HS: Calling kids up a level

Our numbers are similar but they tend to keep more freshman and sophomores and cut at the junior and senior grades.  For seniors, they need to be one of the top 15 seniors and top 18 overall, otherwise they're cut.  The coach looks at 9A&B, Soph, and JV teams as being development teams for varsity.  As long as you are developing and show promise to be a contributor to the varsity program you're kept, otherwise your gone.  To keep more sophomores there's a few that are promoted to JV.  There are very, very few seniors who play JV (rehab assignments mainly IIRC)

Our local HS has a student population of about 1250 or so.  Typically the varsity coach keeps  13-14.  JV about the same.  No freshman team.  Collectively about 50-60 turn out for JV/Varsity tryouts.  Varsity HC only keeps sophomores (if they have the skill set), juniors and seniors.  Most sophomores usually end up on JV.  In the time my son was there, he never kept freshman for Varsity.

 

The only time the HC ever brought a JV player up was if the varsity squad made the playoffs and only if there were some injured varsity players.  That only happened during my son's senior year where we had a couple of starters with slight injuries (one had a sprained ankle and the other a wrist injury - both eventually played in the playoffs).  The JV players that were brought up did see some playing time, but it was very much situational.

 

This year might prove interesting.  Just heard there may be up to 12 seniors at tryouts.

My son played at a large high school. In season call ups were usually extra pitchers when there was an extra game or rain make up on the schedule in a given week. Players can go up and down in our state. If a hitter was hot for half a season on JV he might get called up mid season and get a start. At the end of the year three or four jv players would get called up to be around the post season experience. If they're fast and good base runners they might pinch run.

 

Our high school coach came from one of the largest high schools in the state where a soph playing varsity was a rarity. My son was the first soph in six years to start opening day. It was the coach's third year coaching at our school. He played well. It opened the coach's mind about sophs on varsity. There's only been one freshman starter in his seven years. The kid was already filled out and agile. He could pick it at first better than any high school kid I've seen.

Our HS is about 1600 kids across 4 grades.  They have been named CA HS athletics program of the year numerous times, SI national athletics HS of the year top-5 a few times, win state championships and mythical national championships.  Kerry Walsh, Brandi Chastain…current Olympian skater Polina Edmunds and Arizona super frosh basketball player Aaron Gordon all attended or do attend this HS.  Between 20-30 kids from each class go on to play D1 college sports.

 

I give you all of that to make clear it is a VERY competitive HS in terms of athletics (actually, academics, theater, etc… too!  99% of the kids go on to college - an actual statistic).

 

They do indeed pull kids up.  Across every sport.  Freshmen and sophomores.  If you're good enough, you play up, unless you don't want your son too (yep, parents/player get a say in it).

 

Plain and simple.

 

Aside from maturity issues (which are real when comparing a 14/15-year old freshman to an 18/19-year old senior), I don't know why a school wouldn't?  And yes, maturity is part of their equation too.

 

I love this HS.  I think they've got the equation so right on so many axes.  If I were starting a new HS I would study their model.  They have it figured out.

When my son was a sophomore he played the first 27 games on the JV team.The head coach called him up for the last 4 regular season games,and he stayed up for the 4 playoff games too.He was used as a PH and DH and played in seven of those eight games earning a varsity letter.A great experience !

 

As for the numbers,my sons HS is small,an all boys Catholic with 700 students.Uber competitive in the classroom and on the field.The last few years our varsity team has carried 25 which is a lot.Our JV and freshman teams are full too.All three teams are very good year in and year out.Tryouts for Varsity/JV were yesterday(we've been working out since beginning of January). I'm sure there are some disappointed boys this morning.It's tough here because each year boys get cut that could play and start at other schools.Boys transfer out every year because of this....

Son attends a smaller private school also, highly competitive academically. Lower student count of ~700 HS means varsity and JV teams only. So making V as a freshman isn't unheard of, however, you're still talking about JRs and SRs with basically adult bodies... and still only 9 spots in the lineup. Biggest difference is depth... as in there isn't any. By soph year, a better soph player should be contributing. So the advantage is PT earlier, trade off is overall level of jv and varsity competition is lower. This means players eyeing next level really need a strong summer travel team. 

 

The numbers in the OP are roughly same for Texas 4A, 5A, and new 6A programs.

Joe, I'm in south suburbs of Chicago...wondering if we play you guys.  Our HS is one of the larger ones (4 schools), and we have 1 frosh team, 1 soph, and 1 varsity.  Our program the past couple years have been blessed to have some really, really good freshmen/soph classes.  Our varsity program pulled up 2 frosh position players and 2 soph pitchers last year.  And they contributed in big ways.  Overall they usually keep 20-22 on the frosh level, 18-20 on soph, and anywhere from 20-25 on varsity.  Our varsity coach only brings up underclassmen if they are going to play and can handle it.  The other schools in our district are pretty much the same.

