<p>My child will try out for a varsity sport at prep school, but may make JV instead. Has always played at the highest level previously, but due to highly competitive pool of talent at the current school, may not make varsity. </p>
<p>Any suggestions on how to provide support and parent response here?</p>
<p>Yes, if he is a Freshman JV is very age appropriate. As a Sophomore very few make varsity in D1A schools. Now if he/she doesn’t make it as a Junior or Senior, and the school is D1A you might explain to him that, life is tough and everyone can’t be Varsity. Ask him how the graduating Seniors feel when they realize it’s the end of the line for them, and the sport they have been playing at for years. How do they feel when no college coaches are interested in using them?
Most importantly, if he is never going to be a varsity player, disengage yourself from your own disappointment and grief when you speak to him/her about it. If you don’t he/she will feel it and it will compound the recovery.</p>
<p>Tell him to take a look around. It is extremely rare at the preps to ever see a freshman on most of the varsity teams (depends some on the sport, but soccer, baseball, hockey, basketball…ha never…only absolute recruits, 7 ft. tall, etc. in this sport…it is almost unheard of). My son was recruited for varsity in both baseball and soccer. He ended up only practicing with varsity for soccer - this was partly due to an injury he sustained the year before entering, and partly due to the fact that they already had 18 seniors and PG’s on the team. Baseball he was on varsity. However, he was the only freshman, and that was something that occurs only once every few years. He did expect to be on varsity because you do sort of have an idea of your “level”. He knew that in our area he was one of the top athletes in these sports. Our public school varsity teams are very weak and that was not how he gauged himself. He knew that the prep teams were more aligned with a club level of the sport. I think most kids must have some sort of an idea of where they “really” stand in relation to their peers in ability and they are much more resilient and understanding of this fact than you might realize. I think it hurts us more than them.</p>
<p>Sorry if I sound like a broken record but all these schools ride a roller coaster with sports. Taft just had it’s first winning football season in I don’t know how many years, 10? If there is a strong athletic pool then sounds like JV will have a good team too. Nothing wrong with JV, especially when your a freshman. Many freshmen are usually on thirds. Besides the numbers as everyone should play a sport, there are third teams so everyone can get a chance to play a sport which is really key. Your child may make varsity and sit there every game accept maybe the last 3-4 minutes of every quarter / period of whatever sport they’re playing as opposed to being a shining star on JV or even thirds. I’ve known plenty of varsity players who wish they could’ve played JV just to get more playing time. I for one truly value the athletic programs offered at so many of these boarding schools that just aren’t available or offered at home. I seriously doubt my guys would have experienced the joy of playing as much or if at all, if they were back home where the kid who didn’t make JV or Varsity now hangs out at the so called teen center with the goths living in the corners. So tell your kid to get a grip, could be one of the stars on JV which consists mostly of sophomores and juniors. Might even be on JV again the next year but Captain, that looks good on any college application.</p>