I have a very good friend who was a year and a class behind me in sports. He was very talented. He was a QB in football and a LHP in baseball. But he was one year behind a dominant class that won state titles in both sports. As a soph QB he played JV while a junior watched a senior be all state. The next year as a junior he carried the clipboard while the QB a class above him became all state. Then senior year my friend was the starting QB after every starter but one graduated. He spent the season running for his life until he got injured. He could have been all state had he started either of the previous two years.
in baseball he was on JV as a soph. There were five pitchers ahead of him. Three were drafted in the top twenty rounds of the MLB draft. My friend was skilled enough to make the Legion team as a soph (no travel then). But he was behind the high school pitchers plus two more from a Catholic school (one drafted). Only one pitcher left after that year. He sat through another season. The Legion team won two state championships. My friend barely pitched until his last year of Legion. He dominated. He went on to pitch at he D1 level for a team that went to the College World Series.
The problem my friend had wasn't a stupid or unfair coach. He was buried behind a load of talent. Now, what do you think the dads thought of the Legion coach when their son's backups on the high school team started over them in Legion? The high school and Legion coaches saw and evaluated the talent differently. Personally I thought the Legion coach got it right. But the truth was it was just two coaches seeing different abilities in players.