bouncing between jv and varsity - rules?

Great question. Having the good fortune of my kid rising to the occasion in his first year and being new to HS ball and CIF rules, I've been seeking this same information without having to ask the coach and have him come away thinking my son is not thankful for the opportunities provided so far, or that we want him to be on Varsity just to say he made the team. IMHO, innings and AB's are of utmost importance at this level.

Anyways, I looked it up last night and believe that Rule 302-6 dictates that a player can play between all levels during tournaments, but once rostered to Varsity (I would consider "rostered" to mean the roster submitted to the Section Office as mentioned in the rule below) cannot move down. The question I came away with is the due date for eligibility rosters to be submitted to the Section Office. I'm hoping the rosters are "due" just before Conference play begins and that my kid will continue to face Varsity and JV competition until rosters are submitted, then being rostered to JV where he will likely get double the innings and AB's during the season than he would see on Varsity.

Here is the rule cited from what appears to be a CIF website for LA/OC:

302-6 Other than for tournament play, movement between Frosh/Soph, JV and Varsity level teams is allowed up to the date that the eligibility rosters are due in the Athletics Office. Students who are moved to the varsity level cannot return to the lower level after the date that the eligibility rosters are due in the Section Office. Although movement up to the varsity level is allowed at any time during the season (with adherence to 301-3 above); no student shall participate in more than one level of competition in the same sport in the same day. Exception: Those transfer students who have been restricted to lower-level may not play on the varsity level throughout the duration of the restriction.

For tournament play, students listed on the junior varsity or frosh/soph roster may participate in a junior varsity or varsity level tournament and maintain their lower-level status throughout the remainder of the season. However, no student listed on a varsity roster or junior varsity roster, may participate in a lower-level tournament at any time during the season. Exception: Those transfer students who have been restricted to lower-level may not play on the varsity level throughout the duration of the restriction.


My response is just an inexperienced assumption, so any further clarification will be greatly appreciated.

Best of luck to your kid this year!

I am not aware of a CIF rule regarding movement between varsity and lower level teams. The rule quoted by PESCAHOLIC is, I believe, specific to the LA section.

For the Central Coast Section, again I'm not aware of any rule that limits movement.

My son plays in the WCAL, and it does prohibit downward movement during the league play, although a JV player can be moved up for 2 contests during non-league play.

My understanding is you are listed on a roster before the first league game. A jv player can be brought up and play without being added(to the roster). he can then be sent down once as long as he is not a senior. you can only be sent down once. if and when recalled he must be kept at the varsity level.(no matter what grade level)

Thanks for all the replies, gang.

We are a HS program with V and JV team only. We would like to have the ability to occasionally get an underclass V player buried on the depth chart a few innings now and then with JV and maybe reward a JV player once in a while with a call up. The only thing I could find in CIF Blue Book says "No student shall participate in more than one level of competition on the same sport one the same day". However, one of the other coaches felt certain that there were other rules against movement. Of course, we would never move seniors down.

3Fingers - We are on the central coast but part of the Southern Section. Does that matter?

Each section can have its own rules. However, I took a quick look at the Southern Section Bluebook, searching on Varsity. I didn't see any restriction on movement. You may want to check your league rules.

I also looked through the CIF Blue book and did not see any mention of the issue. I do know that in the Channel League (just south of you) that kids are routinely moved between JV and Varsity, just not playing on both teams on the same day.

Perfect, thanks guys.

Our experience with the CIF SS was that 2 regular season games playing in a game with the varsity made a player ineligible for JV. I don't know if that is a rule, word of mouth, or totally out of date.

CIF san diego says if you play a game with varsity one week, you can't play jv for the rest of the week...can go back to jv the following week. Last yr, we had a few kids playing the early game w/ jv then varsity game later in the week.

I wrote to the CIF and received this response:


"There are no relevant C.I.F. Southern Section rules regarding a player playing Varsity and/or J.V. during a particular season, that is an issue for the school's coaching staff.

The only rule we have regarding this issue is a rule that states a player cannot play two levels of the same sport on the same day. So, a player can't play in a Varsity baseball game and a J.V. Baseball game on the same day."

Pescaholic,
Thanks for the follow up. Nice to have that "horses mouth" answer to tie everything together.

Varsity/JV eligibility is a very interesting topic with apparently no rules. 

There must be something in the rules that restricts Varsity from moving around at random. 

Lack of any rules would suggest that as long as the Varsity game was not on the same day as the JV game, the entire Varsity team could simply move down and play the JV game. Something that might be appealing to rival schools, but I don't think that is the spirit of the game. 

 

Most of the posts are dated on this thread.  Does anyone know for sure?

Welcome to the site.  I see by your bio that you are in the CIF.  There are rules and they are as stated above.  Some schools and leagues add further restrictions.  The scenario you describe just doesn't happen for many reasons.  In our section and I believe in most California sections, games are scheduled home and away for V and JV so they play at the same time.  This further prevents movement beyond a player or two.  Also, JV is generally considered more developmental and, while a rivalry is still a rivalry, a coach would be heavily criticized or worse if he were to move the entire V team down.  The "spirit of the game" as you described does exist in this instance.