Freshman High School- thoughts?

NumberTen

NumberTen

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Now that high school tryouts are under way or over, what are your thoughts. Son had a good try out and made the varsity team. Most of the team are juniors and seniors and they all are club players. My first impression is that they practice longer and more days a week. Typically we will have two games and three practices a week. The real question is the quality of the practice. There's no doubt that they will stay in shape.
 
NumberTen said:
Now that high school tryouts are under way or over, what are your thoughts. Son had a good try out and made the varsity team. Most of the team are juniors and seniors and they all are club players. My first impression is that they practice longer and more days a week. Typically we will have two games and three practices a week. The real question is the quality of the practice. There's no doubt that they will stay in shape.
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The quality will depend on a coach you have. It's nothing different from any club - there are good and bad coaches in HS.
 
There is something to be said playing for you HS and the pride it brings out in your kids. It is not the soccer you are used to seeing on weekends. More aggressive, physical and less possessive but the intensity is real and playing against young men with more physically mature bodies and surviving it has its positives. Your club coach will hate it. I told my child it is like playing world cup. You play for the pride of your community (high school) and peers for a short period of time. You have to adjust to the style, speed and possibly positioning. You get to play for passion. They you go back to club where it is real world and those you played against are now your brothers and sisters again. You do not get the intensity in club where every win means something. at 14,15, 16 and 17 you lose you pool game you get over it pretty quickly. In high school it seems that a loss grinds on my child a lot more and burns deeper.
 
The quality of the training will depend on the coach.

One thing you may want to be aware is the lack of playtime your son will get. I know two boys who made to varsity team as a freshman. One boy (DV 2) played in the varsity at the beginning of the season, but asked his coaches to place him in the JV because he wasn’t getting much playtime. The coaches granted his wish, and he played in the JV team for the rest of the season. In his sophmore year, he made to the varsity again, and he was a co-captain and #10. The other boy (DV 3) stayed in the varsity team for the entire season, and got about 10 minutes playtime in total. I happened to watch one of the games his school played, and he was subbed in in the last 30 seconds. :(
 
hattrick3 said:
The quality of the training will depend on the coach.

One thing you may want to be aware is the lack of playtime your son will get. I know two boys who made to varsity team as a freshman. One boy (DV 2) played in the varsity at the beginning of the season, but asked his coaches to place him in the JV because he wasn’t getting much playtime. The coaches granted his wish, and he played in the JV team for the rest of the season. In his sophmore year, he made to the varsity again, and he was a co-captain and #10. The other boy (DV 3) stayed in the varsity team for the entire season, and got about 10 minutes playtime in total. I happened to watch one of the games his school played, and he was subbed in in the last 30 seconds. :(
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Medium sized private school that only has one team. After watching tryouts, I am not worried about playing time. But I guess that you never know. A few juniors and seniors, IMO should not have made the team. If they want to win then I see no problem for him. First year, so anything is possible I guess.
 
hattrick3 said:
The quality of the training will depend on the coach.

One thing you may want to be aware is the lack of playtime your son will get. I know two boys who made to varsity team as a freshman. One boy (DV 2) played in the varsity at the beginning of the season, but asked his coaches to place him in the JV because he wasn’t getting much playtime. The coaches granted his wish, and he played in the JV team for the rest of the season. In his sophmore year, he made to the varsity again, and he was a co-captain and #10. The other boy (DV 3) stayed in the varsity team for the entire season, and got about 10 minutes playtime in total. I happened to watch one of the games his school played, and he was subbed in in the last 30 seconds. :(
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Similar experience -- my older son played on the Freshman team, which was composed mostly of his club teammates and local rival club players. It was like a continuation of club season. That year, there weren't even any Freshmen that made JV - too big a pulse of good players in the upper years. My second son, two years later, played JV as a Freshman, and then rolled easily into a starting role on Varsity as a Sophomore. A couple of years after that a Freshman tried out for Varsity and made the team when his older brother was still on JV. He ended up setting the modern team records for goals and assists in his 4 years.

