Combining Jv and varsity

In our area many of what are called "JV" teams actually are Varsity 2nd string. Some schools field a true sophomore team and have to compete against lots of juniors.

Combining the two results in a sub-par JV record as the season progresses. However, the upcoming junior class has had a lot of playing experience against older and more experienced opponents.

Dividing the two sometimes ends up with lower level coaches doing things that are not in keeping with varsity program.

Yin/Yang

In our state Varsity teams are usually composed of Seniors and Juniors, Junior Varsity Sophomores (and Freshmen if school does not have 9th grade team).

State rule says kids can only play in one game every seven calendar days.

Sub-Varsity games typically are on Thursdays.

There are some coaches who practice Varsity and JVs together. I was not one of them.

Coach points out that different states, conferences, and districts have different rules and circumstances. In Virginia the rule is that a kid can play 40 quarters, varsity and JV combined, and can't play two games in one day. Theoretically, one play counts as a quarter but really, unless a kid plays a visible position, that's unenforceable unless you do something stupid like start a player full time in both games. Nobody counts how often he blocks on the varsity kickoff return team. 

Some districts have freshman teams, some don't. Ours only has varsity and JV with no middle school football. Only 8th-10th graders can play JV. Typically, varsity games are Friday night and JV's Saturday morning or Monday afternoon.

Because we have enough numbers our JV and varsity mostly practice separately. We have some who we call part-timers, frosh maybe but mostly sophs (No 8th graders. Not eligible for varsity) who are capable of being a backup or ST player on the varsity but aren't starters. They practice with the varsity but play in JV games. Sometimes the JVs are short on coaches at practice (All JV coaches except the HC are volunteers) so the JVs will do fundamentals with the varsity then break up for team. 

I just double-checked, was in error - state rule is "no more than one game in five consecutive calendar days."

I will write, that when I have been at bigger schools we had our Frosh, JV, and V all practice separately; and I found this to be the most advantageous.

In these cases, the frosh consisted of approximately 100 kids, about half of whom were just coming out for something to do. They needed to be separated because their learning curve was so far behind the others, and there were so many of them, that it would be wasteful to both to keep them combined.

Our JV was usually the smallest team, it consisted of all the sophomores who wouldnt start or get significant reps on varsity, and some juniors. We usually like to keep JRs. on the varsity level and develop sophomores more but sometimes we'd get a kid reps there. Sometimes we'd bring freshman up, both to alleviate the crowd and get them snaps, but that was rare too as we wanted to get those sophomores who stuck around the most development as possible.

The key is if you could maintain that JV number at over 30 with nearly all sophomores. That way you can get kids work in practice while keeping them separated from the varsity; JV players are still at a different level of preparedness than varsity and if you have enough good coaches (thats the key) its beneficial to keep them separate and working at their own pace.

We have done it everywhere I have coached and when I played too. If you have enough coaches I always felt that you switch what is being coached so you don't have big groups during individual time. Then you use those players for scout team when the time comes.

I have seen freshman practice completely separate from varsity/jv before but that was a larger school.

When the playoffs start we will move a few up to varsity to fill out a "practice squad". They also get to travel and suit for game day.

This will all depend on how each state/association dictates what can/cannot be done.  In SC you get 4 quarters a week.  JV games are Thursday, varsity are Friday.  Stupid thing, it you dress and stand on the sideline it is considered the same thing as playing.

I get that premise, and its a tough decision to make about who comes up and who stays down, but frankly if a kid was only getting 5 snaps as a varsity sophomore I wouldnt pull him up to varsity to begin with.

We could always swing kids back and forth between Varsity and JV because they are teaching the same things in regards to technique and terminology, the varsity is just more advanced at what they are doing and how they are doing it. Moreover, if I have a varsity squad of 60, and a JV squad of 30, dividing them is going to get more reps for everyone involved and get them at the level most suited towards their preparedness.

I get where you're coming from but playing someone that has been trained all year at OLB and is pretty good, is going to be better than a safety who doesn't take a ton of reps at OLB because he primarily is a safety. We can play kids on JV that are varsity back ups so we don't have to worry about this.

I think the bigger issue is playing the JV game before the Varsity game is about the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. That is counterproductive in every way I can think of. It's mind boggling in its stupidity. Which probably makes it a fairly typical athletic administration (statewide or local) decision. :-)

The only way that even remotely makes sense is with programs big enough to where you can designate JV and Varsity cleanly with no overlap. And even then I could probably argue in many of those instances it's still stupid when you look at the details.

Actually, you have the logic flipped - if they could play both (which they can here), it wouldn't matter when they played the JV game.  My whole point is that if you can only play in one game a week, then logic dictates you play the game that matters the most first, so that anyone who didn't get into that game can play in the second one that matters less.  If you play JV first, you as a coach are forced to choose whether or not to hold a kid out because he MIGHT play on Friday - Billy Starter has a bum ankle and he's 50/50.  So Jimmy Sophomore might be needed, I'll hold him out of the JV game just in case. Friday night Billy played great in a critical game that was close, and he never came out - so Jimmy just got f*cked because now he doesn't play ANY snaps in anger that week. That's not the coach's fault, he had to do what he needed to do to win Friday night.  That is 100% on a system that is stupid and plays the JV game first.

Seriously - that's just SOMEBODY (whoever makes that rule/schedule) not giving a flying f*ck about the kids, and only caring about their own convenience.

You obviously don't coach in Texas. From the smallest to largest schools sub-varsity games are on Thursday. The larger schools in the state will play freshmen games on Wednesday night and JV on Thursday. The only exception would be if they had a varsity game on Thursday night. Then the games are Tuesday / Wednesday for Sub-varsity. The larger schools will have 2-4 JV teams and 3-5 freshmen teams. I coached at the second largest HS in the state 8 years ago. We had 3 JV teams and 5 freshmen teams. We had 18 coaches on staff, 5 were freshmen coaches and the rest were Varsity/JV coaches.

Here are the reasons you can't play the games after the the varsity games. The number one reason sub-varsity games are not played after the varsity is because the coaches begin preparing for the next opponent as soon as the varsity game is over. Every coach on the staff plays a role in game planning. There is no time for coaching a sub-varsity game. Without a bye week, I've gone 12 weeks straight without a day off. In fact, in 25 years of coaching I don't ever remember not working both Saturday an Sunday game planning.

Another reason is travel. There is no way you could play a sub-varsity game on Monday night when you have to travel 2 1/2 hours one way. Coaches would miss varsity practice. In the rural areas of Texas, which Texas is still very rural, many of the schools in the districts 100 plus miles apart. Even if it's only 40 or 50 miles you're still taking varsity coaches away.

What you say is not feasible in every location.