Pro Tips for Preparing Your DD to Make HS Varsity Freshman Year

Emma said:
I agree parents have the right to be upset if the communication conveyed a starring role. I'm talking about when there has been no starring role communication but parents think their kids should have a starring role, then team work be damned and let it be rec soccer all over again with equal playing time even if it's varsity soccer.

If we want to build more playing time for everyone in high school, keep the JV team alive for seniors too. Let the JV team be the one where results don't matter and equal playing time is required. The problem occurs when parents want their kids in varsity because they think they've paid their dues for 3 years in JV.
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You can even take it a step further. Ramp up your intramural program and give them field space.

If you have solid frosh, jv, and intramural programs available with adequate field space, then you've been fair. Most kids will be too busy playing too complain.

If varsity hogs the field space, then you haven't been fair and you should expect complaints.
 
dad4 said:
You can even take it a step further. Ramp up your intramural program and give them field space.

If you have solid frosh, jv, and intramural programs available with adequate field space, then you've been fair. Most kids will be too busy playing too complain.

If varsity hogs the field space, then you haven't been fair and you should expect complaints.
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In a school with the demand, field space and the finance for it, this would work and I'd be in full support of it.
 
dad4 said:
You can even take it a step further. Ramp up your intramural program and give them field space.

If you have solid frosh, jv, and intramural programs available with adequate field space, then you've been fair. Most kids will be too busy playing too complain.

If varsity hogs the field space, then you haven't been fair and you should expect complaints.
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My son chose soccer PE and complained that kids who couldn't make the JV or Varsity teams would cheap-shot foul the kids who did.
 
Grace T. said:
Jazz band. The downside is they meet 7:30 am.
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We asked about jazz band and were told it was reserved for kids enrolled in band class. When I was in band, marching band met at 6:30 AM and our band was big and loud. We took pride in having clean cutoffs to hear our echo off the mountains. The neighbors loved us.
 
Emma said:
In a school with the demand, field space and the finance for it, this would work and I'd be in full support of it.
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Most schools have the demand.

Would you support large intramural programs if it meant varsity had to give up some field space and coaching resources?
 
Emma said:
I would but I think you must come from a more affluent neighborhood. Most inner city schools have a hard time filling their JV roster.
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A bit off the subject. I read an article a couple years ago about a sports reporter in the LA/OC area going to a local school for football tryouts. They did not have enough players trying out to form a JV team. There were more players trying out for soccer, and they were able to form a Varsity, JV and freshman team. If this happens at enough schools, at what point does it make sense to have the soccer games on Friday night and have the band support the soccer team instead?
 
outside! said:
A bit off the subject. I read an article a couple years ago about a sports reporter in the LA/OC area going to a local school for football tryouts. They did not have enough players trying out to form a JV team. There were more players trying out for soccer, and they were able to form a Varsity, JV and freshman team. If this happens at enough schools, at what point does it make sense to have the soccer games on Friday night and have the band support the soccer team instead?
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Isn't football in the Fall and soccer in the winter?
Regardless- I think that schools need to do a better job of promoting their soccer teams. They should definitely have Friday night games, have the band there or some other form of crowd entertainment and encourage the student body to attend. As it stands now, the crowd is parents, boyfriends/girlfriends and the JV/Frosh teams in attendance.
 
dad4 said:
Most schools have the demand.

Would you support large intramural programs if it meant varsity had to give up some field space and coaching resources?
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in California it’s illegal to charge kids to participate— they say it would be inequitable to kids that can’t afford it.....hence all the booster activities and fund raisers and fees masked as donations. So the varsity program would have to be willing to fork over some of its fundraising too as no one is going to be fundraising for intramural (and hence also soccer pe because that’s a way to funnel appropriated money or donated money into something resembling intramural sports)
 
Grace T. said:
in California it’s illegal to charge kids to participate— they say it would be inequitable to kids that can’t afford it.....hence all the booster activities and fund raisers and fees masked as donations. So the varsity program would have to be willing to fork over some of its fundraising too as no one is going to be fundraising for intramural (and hence also soccer pe because that’s a way to funnel appropriated money or donated money into something resembling intramural sports)
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I understand what you are saying but every team will have to fundraise independently. Fundraising is really for team travels and extra items, not field space and the basic necessities. Parents with kids who dedicate more time and energy to soccer will donate/invest more, that's how it rolls. Intramural is rec and parents will want it as cheap as possible.

PE is not intramural. Intramural is for students who WANT to use their afterschool time to participate in the sport. PE is a required class and students are forced to do it.
 
