You play to win the game. That's the point of competition. If you want to play for fun, try intramurals or open gym.

You play to win the game. That's the point of competition. If you want to play for fun, try intramurals or open gym.

 

So your message to the other freshman girls would be they aren't good enpugh to win the big games?

So your message to the other freshman girls would be they aren't good enpugh to win the big games?

 

Exactly. See how long your program lasts and see what kind of depth you have for when it really matters on the varsity level. Yes, you play to win every game...with the players on your team. Forget grades, it's about the team. Like I said, this far into the season, that group of players have become a team. Now you're bringing in others.

 

Let me ask this. If your daughter played for and extremely competitive AAU team and they made it to nationals. Now the week before they go, the coach comes to you and tells you that they picked up 3 new players. They will be starting over your daughter and because there are 3 of them, it will also cut your daughters PT at nationals. How would you feel??? How would your daughter feel?? You would be going to nationals to win, right?? These players increase your chances!!

 

Trust me, you're not going to find a more competitive person and I have coached competitve AAU teams for years, it's still wrong to do that...period!

For the very reason that players play up, why even have a tournament? The only level playing field is the varsity level. JV and freshman teams are there to develop kids, have them learn the system, so that they may be ready to eventually make varsity and contribute.

 

I'm in the camp of not letting them play down if their game has evolved beyond the "freshman"level"

 

I'm probably in the minority but I don't believe in letting jr high players play unless you can't field a team.

The people that support players pulled down for tourney are more than likely the parents of those players & are solely living through their children!! If you & your kid needs to play down a level so they can feel important & look amazing on the court then you are just as sad as the coach that allows it!!! To place so much importance on winning a freshman tourney is absurd!! I have seen way too many players over the years that play up because of their skill level, then a couple years later are no longer on the radar because they burned out or other players caught up!! Most players that play along with their class level year by year wind up being the names you see in the paper by their senior year anyway!!! I'd much rather be known for winning the 9th Region Varsity tourney than the team that won the freshman tourney way back when!!!

You play to win the game. That's the point of competition.

 

There is winning, and then there is winning at all costs. This is high school, not the nba. There are rules both spoken and unspoken regarding sportsmanship and keeping the physical and mental well being of our youth athletes the priority. This topic has come up in other threads and it seems that there are two schools of thoughts - and it probably does have to do with what the practice is at that poster's school. "It's all about winning, so anything goes" VS let the girls play at the appropriate skill and age level if that is where they have been playing most of the year.

 

The practice of having 3 teams in HS might be viewed as team A, B, and C. C being reserved for 9th grade (and below if needed or desired to fill a team). If a 9th grader is good enough or needed to play up, great! Like a farm system. Let them get better by working as a team and competing with girls of a similar skill set. There may be no "rule" against sending in the stud from the upper level to play that one tournament or big game, but I see it as "just not right" for a bunch of reasons (and I think RCC has them all covered). It's as like running up the score against an inferior team.

 

Don't really care if players float between 2 levels, ie frosh to j/v or j/v to varsity. The key issue to me is, has the player had significant minutes with varsity? Are they good enough to start? Then they need to stay off the freshman team.

Edited February 2, 201313 yr by jumpball

So, Baller 99, who won games in the opening round at the freshman tournament? Assume you mean the one at NDA?

As long as you follow the rules of the tourney it is simply up to the coach. If I were coach and had a Frosh who was good enough to play Varsity I would not dare risk injury in a Frosh tourney but it is up to each coach whom they play and when. As long as it is within the rules.

 

In the end it is only a Frosh tourney. Lace em up and play the game, it is all good.

I saw something last night that I have seen for years that I think is just wrong but it goes on all the time. In the freshman tournament 4 girls that did not play during the season 2 weeks ago on the freshman team show up to the tournament and play most of the game. We beat them 2 weeks ago without these player but got beat last night with the JV players on the floor. They also had 4 girls that never saw the floor and 3 girls that played most of the 1st game played very little. If I were a parent and a coach put my daughter on the bench so a JV player could play so we could win and she never saw the floor I would be highly upset. We have 5 very good freshman that could have done this very thing and the game would not have even been close but they have played JV/Varsity all year so they were not brought down. If that would have happened my daughter would have played very little but since our staff chooses not to she played about half the game in the lose. I have seen it in other sports as well. I know at some schools the numbers make this necessary but this was not the case.

What do others think of this practice and have others seen this as well????????

 

 

What team's are we talking about in this tournament ? I seen NC beat Dixie and Scott beat Brossart ? I know Dixie was up on NC at half and gave up the lead late in the game. And Scott lead Brossart pretty much the whole game. Scott had some middle school players on the bench , but didn't Scott play Cooper last night in JV / Varsity . I think Dixie and NC both played Varsity games too. So what are we talking about , middle school girls getting moved up at year end or did NC move players down? If they played Freshman / JV all year what"s the big deal. Almost every team in the area bounce players between JV/Varsity and Freshman/JV.

One issue I don't see being considered is that some freshman play up because the program does not have the numbers to have three complete teams. Especially at the end of the year when kids go down to injury, you have to play some freshmen up, or your jv players getting varsity minutes will play more than necessary. I agree with On Point in that each school should put its best team on the court in any post season game, at any level.

I agree with you on everything except the "own" part. I think HHS and Ryle may have something to say about that.

 

Brossart freshman may also have something to say as well.

Brossart freshman may also have something to say as well.

 

Is this a two and out tournament ? Brossart lost to Scott last night .

As I said in post #15, if a player is playing varsity I don't think they should play down. After reading through good points made by many in this thread, I see two rules I would put in place.

 

1. Any player that has played varsity minutes is not allowed to play in the freshman tournament.

 

2. To be eligible, a player must play ___ quarters with their freshman team.

 

I am not sure what that number should be. How many games do freshman teams play? I would put the number at about 20% of the total quarters. So if a team has played 20 games, that is 80 quarters so you need to play 16 quarters to be eligible.

Brossart freshman may also have something to say as well.

 

Agreed, but I didn't think they played in it. I don't remember them last year. That's the only reason I didn't include then.

Is this a two and out tournament ? Brossart lost to Scott last night .

 

He means if they moved their freshman down. They have 3 close to 6'ft freshman skilled freshman, plus a nice team already. They would be good. It would fun to see, but if brossart played, camp co moved theirs down and one key player wasn't out for the season, the best freshman teams would be Conner, HHS, Ryle, CC, brossart, and SK, and Walton. And Newport would be decent. Conner, HHS, Ryle and brossart would be your top 4.