Bringing up young players

Here's the way I look at it: you want to best 11 players on the field, not the best 11 juniors or seniors.

Play the underclassmen if they are better then the juniors or seniors. I've never coached in a program where freshman played much at the varsity level, at all. But. we moved them up to the JV program. I have seen my fair share of sophs that got a lot of varsity time and I honestly felt they should have been the starters.

Just don't fall into the trap of 'playing for next year'. I coached under a guy that played the sophs and juniors over seniors in a lot of situations. The nod always went to them if they were on par with the seniors or just slightly less skilled. The justification: "They have more time in the program".

No question, you play the best players. If they're physically and mentally ready to come up, they come up.

I've just moved to a new school and some of the personnel decisions that they made last year I find baffling. They had only ten linemen on their varsity roster but had two 300 pounders on the JVs. They had another kid, a soph who looks like he has some talent, who didn't play ;ast year. He was on the team but didn't play. Called him up to varsity but didn't play him. WTF?

So, IMO, if they're ready to come up they come up.

What level of competition are you playing?

They played at the semifinals at the second highest level in the satte.

You had a great season against some impressive competition.

Were any of your Juniors and Seniors brought up as Freshmen or Sophomores? Did this season's underclassmen play ahead of any of them?

Physically it is easy to tell. I also agree the emotional and mental aspect has to be evaluated as well.

I agree with aspects of what everyone has posted before me. As a small school coach, we often need sophomores to fill out the starting lineup whether they are "ready" or not and I'm sure some of the posts above me are made from experience in the same situation.

My main point will be to agree with what has been posted in terms of if you bring them up, play them. We lost a kid a couple years ago, because our varsity HC made his sophomore year an unbearable experience. He didn't let him play JV because he was varsity...yet would only play him 6 or so snaps in a varsity game. If these sophomores are role or special teams players for varsity, they should still be playing JV games as well.

If they are ready, then they come up. Especially sophomores.

I've only coached a couple (literally two) freshman that were varsity ready. One years ago at a 1A school (smallest 11-man classification) who probably wasn't ready, but we were TERRIBLE and he was the best athlete in the program. And one two years ago (didn't start but was in the D-line rotation), who started both ways O-line/D-line this year as a sophomore. He is a freak-show STUD and is already getting BCS offers.

I guess my point is, if you need the younger guys you're either not very good and you're kind of playing for the future anyway (might as well get started), OR those young guys are really good, and its doesn't help them or the team if they are play sub-varsity games against guys that aren't at their level yet.

In our conference I feel we'd handicap ourselves one loss for every sophomore we have to start if the other teams are playing all juniors and seniors which many are.

In 2010 we started 2 sophs and lost twice. Last year we started 4 sophs and lost four games. Most of those losses were early in the season.

There is something to the idea of letting a good group of young kids get used to winning together.

Those are all good points and factors... Lot of places the JV program might not be good and the player is getting better coaching at the varsity. I get that.

Two things I have learned when working with sophomores at the varsity level

1. Have to be patient. You really, really have to be a good coach. Those kids need constant reps and constant work, feedback.

2. You usually see a LOT of growth very, very quick. As the year goes on their athletic ability starts to show when the mental and emotional side of the game slows down. A sophomore that plays week # 1 for you often is a completely different and better player that will play in week #10.

Since I have been the head coach at my current school I have started almost 30 freshmen and sophomores over the past 4 years. Our players know the best players play - seniority does not mean a thing. Keeps kids competing and does not allow a complacent environment.

I agree. The other side of this is that if those talented sophomores are brought up to, what is expected to be a competitive varsity, some of those other players on the JV are put in a situation where they need to step up. Now they are refining skills in game situations that they might otherwise have not been able to with those talented sophomores still down on the JV. Now when those kids actually get up to the varsity, there are some skills that will help the team because they have been doing more playing than watching. But like you said, if the varsity is not going to be competitive and you believe bringing those sophomores up would ruin them because of a complacent attitude on the part of the upperclassmen, then keep those kids down so they are competing with their "eventual" varsity teammates. JMHO.

Mrjvi--remember that when you pose a question like this here at Huey, the answers will be coming from a WIDE variety of situations and circumstances. Some programs have separate Frosh, JV, Varsity programs with little interaction between the squads. Some programs simply label non starting Sophs and Jr's. as JV, but the entire group is on the "Varsity".

I know that I find it fascinating how different things are across the country. For instance, I have NEVER been involved with a program that wasn't 6 days a week, yet for many here, it seems that the kids don't come in on Sat or Sun. I see lots of talk about kids being "convinced" to go to weightlifting in the offseason... but again, I have never been with a program where it wasn't just understood that you went to lifting.