<p>Yes, S2 was a good h.s. football player. As a soph. he was given the decision to be on varsity with very little playing time or stay with JV and play all the time. He went with JV and had a fantastic year. He started for varsity the next two years. He gave up being a three yr. letterman but getting the playing time meant more to him.</p>
<p>spectrum2 … that is great news … glad to hear this year is going better.</p>
<p>PS - interesting timing … tryouts for bball at my son’s school start right after thanksgiving</p>
<p>If your son is a sophmore, he has lots of time for his body to mature and develop, which is really what separates athletes in HS.</p>
<p>I’m a prime example. In HS, I was 6"4" 165 lbs (a gangly mess of skinny arms and legs). A good athlete, but I just wasn’t fully developed.</p>
<p>Five years later, I was 6"4" 235 lbs and an absolute monster on the football field. I walked onto a D1 college football program and ended up winning two BCS Bowls.</p>
<p>So, you never really know how things will play-out. Two years from now your son may be a beast on the basketball court. Have him focus on this skills and decision making in games, if the physical development comes than he’ll be set, if not he still did something he enjoyed and will probably learned some good lessons. </p>
<p>Either way, it’s a win.</p>
<p>BTW, high school coaching is a dice roll. They really don’t develop players well and have a tendency to force all kids to play within their defined system which often suffocates their ability. This is the most true in basketball.</p>
<p>I played basketball in HS, then 1 year at a junior college before I transferred to play football. My HS coach was a robot and it prevented alot of good athletes from developing. I was one of the tallest guys on my team with a lights-out jump shot and incredible 3-point shot, yet because I was tall…he stuck me on the block to play post. It totally took me out of my game and made me ineffective.</p>
<p>Lot’s of HS coaches do this, because they don’t like changing schemes. Your son should look at AAU leagues. The players have alot more freedom to actually play and show their talents, rather than be forced to play-down to the abilities and restraints of other teammates and coaches.</p>
<p>I’m still in my 20’s, not far removed from competitive athletics and I can say for a fact that their is TONS of college level talent wasted because they were “late bloomers” or had a soup can for a HS coach.</p>
<p>My HS basketball coach was a local legend. No matter where he coached, he won and always had competitive teams. However, those players never seemed to produce top players. They’d end up at D3 or D2 schools or just stop playing. He developed teams, but not players. A good coach should be able to do both.</p>
<p>geeps: While it was a no brainer for my S I can understand why some might prefer the varsity route. S realized a bit of a tradeoff with his decision. On varsity he scrimaged with better players so one could argue that could improve his game. I don’t know if he would have made the same choice if he had a reasonable season last year but he is happy on JV. The distinction is even as a 3rd string player this year coach was giving him some playing time on varsity. Last year on JV he had none. There doesn’t seem to be any good reason to opt for varsity with no play but even with a little for some it could be okay. For my S JV is the way to go.</p>
<p>3togo: Good luck with your S’s tryouts!</p>
<p>Big: S is a Junior but he is a young Junior and many sophs are older than he is. This will be the first time that he will be playing with kids in his own age group. If we knew when he was 4 what we know now we would have held him back a year. He has definitely grown since last year and hopefully he will continue so that he can play actively during his senior year. If not, I’m glad that at least early in the season he finally has the opportunity to be a strength for his team. It is a wonderful change after a year of feeling invisible. I do see what you are saying about the problems when coaches have a plan that doesn’t lend itself to a player"s strengths. S has had similar experiences with some coaches and it does make a player feel that he is playing with his hands tied. We’ve always encouraged S to talk to his coaches politely but to follow the coaches plan. I guess that builds character, if not making a kid the best player he can be. Regardless S would be thrilled to play D3 but it isn’t very likely.</p>
<p>Spectrum-nice to read it worked out for your S.</p>
<p>Yes, glad things are working out for him. My soph D was put on a varsity team this fall (no one around here is given the option to choose JV - you go where they tell you). She didn’t get much playing time, and would have been happier on JV with her friends. She stuck it out and is hoping for better things next fall.</p>
<p>Her spring sport will have a new coach; it will be interesting as she was on varsity last year as a freshman and I’m not sure what will happen this year.</p>
<p>Thank you 3togo, mamom and mamabear. Mamabear, actually I think S requesting JV kind of made things easy for coach since after naming S to the team a new player moved to the school and was put on Varsity. S moving down was happy for everyone! It is really nice when things turn out that way!</p>