How many times have you heard the saying, “You’re just JV,” or “Get out of here, freshman”? Way too many. While many people say athletics are fun and games, the first couple games of a season are sometimes not the best for a first-time freshman.
As a former freshman, I know how it feels to be thought of as a newb. All the unneeded pressure from the sophomores didn’t help me with my play. Fresh out of middle school and unknowing of how fast high school level really is are not the best circumstances to play in.
The first time a freshman plays in a high school game should be an exciting and thrilling time for the athlete. Instead, all he or she thinks about is not making a mistake, because if they do, the sophomores and upperclassmen will harass them for making mistakes in the game. For them to gain the respect of their fellow peers they must play perfectly, which in most cases is too much to expect from a first time player.
Following the game, there will be talk among the team about how certain people did not play up to par, or how they shouldn’t be played. More often than not, it’s about the freshman.
I don’t see why there is so much pressure and criticism directed to the underclassmen, especially the freshman. Not only are they not as physically mature as the sophomores and upperclassmen, they may have no experience of the high standards in high school.
In some cases a freshman is better than some of the upperclassmen, and should be on varsity. But, because he or she is a freshman, the coach and the players look down upon the athlete and relegate him or her to junior varsity.
As a current JV player I know that JV sports aren’t reported on, or cared about, or even thought about by most students. Some don’t know that there is a JV team for some sports.
Many will agree that most people don’t pay attention to JV teams, but they are crucial to the school’s athletic community. Junior varsity squads are treated like they are expendable and not a real team. While everyone thinks that the only important people in a sport are the varsity players, yet the JV players are the ones who will make up the following years’ varsity teams.
Sometimes a coach will pull some players up from JV to play on varsity, which is perfectly acceptable and is partially why there is a JV team. But in some cases the coach will continually pull players up to practice with varsity and then send them back down to JV for games. The varsity coach will say, “It is good for the players to play with varsity. It will make him or her a better player.”
This is not the case, and this type of coaching is unreasonable. Not only does the often movement of players confuse the JV coach and the players, it makes bad chemistry for the team because they are not able to practice as one. This is especially not good when some of the JV’s top players are being yanked around, leaving him or her in a world of confusion and disorder not knowing if he or she is going to play with JV or varsity the next game.
People also segregate varsity and JV by only reporting on varsity games. You will never see or read about a JV team on In Focus, Campanile, or Verde. JV teams work just as hard, if not more so than varsity teams to earn their respect in their league. Their work almost always goes down the drain as the years pass, no one remembering that the JV team of “04-05” won their division.
Sports at Paly are traditionally excellent and fun to play, but what all JV players want is equality. JV athletes don’t want to be treated as a lower team that deserves no recognition, but as if they were varsity themselves.