Middle School Soccer

[JBsoccer]

JB, another tie for North. Its anyones game at this point.

Wow. Well, no shame in that. Ponaganset is good. They had us 2-0 at halftime before we came back with 3 2nd half goals. We've got them again next week.

JB

[Unregistered]

Did North tie with Ponaganset today?

FYI - the North/Lincoln 0-0 game yesterday was just a great match. Hard fought on both sides, fun to watch.

JB

Give it up to Deering; Beat Cole 1-0

[Unregistered]

I think the fact that it is anyone's game is what makes it so exciting and fun to watch. Lots of talent and close games!

[JBsoccer]

I think the fact that it is anyone's game is what makes it so exciting and fun to watch. Lots of talent and close games!

Enjoy it while it lasts. Middle school soccer is a blast. RIPCOA does a terrific job with RI middle school sports in general.

There's a big drop-off in organization when your kids get to JV. JV soccer is a red-headed step-child to varsity soccer. No true league structure, games canceled and never re-scheduled, games shortened due to darkness. It's too bad - RIIL could do a much better job with JV.

JB

[Unregistered]

Enjoy it while it lasts. Middle school soccer is a blast. RIPCOA does a terrific job with RI middle school sports in general.

There's a big drop-off in organization when your kids get to JV. JV soccer is a red-headed step-child to varsity soccer. No true league structure, games canceled and never re-scheduled, games shortened due to darkness. It's too bad - RIIL could do a much better job with JV.

JB

JV is a joke what about Varsity on the boys side there are only a handful of good programs everything is kick it long down the field and run onto it and hope you do not get hurt.

HS Soccer is a waste of time unless you have a good coach in place and a plan in hand.

[Unregistered]

JV is a joke what about Varsity on the boys side there are only a handful of good programs everything is kick it long down the field and run onto it and hope you do not get hurt.

HS Soccer is a waste of time unless you have a good coach in place and a plan in hand.

My Daughter looks forward to going to the HS and play. The Lincolns girls program at the HS level is run so well according to her friends who play there now some are on JV and some on V and nothing but glowing remarks.

Everything is perfectly scheduled from practice to games according to the parents...they are winning so that does make parents and players happy.

On the Flip side I have friends whose kids play on the Boys HS team at Lincoln and they are very displeased. The Complaints are no organization on both the JV & V teams, always having days off and never seem to play to win.

2 different programs(Lincoln Girls and Boys) and the above poster is right if you have a good coach in place and a plan in hand it is not a waste of time(Girls HS). You have a bad coach in place(Boys HS) it is a waste of time.

[Singlethreaded]

Enjoy it while it lasts. Middle school soccer is a blast. RIPCOA does a terrific job with RI middle school sports in general.

There's a big drop-off in organization when your kids get to JV. JV soccer is a red-headed step-child to varsity soccer. No true league structure, games canceled and never re-scheduled, games shortened due to darkness. It's too bad - RIIL could do a much better job with JV.

JB

Can't see making JV anything bigger than what it is. It will always be a step-child to Varsity soccer. JV teams will always be fluent and there can never be a true champion. The weakest varsity teams will always pull on the strong freshman and sophmores. So what does it really require in terms of structure to see a bunch of rarely played juniors battling some up can coming freshmen. Other than providing the players all a chance to play, and the varsity coaches an opportunity to see who is in the pipeline. There should be no reason to disallow the juniors or seniors from playing JV, but due to the disparity of team composition it's probably not worth getting too concerned about re-scheduling games or shortening games. As it is, with the schedules that have JV and Varsity teams playing on the same day, and taking the same bus, while it's likely a nice cost savings, it places an excessive time burden on the student-athlete just in being at these games.

[Unregistered]

Good Varsity programs will see the JV program as a development path -- work on the areas that you want to baseline players who may have vastly different levels of tactical exposure from their club/middle school experiences such as restarts (corners/goal/free kicks) or exploiting and defending throw-ins as well as establishing a conditioning program that you want players grounded in so you don't waste Varsity pre-season time retraining.

