One area coach cringed when she read our Green Phone last week.
“Don’t parents and fans understand what junior varsity is for?” the coach asked. “It’s to prepare kids for the next level.”
Uh oh! Here comes that argument again about how much publicity should be given to sub-varsity sports.
If you’re a parent of a junior varsity athlete on a team doing well, like the Gilroy High School football team, you want more. If you’re a parent of a JV athlete on another team struggling, you might figure the less said the better, unless your kid is the superstar and you are living vicariously through the kid, as some parents are.
But let’s try and deal with this sub-varsity issue with level heads. Perhaps as the parent/fan who put in his two cents said, the JV team will be a championship squad on the high school level. At that time, it will grab the lion’s share of headlines and some parent/fan of a JV team will wonder why we’re writing so much about the varsity. Here we go again.
“Hey, our kids work just as hard and deserve as much press,” might be the argument. “Besides, it’s not just about wins and losses.”
And therein lies the crux of the problem. It may not be a chicken-or-egg conundrum, but it does bring perspective into the mix. Does a sub-varsity team doing well deserve more than one that isn’t?
Now, let’s examine what the coach, who incidentally has a high school-aged child who once participated in sports, had to say.
If high school sports are about building the best teams, then you want your sub-varsity teams to be a feeder for the varsity. It’s almost like a minor league baseball team.
So what happens when the youngster who may be good enough to play varsity as a sophomore opts to stay on a sub-varsity squad. Looks like another argument waiting to happen.
On one side is the kid who wants to play on the same team as his friends. On the other side is the coach who now argues that, “OK, as you wish, but when it comes to fielding a varsity team next year just remember that the younger players who were willing to take their varsity lumps and not play as much as they might have on the JV level, will have first crack at varsity.”
So what does it all mean?
I guess it depends upon your perspective. Just realize that there are two sides to every story. And appreciate your kids rather than getting hung up on how much publicity they receive.
