Column: Being a junior on JV
February 27, 2020
While many high school athletes look forward to playing on varsity their junior and senior years, some find themselves stuck on junior varsity for a third year. As a result, these juniors have to face the unfortunate task of putting up with high-energy freshmen and sophomore teammates for months as they navigate their way through the season.
I was one of four of these juniors on Palo Alto High School girls’ JV soccer team, and these were the stages of my journey throughout the season.
Beginning of season: This is awful and humiliating — everything sucks
When I first found out I was going to be on JV again after looking forward to playing on varsity, I was devastated. Before tryouts were even over it was already set in stone. I play goalie, and because there were no freshmen or sophomore goalies, I got stuck on JV with no possibility of making varsity. I found this really frustrating because, although JV needed a goalie, I’d rather play left, right, or center bench on varsity than be the star (and only) goalie on JV.
The first month of being juniors on JV involved us isolating ourselves from the rest of the team, looking (and feeling) sad at practice, and a seemingly incurable sense of embarrassment. I was convinced that there was no chance for me to improve and found myself preparing for the worst possible soccer season, because how could anything possibly be worse than being a junior on JV and playing with a bunch of freshmen and sophomores?
Mid-season: Hey, this isn’t so bad
By the time January rolled around, I started to warm up to my teammates, and felt less bitter about spending a third season on the JV soccer team. The sophomores and freshmen actually ended up being nice and fun to be around, but even more rambunctious than I expected.
After watching from the bench the last two years, I got to play against Los Gatos for the first time, which was a big bonus of being on JV. Even though I thought I would rather sit on the bench on varsity, I realized that maybe it’s good to get more experience in less stressful, lower stakes games. On JV I could push myself outside my comfort zone and worry less about catastrophic failure.
End of season: Thanks JV, it’s been fun
The JV soccer team’s last game against Santa Clara meant one thing: my three-year-long JV soccer career was finally over! I wasn’t expecting it, but it had been a fun season, and there was no better way to wrap up my time on JV than with a 3-0 win.
This season didn’t end up being the nightmare I thought it would be, and actually proved to be a positive experience. Looking back, I realize that, despite my initial convictions, I did improve thanks to all the experience I got playing in games. This season I also became much more confident in my goalkeeping abilities thanks to all the playing time I got.
This season was bittersweet because, though it was an enjoyable experience overall, I feel like I missed out on something by not being on varsity. However, it was a very interesting time, and the JV juniors did somehow stay sane and managed to turn this potentially disastrous season into something fun.
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Samia • Apr 9, 2021 at 5:10 pm
This made me feel so much better, especially being in this position as of now. I was also excited. I’ve joined soccer when I was a freshman and obviously I was on jv. I’ve only got to play 4 games because of my injury which was a freak accident, I dislocated my elbow and that was a experience I would never forget. I’ve showed up everyday for conditioning/ practice and participated with other team events and I’ve always felt happy to be there. Freshman year playing soccer we were undefeated, our jv team did amazing.I was looking forward to next year playing as a sophomore but after all the conditioning and almost making it to tryouts the pandemic hit, and it’s been a year since we’ve all seen eachother. As junior year was coming in we’ve cut short and had a couple months to get prepared for the season. This is where it all went down, but first I need to talk about me as a person. I’ve always felt like things should be well deserved and earned, I’ve always felt like it has to be something I can be proud about. I am impressed by others I am happy of their achievements and love to see them do better. As time passed and tryouts ended I was completely shattered and devastated to not get a spot on varsity it hurt me and effected my mental health I’ve started to look upon my insecurities and overthink so it did not go well. Over time I started to cheer up because I would isolate myself and just mop around and I didn’t want anyone to notice that I’m sad or embarrassed I just tried to stay happy and calm until I started to open up. I think the talk was okay but then again I felt like I was asking for that spot and I felt so many things I felt as if I would just be some back up or that I would put the team in jeopardy if I were to be on varsity I felt like quitting at one point just felt severely overwhelmed with myself and not wanting to be on jv and sadly varsity and that is because of some things. My confidence was killed and I’ve watched my happiness go away slowly and I felt horrible I just never wanted to ever feel like this but I don’t know what I could do. After awhile I started to get some hope back and I wanted to improve and go harder then I have before. For me I never expected to be shot down like that for being a junior I just had to find my joy again and that was playing and feeling free on the field. I think it was harmful at first for feeling those feelings I felt like everyone who was better were going to look at me as no good and that they couldn’t depend on me. It did take a toll on my mental health both personally and as a athlete from being overly confident and happy but it’s okay, there’s always room to find it again.