@22and25 posted:A bit off topic here but...I can’t wrap my head around the comment “7th and 8th graders on varsity”. How does that even work? Here in Texas, 7th and 8th grade is middle school. High school is 9th -12th. Middle school kids do not play high school sports here, at least as far as I am aware. Am I to understand that a kid could play high school varsity baseball starting in 7th grade? A 6 year varsity player? How does all of that even fit on one letterman jacket?😀
I should probably add that I coach at a small rural (a little over 600 kids) in SC. The South Carolina High School League runs all school related sports from 7-12 grades, the district I work in does not do middle school sports (some districts in the state do) so everything is run through our high school program.
Our program is not in great shape if I am being honest and in my opinion the 4 best baseball players in our schools are all in 8th grade. Two of these kids are going to play varsity for us this year (and I'm not sure the other two shouldn't be playing varsity as well). and will start at SS and 2nd if they aren't on the mound. Over the years we have had several kids play at the varsity level in middle school, but everyone of those kids at the very least had the option to go play college ball after high school (and the two this year will likely have that chance when their time comes).
I also teacher 7th grade at one of our feeder schools and one of my students played varsity basketball this year, and at least from the one game that I saw she should have been starting. Back when I was in school we had a girl who started on the varsity basketball team for 6 years, but then again she went on to play at UCONN so she was really really good.