Emma said:
I understand what you are saying but every team will have to fundraise independently. Fundraising is really for team travels and extra items, not field space and the basic necessities. Parents with kids who dedicate more time and energy to soccer will donate/invest more, that's how it rolls. Intramural is rec and parents will want it as cheap as possible.

PE is not intramural. Intramural is for students who WANT to use their afterschool time to participate in the sport. PE is a required class and students are forced to do it.
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Yeah but to dad's point that fundraising is not likely to happen to intramural...you still need the uniforms, travel (they'll get bored playing together over and over), bus rental, equipment, field/chaperone (most schools have a charge back to the activity at reduced prices but the activity is still charge for use). Varsity would have to hand over part of its stash in many cases to make it happen, which (at least in California) is one of the reason it doesn't
 
Grace T. said:
Yeah but to dad's point that fundraising is not likely to happen to intramural...you still need the uniforms, travel (they'll get bored playing together over and over), bus rental, equipment, field/chaperone (most schools have a charge back to the activity at reduced prices but the activity is still charge for use). Varsity would have to hand over part of its stash in many cases to make it happen, which (at least in California) is one of the reason it doesn't
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p.s. this is the way it plays out in suburban school districts. In the urban school districts it's harder: those teams are funded by charitable organizations, local businesses (e.g. Latino banks/grocery stores do some of it), or government grants...the cash is usual therefore spent on the marque more visible name (the varsity team) and there's unlikely to be much left over. Rural California schools are even more of a headache since they lack the visibility or the urban schools for marque charitable support and the parents have to scrape by donations as best as possible and/or they may have a number of players problem.
 
Grace T. said:
p.s. this is the way it plays out in suburban school districts. In the urban school districts it's harder: those teams are funded by charitable organizations, local businesses (e.g. Latino banks/grocery stores do some of it), or government grants...the cash is usual therefore spent on the marque more visible name (the varsity team) and there's unlikely to be much left over. Rural California schools are even more of a headache since they lack the visibility or the urban schools for marque charitable support and the parents have to scrape by donations as best as possible and/or they may have a number of players problem.
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I'm confused as to what you are referring to. I agreed with Dad4, sports funds should be divided up between varsity, JV, and intramural if the school has the finance and demand for it. I'm disagreeing only with respect to PE and where fundraiser money should go.
 
outside! said:
A bit off the subject. I read an article a couple years ago about a sports reporter in the LA/OC area going to a local school for football tryouts. They did not have enough players trying out to form a JV team. There were more players trying out for soccer, and they were able to form a Varsity, JV and freshman team. If this happens at enough schools, at what point does it make sense to have the soccer games on Friday night and have the band support the soccer team instead?
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My children would like the transition to start now. We should definitely find a way to make soccer games more enjoyable to young spectators like football does. Cheerleaders, bands, color guards, the whole kitten kaboodle, and a DJ displaying fan footage.
 
Emma said:
I'm confused as to what you are referring to. I agreed with Dad4, sports funds should be divided up between varsity, JV, and intramural if the school has the finance and demand for it. I'm disagreeing only with respect to PE and where fundraiser money should go.
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The schools have some (limited) funding in California for PE, sometimes through general donations such as the local school foundation, and particularly in the suburban areas. It is therefore easier to put together.

The other sports require separate funding since they are considered non course extracurricular activities. Those funds have to be raised, usually by the booster organization. In California, you cannot require kids to pay to play, which is one of the reason intramurals don't happen.
 
Grace T. said:
The schools have some (limited) funding in California for PE, sometimes through general donations such as the local school foundation, and particularly in the suburban areas. It is therefore easier to put together.

The other sports require separate funding since they are considered non course extracurricular activities. Those funds have to be raised, usually by the booster organization. In California, you cannot require kids to pay to play, which is one of the reason intramurals don't happen.
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Essentially the bottom line is to have an intramural division, the varsity team would need to fund raise (on top of what it needed and what it kicks back to JV/Freshmen) for intramurals. This is easier to do in a suburban setting....harder to do in rural and inner city schools where the varsity group is struggling to help JV and JVs need to operate on varsity hand me downs.
 
dad4 said:
How many #1 type coaches are willing to openly tell a kid that they are only on the team as a backup plan in case of injury to one of the important kids?

Of course the parents file complaints. The coach was only honest about half of it. You can't recruit someone for a starring role and only later explain that they are the understudy.
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#1 type coaches = Trinity League.
 
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