Re Adbono’s post ... How sports is handled is a situational issue. Our high school was as you describe before my kids hit high school. Seniority mattered and politics mattered. The high school was a laughingstock doormat in most sports. As a high school recruiting off the mean streets of three country clubs the high school excelled in golf, water polo and swimming.
As my daughter (the oldest of two) entered high school a new AD was hired. He had been the assistant AD at a nearby powerhouse. Over time he wiped out all the losing coaches and hired up and coming assistants away from other high schools as head coaches. My kids played on twelve conference championship teams in four of their five (daughter played three) sports. The high school started placing so many kids in college sports they had to hire a guidance counselor who understood student-athlete college recruiting.
Regarding two way players ... My son was a position player and a closer. Depending on the year he came from short or center. He always warmed up between the sixth and seventh inning if there was a chance he could come in.
One time a game flipped upside down. He was asked to come in with no warmup on a 40 degree day. It pissed off the coach, but he refused. He told the coach to pull him from the game, let him warm up and sub him back in.
He started a handful of non conference games. He gave them one hundred pitches and came out of the game. Had they been conference games I’m guessing he would have been removed from the mound, sent to left field and told not to cut it loose.
On his 17u team he offered his services as an innings eater mostly in the midweek scout league games. He wanted to be a position player in college. He drew some attention throwing five innings of two hit ball, throwing 87-90 against the top travel team in our area. The irony was he was baffling them with his stuff.