HERE'S TO YOU JV

JV should be both learning and entertaining.

My son played JV freshman year. After watching a season I told him if he didn't make varsity soph year I would see him in a year. Someone asked me if I thought he could make varsity freshman year. I said he had the potential talent considering the internal competition. But I wasn't sure he was ready for the opposing pitching. He and another freshman were the last two varsity cuts. I would have rather watched him struggle on a bad varsity team than own JV ball and watch a season of JV speed ball.

 

Fortunately my daughter only spent four games playing JV softball.

I am living the dream right now with sophomore son pitcher. Was brought up to varsity and had a one inning bad outing gave up two runs to last years state champions. Coach had been trying to use him in relief role and he has been trained as a starter. I don't know if my son can flip the switch to be a reliever.Now dealing with 5 to 8 errors behind him per game. I don't know if varsity coach will give him another shot but  I am wondering if it is really doing him any good to pitch against teams when he doesn't have a good defense behind him to trust to make a play. And hardly no offense at all. He gave up one run in his last outing threw a full seven innings. Gave up the run in first inning. 112 pitch outing and he said his arm felt great even after. But the errors are killing me I stay positive to the boy. But honestly I dont really know if I can handle dealing with it much longer. I will keep my mouth shut its his place to ask the coach for another try. The boy seams ok with it. He knows that he is there because that what the coach wants for him right now.

Yes, okballdad, it is absolutely doing him good.  These are perfect training grounds for learning to deal with adversity after adversity, remain a solid team player and continue to put his best effort forward toward what he can control while blocking out what he cannot.

 

This is also a great opportunity for learning how to step up to a variety of roles.  You will read here that, perhaps the majority of college and pro players are playing in positions and/or filling roles that are different than what they played in HS.  So, starting P to reliever and back is hardly a hurdle a capable pitcher can't overcome. 

 

When your son had the one bad inning at V, I'm sure he hoped for support and encouragement from the other V players.  He should remember that and be that guy for those JV players struggling around him.  For yourself, good to hear you are staying positive with him.  You may find it easier if you also embrace the opportunities I mentioned and celebrate when he takes those moments to be the supportive voice to his teammates during the "times of trouble", even when he is the guy on the mound.  Today, your son is the one performing well (congrats on that, by the way).  There will be days when his teammates are hitting and fielding but he just doesn't have his best stuff.  May not be tomorrow or next week or even this year but it will come.  

 

 

 

Best comment I heard was from our younger son's varsity coach. 

 

He said to a group of parents, "Yes, i will put freshmen on varsity in some cases but you as a parent should think hard about whether or not you want your 14/15-year old son in a dugout filled with 18-year old conversations.  There's quit a difference between those two ages conversationally."

 

Bingo!

Our JV program is full of talent (all 34 of us).  They players are learning much more than baseball with this size roster. 

34 on a JV roster?  Wow.  My son's school has played against teams that only had 11 on varsity.  How many coaches for this JV team?

Five coaches.  We line up from home to first and if we can not beat you on the field, we'll challenge you to a football scrimmage.  This was great for fund raising this year, but pretty unmanageable from a player development standpoint.  Can you imagine the weight room workouts on Saturday mornings with 34 players in the small weight room? Our program opted out on cuts this year (JV and V) and figures that the players will quit next year due to lack of playing time or move out of the area and that is how roster size will take care of itself (their words not mine). The LL that feeds our school is large and successful.  There are just as many rising Freshman ball players next year as this years Freshman class, with a log jam at the rising Senior level.  We could definitely use a Freshman team, but due to budget cuts, no dice.  It may sound great to have all these talented players, but tension is created when people do not hit or play with too many errors and there are no player rotation, when you are 4 deep everywhere.  There is another thread on this site about does HS baseball matter that helps keep all of this sane.

I guess it really depends on where you live.  Here in Orange County CA, granted - one of the absolute hotbeds of talent in the country - all schools, except for probably the smallest private schools, field a Frosh, JV and V team - and some even field Frosh, Frosh/Soph, JV and V. 

 

The level of play at the Frosh level is good here, and at the JV level, real darn good, relatively speaking.  I mean, if I needed a baseball fix, and passed by our HS fields on the way back from Trader Joe's, I could stop and watch a few innings of a Frosh game and it would be enjoyable, good solid baseball.  Our son, who played Frosh and JV - not making Varsity until Jr. year is now a Senior pitcher in college who will end up logging over 200 IP in his college career - so he's always had skills.  In HS, he played against numerous kids during both Frosh and JV who went on to become major contributors at major D1-D3 schools, some being drafted both out of HS and in college. If you make Varsity in our area as a Frosh, or even a Soph, at a competitive program, of which there are many, you are definitely in the minority.  No shame whatsoever in playing at the lower levels for two years.

It might be better for a lot of the freshmen to be playing travel ball in the spring (if 15U spring travel exists). More players would be getting coaching attention and game experience. The issue is while it can't be connected directly to the school it needs to be well coached with communication with the high school coaching staff.

Our program has a Frosh team but it's considered a "club" and not part of the school athletic program.  They don't pay to play but do pay a sizeable amount to the boosters to cover team outfitting, bussing, field maintenance, etc.

 

34 players is insane!  They could run two intrasquad scrimmages a day and still have kids on the bench!!

Watched two pretty good JV games last night, granted it was us against one of the best programs in the area.  We hung in for all but 2 innings out of 12 played and there was only one error committed by our defense.  Not bad for first game in chilly Michigan!

We found that out the hard way too.  It is a good perspective to think that one through...

We have frosh, soph and Jv/V. JV games are for V players who dont see significant playing time. My 2017 is on the soph team. Had his first game on the mound yesterday in game 2 of a double header. Our starters are pretty solid. Last year as a frosh A team they lost 2 games, took our district by 8 games and won the summer state championship. Our bench players were the frosh B team last year and were solid but no where near as talented. They started the bench players in game 2. My son had not played with this group yet as he is a starter and played on the A team last year. He gave up 7 runs in 1 2/3 innings thanks to 5 errors. Not one of the runs was earned. 4 errors on the same player which would have led to a double play and would had us out of the inning with no runs each time. My son struck out 3 and walked no one.  Im out of town so i was watching on gamechanger and getting txt updates. According to one of the dads updating me. It was one of the more brutal things he has seen and he felt really bad for my kid but said he did a great job of keeping his composure.