So if your kid is good enough to start - put him on Varsity. If he is going to be a benchwarmer for a year, put him where he will be a frequent player.
 
My kid just started high school and went out for soccer. He's been playing Flight 1 for 4 years and was previously was part of a starting XI squad that won National Cup and went onto the FarWest Regionals. He's on the slightly smaller side but thought for sure he'd make the JV team. Nope...they put him on the Freshman/Sophomore team while moving other kids that play at a much lower level to JV. He (as well as the rest of his friends and other JV players) was shocked, especially in light of how he performed in the tryouts. He's pretty miserable that he's now on a team with kids that play Bronze/Silver or even AYSO. It's taken everything we have to get his attitude straight and keep him from being bitter.

The original set of coaches at the school, with the exception of one, all quit right before the school year started and were replaced with guys who apparently barely know the game. The other day, his coach had the boys practice using an exercise called "Sharks & Minnows". Yes...that drill that is most commonly used for players around the U6 age. Needless to say, something we were really looking forward to is not giving us much hope. Oh well...it's only a couple months.
 
tylerdurden said:
My kid just started high school and went out for soccer. He's been playing Flight 1 for 4 years and was previously was part of a starting XI squad that won National Cup and went onto the FarWest Regionals. He's on the slightly smaller side but thought for sure he'd make the JV team. Nope...they put him on the Freshman/Sophomore team while moving other kids that play at a much lower level to JV. He (as well as the rest of his friends and other JV players) was shocked, especially in light of how he performed in the tryouts. He's pretty miserable that he's now on a team with kids that play Bronze/Silver or even AYSO. It's taken everything we have to get his attitude straight and keep him from being bitter.

The original set of coaches at the school, with the exception of one, all quit right before the school year started and were replaced with guys who apparently barely know the game. The other day, his coach had the boys practice using an exercise called "Sharks & Minnows". Yes...that drill that is most commonly used for players around the U6 age. Needless to say, something we were really looking forward to is not giving us much hope. Oh well...it's only a couple months.
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Welcome to high school soccer. Some of those HS coaches completely suck. I have even seen club coaches that do a good job with club and suck at HS. The good thing about HS is that players can move up and down between the teams. So, just tell your son to kick ass on the field and the idiot coaches a bound to notice and move him up.
 
tylerdurden said:
My kid just started high school and went out for soccer. He's been playing Flight 1 for 4 years and was previously was part of a starting XI squad that won National Cup and went onto the FarWest Regionals. He's on the slightly smaller side but thought for sure he'd make the JV team. Nope...they put him on the Freshman/Sophomore team while moving other kids that play at a much lower level to JV. He (as well as the rest of his friends and other JV players) was shocked, especially in light of how he performed in the tryouts. He's pretty miserable that he's now on a team with kids that play Bronze/Silver or even AYSO. It's taken everything we have to get his attitude straight and keep him from being bitter.

The original set of coaches at the school, with the exception of one, all quit right before the school year started and were replaced with guys who apparently barely know the game. The other day, his coach had the boys practice using an exercise called "Sharks & Minnows". Yes...that drill that is most commonly used for players around the U6 age. Needless to say, something we were really looking forward to is not giving us much hope. Oh well...it's only a couple months.
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That sucks. He should go all-star mode and just enjoy it. Luckily, my kid's HS coach is an adequate club coach, was noticed and put on varsity as a 9th grader - we'll see how playing time goes.
 
My kid's school has 3 teams. Varsity (no freshmen and only 1 sophomore made it); JV (a handful of freshman, a few more sophomores and mostly juniors); JV-Reserve (freshman and sophomores). My boy made the JV team and I'm a little disappointed. I was hoping for the JV-R team so he could play with his classmates and that could still be an option given his position. The coaching staff for Varsity and JV are club coaches and the few practices I've seen are clearly designed to help the coaching staff see where the players will fit in. At this point, I'm feeling pretty good that HS will continue to push forward with development, but my primary hope is the kid just has fun.
 