Our local high school has two squads:  JV and varsity.  Underclassmen do sometimes make the varsity, but the coach usually will not put a freshman or sophomore on varsity unless he is good enough to start on varsity.  He'd rather have his best underclassmen playing JV than sitting at varsity.  He usually brings up a few for playoffs after the JV season is over.

My son's school has around 2100 students.  Son and another sophomore start with 7 seniors on varsity this year.  A few juniors get some reps.

 

School has multiple sophomores that start on varsity football including the QB.  They also have three sophomores in the top ten on varsity hoops.

 

If you can play at his school they don't seem to care what your grade level is.

 

With that said not all are that way in area.  Son's summer teammate who is 6'5 and touches 86 and is committed to a D1 already somehow finds himself on his JV squad at the moment even though his school is small and not a strong baseball team.  Head scratcher for sure.

Our HS (SS actually), has JV and V baseball and each carries about 18 players. We are a usually mediocre program but played in a weak division. With a statewide reorganization, we are in a more competitive division, but we have a very weak FR class coming in (in general, though I certainly hope my son will be a notable exception). Anyhow, we have 6-7 talented sophmores and 6-7 juniors (senior class is weak), so folks are wondering if they will strip-out the SO's to try and make V as competitive as possible. This means the JV squad might be woeful. We'll see soon enough: tryouts start tomorrow.

Son's High School is about 2,300 Students over 4 Grades.  It has only been around for 6 years, and in it's initial year a freshman was brought up.  It hasn't happened since, and I believe it will be a rare occurence.  Last year, the team had to rebuild after a state championship season.  There were 6 Sophs on varsity.  The Jr. & Sr. Classes were relatively week.  5 of the sophs started, and they still made it to state.  Should be an exciting next couple of years.

My sons HS is about 700 in 4 grades.  Usually about 45 tryout for the 3 teams so no one gets cut.  The AD forces the 3 teams instead of just two.  Usually makes for a really weak C team.  Our coach brings kids up from jv all the time.  My sons sophomore year he was starting pitcher that day on jv and after 3 innings got called up to varsity,  played 1b and pitched the last inning.  This will be last HS season but hopefully not his last for good.

We have around 3k in our 8a school...

Son was 2nd position-starting freshman in 20 or so years... so it was a huge honor for him to make the Varsity squad last year. Very humbling.

Joe, my HS is in Illinois as well.  However, we are 1,100.  I never coached one season as a HC where I didn't have at least one freshman on the varsity.  The best play.  If a Freshman could take someone else's job then they earned the right to play.  My daughter started all four years of softball her at our HS as well. 

 

The way my teams were structured was that there was the Varsity, JV and Freshman Teams.  Some members of the JV were expected to travel with the Varsity if the JV didn't have a game.  In my practices, we had those players who traveled with the Varsity start each evening of practice with the JV but they always finished with the Varsity. 

All 

Thanks for the replies.  I was just wondering how others approach this.  Im not really worried about frosh vs. varsity.  I just noticed that a lot of posters say their kids been playing varsity since like 2nd grade (jk).  I know in our school its a rarity.  I don't say it doesn't happen but its not an everyday occurrence.  

Sons school has about 1800 students, 22 kids on Frosh Soph, 23 on JV and about 23 on V. Last year son played varsity as a frosh along with 3 Soph. This year we have 2 Soph no frosh.

 

This will be the first year that I have been the HC where we didn't have a Freshman on Varsity.  We have one that could play but we had a heavy underclassmen group last year so I am leaving him down.  However once I am done graduating 6 starters and 4 bench guys this year I am sure I will have 1 or 2 Freshman next year.

The county in which we reside is about 500 square miles.  There are 48 public high schools (districts) and 28 private or Catholic high schools in this county.  Hey, maybe that's why my school taxes are so high?!   (county has the highest taxes in the country, just for the record).

 

Anyway, in our little 6 square mile slice of the pie, there are 1600 students in my son's high school.  They have a freshman, JV and varsity team with about 18-24 players per team.  It is not uncommon for freshmen to make, or get called up, to the JV team.  To my knowledge, only 1 freshman has made the varsity team in the past 20 years.

 

Tryouts, which last 6 days, start 2 weeks from today.  The players have been working for the past couple of months.

 

Only in smaller schools would I think it is common for freshman to get called up to Varsity.  In our area I believe every small town high school near me has at least one freshman (if not more) that start on Varsity.  This would be public schools with total enrollment between 150 to 400 students. 

Tryouts???   Ha....that's funny....lol.   My son attends a school with 140 or so kids/grade.  This year we're going to have about 30 kids in the baseball program....that's total....freshman thru senior.   We're lucky to have enough kids to play a JV and a varsity game on the same day....lol.    My son has 5 kids from his grade playing.  When he was in 6th grade, there were 30.  Our school has a lot of success in football and basketball....and unfortunately a lot of kids who could have been good baseball players have just decided that playing 3 sports is too much. 

 

Or, as I like to say, they have found that baseball is too hard.  

 

That's for all the kids who tell my son that it is an easy sport.

