman and a receiver/DB that was projected as a starter at receiver but sees more time on defense. Both these guys play as Norwood rotates lots of players in but neither start.

Norwood has done such a great job building a program at Ragsdale that he has the problem ( a problem all coaches would love to have) of having TOO many players to manage. I mean the JV also has 60-65 players on the roster.

Many of the seniors on the team have played two years of JV and one year of varsity as a backup. Norwood will start under classmen on varsity if they are super talents ( see Toney Baker) or if they fill a certain need.

If the sophs are just sitting the bench on varsity I don't see how they are helping the team this year or even in the future. You get better playing in the games even if it's jv.

 

I'm not sure exactly how it works but I don't think the kids can play JV on Thursday and then suit up with the varsity Friday night. It would be good if some of the JV players could be available as backups on Friday but I guess the state doesn't want a coach burning out his players and risking injury playing them back to back nights.

 

like most have already said, it is not the "norm". they should be on JV unless they are projected starters or needed back-ups that will see enough playing time to justify moving up to varsity.

 

The most important question is "does the Varsity win"? If the Varsity is winning my rule of thumb is if a sophmore plays and contributes at least 2 quarters it is a positive move. If the Varsity is going to lose even with them up, but the JV can be successful, leave them down and build on a winning tradition. Its tough sacrificing juniors and seniors, but in every war there are those that clear the way to victory, but never taste the sweetness.

Now if neither the Varsity or JV program have a chance in winning, play them up, make them mean, buy some ear plugs and update the resume.

Most successful coaches and programs win year in and year out at both levels, but sometimes the well runs low especially in the Western Mountains. Thats when you find out the character of the community.


As for Freshman playing up only if they start and only if you win.

 

what are the rules in football as far as playing both JV and Varsity in one week. I know in other sports where they may usually play 2 games in a week, but a player can play up to 3. Which means they could play say, 2 on JV, and one on Varsity. Being that football is one game a week, I'd be interested in knowing the rules. Can they play 2 full games, does it go by quarters or what? Anybody know?

 

you cant play on thursday (jv) and then on friday (varsity) in the same week.

 

yep VI hit it again!!