The importance of junior varsity basketball

[warningtrackpower]

On this week's SVC Sports Talk (podcast show for SVCsportszone.com) we had a great discussion on the importance of JV basketball. It is in the middle of the show - love to hear some feedback - thanks

http://www.dbkmediaservices.com/wordpre ... talk010917

[Ironman92]

I think it's critical for players to get a gauge of the speed difference of the game from 8th grade or freshman to varsity. JV provides the link that most players need. Excellent for the later developing kids as well. JV team records aren't very telling unless the varsity team is very good.

[king kong]

Any coach that ignores the health of their program from the youth age through varsity, isnt a very good coach! Yes, you can still have success by ignoring these levels, but the consistency and participation will suffer.

Jv, is the final level of polishing for a player to hone their skills before getting into a varsity contest. I have seen Juniors play JV the entire season, and have solid to good Senior years, I have seen Soph and Fresh do the same thing.

The biggest issue I have, is watching coaches at the lower levels shorten their benches. Some kids grow quickly, some dont hit their last growth spurt until Junior or Senior year, but you have some coaches who think they have the crystal ball of knowledge and severely limit playing time for athletes that dont meet their expectations and only have the must win attitude.

Youth league is about development, Jr high is as well, but you should try to win, but not at the cost of limiting time, freshmen or jv is more about trying to win, but you should still get kids into the games during critical times for development!

[trojandave]

A coach of a JV team has a difficult job, because quite often his roster is fluid. There may be a player or two who initially play on the JV, but excels to the point of being brought up to the varsity and playing 2 quarters or more, which limits their time on the JV with the 5 quarter a night rule. The same thing happens with the freshmen team, where a player may play on both teams. Then you have the issue of juniors playing JV which in some cases gives an advantage over a more traditional JV team which is normally made of mostly sophomores and a freshman or two. I am not a fan of playing players two years on the JV team unless a coach has to have numbers to fill out his roster.

Sometimes it can be very hard for a JV coach to get team cohesion and chemistry due to such a fluid roster. I think trying to win games at the JV level is secondary to developing the skill package of the players the coach has. I never get too caught up in the record of the JV team, because at the varsity level, you have 4 grades to choose your roster from. What a JV team does is not necessarily a reflection of what those players will do at the varsity level the next season.

[caldwellbasketball]

I don't comment a lot on here other than to post scores and game information but scanning scores I noticed this topic and found it very interesting. Junior varsity basketball is very important to our program. We are a very small school with only 80 boys in grades 9-12. An average year for us will see 17-20 kids in our high school basketball program, or roughly 4-5 per class. Ideally, you win with older kids at the varsity level, 17 and 18 year old kids are both physically and mentally superior the vast majority of the time to 15 and 16 year old kids. At a small school we don't always have the luxury of leaving the younger ones down to develop on the junior varsity team. Based on numbers alone we sometimes have to go with younger kids in order to compete and build for the future. The JV level is still important to us though.

Kids only gain experience through court time. We were fortunate enough the past four years to have some outstanding athletes and players, this year we are taking our lumps with some of the younger kids. The OHSAA allows players to play 110 quarters per season, or 5 quarters per night for 22 games. We try to take advantage of that every Tuesday and Friday to help our kids improve as there is nothing that bothers me more as a coach than seeing a young kid waste a quarter of playing time for 1 or 2 minutes of varsity time. Currently, we have several underclassmen who play four varsity quarters of basketball each night that also play a quarter of JV basketball as well. Parents sometimes have a difficult time understanding why we do this but our kids are not above it, we tell them to use it as an opportunity to get better, work on things they may not get as much of an opportunity to do at the varsity level (handle the ball, create for teammates, shoot) and it has been effective for us over the seven years I have been here. In that time we have watched kids that we never dreamed would contribute develop in to solid basketball players in large part because of the year or years they spent playing JV basketball.