 

Depending on the size of the school, and pitching depth, it may not be uncommon to call players up to a higher level. We saw this more in football in our family, than in baseball.  3 sons, the eldest 2 are 9 & 12 years older then our surprise - 2013. He was the only one to play multiple sports year around. Our eldest played Varsity Football in the 8th grade. The Coaches nickname for him was the "Animal" ! Our 2013 always started on offense (QB) & defense (MLB) in Football. By Varsity age our 2013, cut back on sports, choosing to concentrate on Baseball,  although he surprised us his Senior year, and skipped Travel Fall Baseball, and started on the HS Soccer Team in the Fall. Had a blast!

We've got about 2600 kids ... Fresh/Soph/JV and Varsity teams with about 16 players each.  My 2015 "made" varsity as a Freshman PO.  Got a little mop up work on the mound on busy weeks, but still pitched a game a week or so with the JV team. In hindsight it worked out very well:  He got the varsity experience of pitching to and practicing with older players, but still got some innings at the JV level. Now that he's a wily veteran as a Junior  I think the experience has served him well both in HS and Travel ball.  One caveat about playing up for pitchers:  they are forced to confront the "pitcher only" tag earlier than they normally would in their High School career.  For us, it wasn't much of an issue, but I have seen players (and their parents) who struggle with it.

 

 

Our school is relatively small - 700-800.  V and JV only, we usually start with 14-16 per squad and lose a few to grades, etc.  Years with good turnout, we'll have to make cuts to get to those numbers while some years, not so much.  Freshman on V is not common.  This year we we have one frosh who has a chance to come up and he would be the 3rd in about the last ten years.  We also have a few sophomores who are on the bubble. 

 

Lots of different things factor in to these decisions and it is more than just playing ability.  Positional fit and need as well as what each player will benefit from most are considered.  For instance, this freshman is clearly focused on baseball beyond HS and will benefit more from being with V and getting better quality reps, higher level situational instruction, more competitive inter-squad, and being around better competition even if his PT is limited this year.  The sophs, on the other hand, are good players but I think are more likely to be done with baseball at the end of HS and may be more motivated if they are playing in games (JV).

 

Whenever this topic comes up, it should be stated what a big issue the social differences can be.  The dialog and behavior of 17/18 year olds is quite different than that of a typical 14/15 yo.

 

All this said and considered, team needs should come first.  And, I will add, the few freshmen who came up did very well with their HS years and got opportunities to play beyond HS but not necessarily more so than others who were brought up later.  Also, those players took a beating over the four years and beyond and both struggled through multiple injuries.

 

Moral - either way, doesn't affect future potential.  Either way - enjoy it while it lasts.

My son's school has about 3000 kids across 4 grades.

 

They only have JV and Varsity teams, each carrying about 20 players. The head coach took over last year and cleaned house, so it's a pretty young program. There's one freshman playing on varsity, and he's pretty much worked his way to the #1 starting pitcher slot. Being 6'1 and throwing in the 80's helps overcome the age difference...

 

The only other player that moves up and down is the soph. starting JV catcher. He usually dresses for the varsity games and warms up pitchers in the bullpen.  I think he would be a full time varsity player, but there are two solid upperclassmen ahead of him.  It's good fit though because the JV pitchers get to work with a good catcher - and he is seeing more playing time.

...as far as pulling up (or down) during season, we always bring up a handful of players for mid-season tourney time and they will usually get at least a few innings.  Then, they usually go back to JV.  We bring up a handful again for playoffs but they are not as likely to play then - just get the experience.

 

We will move guys up or down on occasion also to fill a hole for someone who is out sick or hurt where we don't have much depth in the position.  Or a pitcher who is not getting innings at V may be sent down to throw some.  Players can move up or down in our league - just can't play two levels on the same day.

I like the way our school handles baseball.  Larger, 1600 student, suburban school. 

 

We have 4 levels, Fresh, Soph, JV, & V.  Around 40-50 Freshman try out and about 25 make it.  Freshmen can play at any level but most play on the freshman team, maybe 5 play on the Soph team and if you’re really good, maybe 1-2 will get some time on  JV, and one every few years will play on varsity.  25 is a lot of Freshmen to keep but another big cut comes soph year.  Of the 25 that made it as Freshmen, only 7-10 will make it as a Soph.  I like them keeping a lot of Fresh since it gives them an entire season to evaluate the players.  There may be another 1-2 kids cut Jr year.  If you make the team Jr year, you are guaranteed to make the team SR year.  SR’s can only play on varsity.  SR’s may be guaranteed a varsity spot, but they certainly are not guaranteed playing time.  Normally by the end of JR season you know where you stand, so some SR’s drop out.

 

Kid’s do get brought up regularly and some will play on two teams, say pitch on Varsity and play position on JV.

Two sons, both put on varsity as freshman. One saw only a few innings- a waste of a year except the varsity coach was far superior to the JV coach so he learned some things. Younger son was moved up and started every inning on varsity as a  9th grader. Great experience.

 

   Moral: It's all about playing time.