[Unregistered]

While it can be a drag that an away game becomes a 4-5 hour event for both games, the Varsity coach gets to see the JV kids play and the JV kids get to see the level of competition necessary to play at the varsity level.

In the age of electronic gadgets I don't think the down time is so terribly monotonous (and nobody prevents kids from bringing books to read on the bus or after the match for the varsity players) given the cost savings enables some cash-strapped towns to offer JV programs.

[Singlethreaded]

Good Varsity programs will see the JV program as a development path -- work on the areas that you want to baseline players who may have vastly different levels of tactical exposure from their club/middle school experiences such as restarts (corners/goal/free kicks) or exploiting and defending throw-ins as well as establishing a conditioning program that you want players grounded in so you don't waste Varsity pre-season time retraining.

And that's what they have now. There's no reason to get overly obsessed with playing every game on the schedule, or worrying about games being shortened due to fading light.

[Singlethreaded]

While it can be a drag that an away game becomes a 4-5 hour event for both games, the Varsity coach gets to see the JV kids play and the JV kids get to see the level of competition necessary to play at the varsity level.

In the age of electronic gadgets I don't think the down time is so terribly monotonous (and nobody prevents kids from bringing books to read on the bus or after the match for the varsity players) given the cost savings enables some cash-strapped towns to offer JV programs.

The environment is completely unconducive for studying, and the varsity coach already has plenty of other opportunities to see the JV players at practices and selective home games. It adversely effects the Varsity team that has to standby for the JV games, and vice versa.

[Unregistered]

Smart varsity coaches schedule the Varsity game first, then JV. JV kids should be watching the Varsity game in the 1st half with the JV coach doing some instructional teaching.

That's not as optimal for the JV kids, but the JV game shouldn't be as much about winning in contrast to the Varsity game and perhaps you are right in that the JV should have fewer matches.

Second, there are dozens of parents, maybe even you, who have kids doing extra-curricular stuff or do some traveling for their club team on a regular basis each week -- and know how their kids spend the down/travel time. I've seen the 3-4 players when it's my turn to drive the carpool alternate from rapid texting and gossiping to each silently reading a book or studying notes. Harder on a bus -- absolutely, but what do you think happens when they go to college and have to manage their time independently (even if they don't play on an athletic team)?

Finally, you are only talking about 8-9 away games so smart coaches have already talked to their players ahead of time about the schedule and "coaching" them a bit on how to manage their school load. I'm not sure if RI schools do this, but in last school district we lived in, the in-season fall and spring athletes basically had last period as monitored study hall.

[Unregistered]

Good Varsity programs will see the JV program as a development path -- work on the areas that you want to baseline players who may have vastly different levels of tactical exposure from their club/middle school experiences such as restarts (corners/goal/free kicks) or exploiting and defending throw-ins as well as establishing a conditioning program that you want players grounded in so you don't waste Varsity pre-season time retraining.

I've never seen a JV program like the one you are talking about. Most I have seen are just the schools "B" team, and typically with a sub-par coach.

[JBsoccer]

JV is a joke what about Varsity on the boys side there are only a handful of good programs everything is kick it long down the field and run onto it and hope you do not get hurt.

HS Soccer is a waste of time unless you have a good coach in place and a plan in hand.

You miss my point.....I think Hs soccer - both JV and varsity - is tremendous, fun and competitive. Nothing in club soccer matches the excitement of playing for or cheering on your school while competing with other schools. It makes the entire high school experience that much better.

i just think that there could be more of a league structure to the jv season -that's all. if you go to the RIIL website and click on Junior varsity standings, you'll find a mish-mash of divisions, some which make no sense, some with only 1 school listed. At least with middle school sports, there are organized geographic divisions, criterion for making the playoffs, etc. - just like varsity sports.

I just don't see why the same couldn't be done for jv sports is all.

JB

[COL]

Agree JB -- Not sure why they wouldn't align the JV in the same way as Varsity. Would make it easier to evaluate any requests to change Varsity divisional assignment. Also, since many JV teams are now piggybacking on Varsity schedule to save on transportation, it would seem that would align with the actual competition.