The problem with freshman playing varsity is not skill but just size. the injuries can be severe. If your child is awesome but the coach kept him/her on the freshman team, just have them enjoy the ride. I always wanted my son to make it to jv or varsity as a freshman. Then I saw the size difference and injuries and I am glad that he is playing at the freshman level.
 
I had very low expectations for HS soccer, but I didn’t set them low enough. Promotion to varsity or JV depends 90% on whether you paid for the coach’s club team or summer program, or whether you pass to the coach’s son. My son is a streaky player but he was one of the fastest kids in academy last year, and he’s torching varsity players in futsal sessions, but he refused to pass to the coach’s son or join the coach’s club team, so he is firmly stuck on fresh/soph B team.

I told him just have fun and you learned an important lesson in how the world actually works. And take some privates with a real trainer after HS season is over.
 
On my sons HS team they got a new coach who was the coach at the local club that ten of the players played on. His team was undefeated for the season. They are all juniors and seniors. I was pleasantly surprised that all those players did not make the starting line up. Although they are all on the team. We have no JV team, so he carries 6-8 players that are JV quality, to develope I guess. My son is a freshman, but aggressive and skilled on the ball, he made the starting lineup and is really excelling. I get the impression that HS is only about winning, they expect you to come with your skills already developed. The coach seems very fair and everyone has a chance to make the starting line up.

I agree that size matters. There are juniors and seniors who are huge and hard to play through.
 
NumberTen said:
......I agree that size matters. There are juniors and seniors who are huge and hard to play through.
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Last night I refereed two fairly good San Diego boys varsity teams (their first game of the season). The home team’s outside mid (skinny freshman) was dribbling down to the corner to try and get a cross off. The visiting teams defender (junior or senior and muscular build) is bumping him shoulder to shoulder, nothing too hard and no foul. Mid loses the ball out of play for a throw in. He turns to me and says, “He was pushing me why didn’t you call it?” Before I could say anything his teammate (forward) says, “Freshman, that was no foul. You need to hit the weights if you want to play with the big boys.” It took all my self control not to laugh. The defenders and his teammates who heard it laughed. Later in the game I ask the forward why he made the comment about his teammate. He says that the freshman has been talking shit about how good he is since the beginning of tryouts and everyone on the team is tired of it. They also called him freshman during the entire game (he was the only freshman on the roster).
 
NumberTen said:
Now that high school tryouts are under way or over, what are your thoughts. Son had a good try out and made the varsity team. Most of the team are juniors and seniors and they all are club players. My first impression is that they practice longer and more days a week. Typically we will have two games and three practices a week. The real question is the quality of the practice. There's no doubt that they will stay in shape.
Click to expand...
My son can't play high school.
My daughter made varsity as a freshman... it was great until she started hanging out with Seniors.
I would suggest that your son play with his friends in Frosh/Soph or even JV...
Plenty of time to play varsity when his friends are older.
 
It's good to hear all of these experiences. Thanks for sharing. Please continue to do so as season progresses.
 
I was just talking to a coworker at lunch. His daughter is one of two freshmen to make the varsity team at a school that had 150 girls at tryouts for three teams (frosh, JV, var). He told me she is dreading this Friday at school because her and the other freshman on varsity have to wear banana costumes to school. He gave her good advice to just have fun with it and not complain.
 
colombiano said:
My son can't play high school.
My daughter made varsity as a freshman... it was great until she started hanging out with Seniors.
I would suggest that your son play with his friends in Frosh/Soph or even JV...
Plenty of time to play varsity when his friends are older.
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My daughter also made varsity as a freshman. Thanks to her hanging out with the seniors we found our now favorite burrito place.
 
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