I agree with the above post about JV being difficult to coach because of the fluidity of the players, but a quality JV coach is a huge asset to a program. To me, JV basketball is about individual player development and learning how to compete. If you can accomplish those things it is beneficial to everyone. I think it is much different at smaller schools than at larger schools as well. Larger schools have the benefit of numbers which means it is less likely a kid is rushed to the varsity level and gives them time to develop and mature. Very interesting topic to whomever started this.

[wipala]

The JV program is paramount to most schools in SEO, IMO, because the size of the player pool has shrunk. While I was in school, about the time the wheel was invented, our school was much larger and thus more players to choose from. Coach Heller and Weinbrecht did a good job of seeing Rae talent that needed JV time and in most cases were correct. I agree with the comment about bringing a player up to play 2-3 minutes and lose valuable playing time on JV.

[spartans_fan]

A good jv program is very important to long term success. It is how you build tradition in winning throughout the program. Kids need to be on the floor in order to get better. I have seen kids sitting on the end of the bench on varsity, that need to be gaining minutes on the floor. Many times that should be where the jv comes in to play.

What is sad is the number of kids that are OK with not playing jv if they can just be seen on the varsity bench.

[svac83]

I can't believe the number of coaches that do it.. you have a freshman who is yes one of your best 10 kids so you put him on varsity.. and then you don't put him in your rotation he plays 3 or 4 minutes a night maybe. Then as sophomore playa a little more still doesn't start then there he is a junior and it has been 3 years since he played many meaningful minutes and never gets to where he should be.

[warningtrackpower]

Appreciate the feedback on here and in the inbox. We did a little follow-up on this week's show (at the beginning) - http://www.dbkmediaservices.com/wordpre ... talk011617

[tvc_fan]

I can't believe the number of coaches that do it.. you have a freshman who is yes one of your best 10 kids so you put him on varsity.. and then you don't put him in your rotation he plays 3 or 4 minutes a night maybe. Then as sophomore playa a little more still doesn't start then there he is a junior and it has been 3 years since he played many meaningful minutes and never gets to where he should be.

I cannot agree with this more, Too many kids love playing the game, and they think that being on Varsity means more then playing down and getting much needed minutes to help in the future.

We have a Freshman this year, He plays no Freshman minutes or JV minutes, He plays maybe 3 minutes of Varsity. To me this is not helping the kid, He should at least be down playing 3 quarters of JV ball....2 at the least. Playing no matter what level will get them more prepared for future play.

[Mailman]

If the player isn't going to play at least 2 quarters of varsity. (And more than a couple of minutes) Then they should play at least 3 quarters of JV.

[Ironman92]

If the player isn't going to play at least 2 quarters of varsity. (And more than a couple of minutes) Then they should play at least 3 quarters of JV.

This a lot.

[Mailman]

If the player isn't going to play at least 2 quarters of varsity. (And more than a couple of minutes) Then they should play at least 3 quarters of JV.

This a lot.

Maybe 2 quarters of JV would be better. But point is, more you play, better get.

[Ironman92]

If the player isn't going to play at least 2 quarters of varsity. (And more than a couple of minutes) Then they should play at least 3 quarters of JV.

This a lot.

Maybe 2 quarters of JV would be better. But point is, more you play, better get.

If you aren't in the varsity rotation you need to be playing 3 quarters of JV. Often we see a kid play 1-2 quarters jv and sit bench varsity and rarely get in (mop up time)...and in doing so a kid on JV with less varsity potential is getting an extra quarter of play that rarely helps this player in becoming a contributing player on varsity. I would hope varsity coaches have a huge say in how many quarters each kid plays JV, or at least make sure he and JV coach are on the same page.

[mikepike]

Relatively speaking, kids aren't going to improve and develop confidence in their skills unless they have the opportunity to play. Not every kid is going to be a 20 point scorer, or 10 rebounds a game player. But you need the role players, kids who love the challenge of shutting down the other teams big scorer, or harassing the point guard and keeping the offense from getting into a flow. I hate seeing kids sitting the bench night in/night out in freshman and jv games, only getting in at the end of a blowout.