Freshmen should not play on varsity sports. They need to learn the intensity of the game, grow into themselves and watch and learn from the varsity team.
Proponents of freshmen playing at the varsity level say that if those ninth graders are strong, fast, or plain good enough, they should be able to play on varsity. The argument is that immediately going to varsity showcases their skills that they have shown in the years before entering high school. However, while they may be amazing, they should have one year or two years to work on their skills. They also need the time to adjust to the intensity of a high school game. High school varsity is a different game from middle school. Bill Pfeifer, head coach of Moon Area High School girls soccer team, noted after a rough start to a recent game that “a lot of young kids out there that aren’t used to the level of this game and the intensity.” When freshmen are coming out of middle school, they are also changing and growing. They need time to grow into themselves and learn how to move while getting taller and gaining muscle. Having them do that while also participating in an intense varsity game is difficult. “Coach Rodriguez recommended the transition to a varsity team should be a “slow one, not a large jump…Bring the player to the freshmen level, if they excel there move them to the JV level, if they excel there then perhaps they are ready for the demands of varsity but perhaps not,” said a study by Jeffrey Cherubini and Tiffany Bentley. People learn by watching. Having freshmen come in and immediately play with the varsity players is a disservice to them. They should have the time to play on a junior varsity team and watch the varsity players. They can train with the varsity players to learn, but actually playing with them on the field takes away from the time they could spend learning the game better. “More than half of the coaches noted that it takes time to bring a young athlete up to the mental and emotional level needed to play varsity,” said Cherubini and Bentley in their study. “A primary indicator of whether or not a young athlete will be able to successfully ‘make the jump’ from a modified or junior varsity level to the ‘prowess’ of a varsity level sport depends on this level of coachability.” While freshmen may be amazing players, they still need time to learn. High schools should give them that time by allowing them to play on junior varsity until they are sophomores or juniors. It would allow them to adjust to the intensity of the game, their own bodies as they grow and learn from the varsity players.
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