Varsity/JV practices - combined vs. separate

[the_big_toe]

My son has recently started playing high school football out here in California at the JV level. He doesn’t drive yet so I took him to and from all of his summer workouts and practices and I pick him up after practices now during the school year. So I have seen some of their practices. I noticed that their practices were completely separate, and I asked him if that was the case for the parts of the practices that i didn’t see. He confirmed that the practices were completely separate.

This differs from what I experienced when I was in high school back in Ohio. We had combined practices where all the position players learned from the same varsity coach and we all learned the same techniques, plays, etc. We would have short separate sessions at the end of practice to run full plays as a unit, but position drills, tackling drills, conditioning … basically anything that could be done combined, was done combined. I liked that system as I felt it developed players into the system better and provided for a very integrated football program.

I’d love to hear the experiences and thoughts of others on the subject.

 

[Sykotyk]

How big is the school and teams? That might play into the decision.

 

[BirdDog10]

How big is the school and teams? That might play into the decision.

Was just going to say this. For the majority of Ohio teams D3-4 and lower, the JV team is the varsity’s scout team. It wouldn’t be practical to separate practices for many schools

 

[the_big_toe]

How big is the school and teams? That might play into the decision.

I played for St. Xavier during Steve Rasso’s tenure. The school my son goes to is similar in size - D1.

 

[Kballer]

I played for St. Xavier during Steve Rasso’s tenure. The school my son goes to is similar in size - D1.

Do they also have a freshman team? How many kids on each team? What are the rules there as far as playing in both JV and varsity games? Once you get close to 100 kids on a level (Fr/JV/Var) it can become unmanageable so that could be a factor. I do like having JV and varsity together as it creates connections and motivation for the younger and senior guys but if they have used this system successfully over the years why fix it?

 

[Sykotyk]

Do they also have a freshman team? How many kids on each team? What are the rules there as far as playing in both JV and varsity games? Once you get close to 100 kids on a level (Fr/JV/Var) it can become unmanageable so that could be a factor. I do like having JV and varsity together as it creates connections and motivation for the younger and senior guys but if they have used this system successfully over the years why fix it?

Yeah. Once you hit 80 kids it's hard to hold a singular practice. You're already breaking the team up into smaller groups based on position.

 

[CedarBuck92]

We always did warmups and stretching as a whole team, then divided into position drills. After this usually the Freshmen would go off and practice as a team while the rest of the team did group drills (Think 7 on 7 on Offense or Front 7 on Defense), then Varsity vs scout team 11 on 11. Our JV practices were Saturday morning walk throughs before the game.

 

[the_big_toe]

Do they also have a freshman team? How many kids on each team? What are the rules there as far as playing in both JV and varsity games? Once you get close to 100 kids on a level (Fr/JV/Var) it can become unmanageable so that could be a factor. I do like having JV and varsity together as it creates connections and motivation for the younger and senior guys but if they have used this system successfully over the years why fix it?

There are about 50 kids at each level.

This system has not been successful for this team. They had two wins (at each level) last year, and frankly expect fewer this year.

Beyond the wins and losses, I felt that the combined system helped build camaraderie and pride across the whole program.

 

[the_big_toe]

We always did warmups and stretching as a whole team, then divided into position drills. After this usually the Freshmen would go off and practice as a team while the rest of the team did group drills (Think 7 on 7 on Offense or Front 7 on Defense), then Varsity vs scout team 11 on 11. Our JV practices were Saturday morning walk throughs before the game.

This was very close to what I remember from that system, except our Freshman were completely separate.

 

[raymosm3]

I have a friend whose son is a freshmen football player in California. He asked me the exact same question because there are separate, ours are not. He did some research and it is a California high school athletic association rule and once a player is "called up" to varsity he can't go back to JV.

 

[Football#1]

I have a friend whose son is a freshmen football player in California. He asked me the exact same question because there are separate, ours are not. He did some research and it is a California high school athletic association rule and once a player is "called up" to varsity he can't go back to JV.

 

[Co26]

Yep, same here. JV was scout team from varsity and freshmen completely separate. But I can see where with larger numbers that would be tough

 

[reganaustinjames]

Yep, same here. JV was scout team from varsity and freshmen completely separate. But I can see where with larger numbers that would be tough

That's how we were when I played. In fact, prior to this thread, I have never heard of a school doing what the OP's kid' school is doing.

 

[MentorMarsh01]

I never liked the idea of completely separate Varsity and JV from my own experience. At Mentor, we had ~140 kids between Freshman/JV/Varsity. Freshmen practiced separately (unless you were good enough for Varsity). Our practices were run similar to college where all JV and Varsity players were together for warm-ups, individual drills, and group drills. We would split the field for 7 on 7 and team periods where it would be 1v1's and JV vs JV or Varsity vs scout. This is how practice was run for me in college as well.

 

[CedarBuck92]

We always did warmups and stretching as a whole team, then divided into position drills. After this usually the Freshmen would go off and practice as a team while the rest of the team did group drills (Think 7 on 7 on Offense or Front 7 on Defense), then Varsity vs scout team 11 on 11. Our JV practices were Saturday morning walk throughs before the game.

I should also add, if you were a starter and were not currently in for something more than a water break or package change, you better be out there on scout team. Same applied for any seniors regardless of starting status. coaches reserved the right to stack the scout team however they saw fit.

 

[lightspeed84]

I would take the upper level sophomores and practice them with the varsity and have the rest of jv and freshman practice together, then rotate kids up and down as needed for practice and games almost like a baseball farm system. Obviously this sounds great but would take some work.

 

[lightspeed84]

I should also add, if you were a starter and were not currently in for something more than a water break or package change, you better be out there on scout team. Same applied for any seniors regardless of starting status. coaches reserved the right to stack the scout team however they saw fit.

hungry sophomores that are nipping at the starters spot make the best scout team players. I loved it when we had to tone down sophomores on scout team

 

[CedarBuck92]

hungry sophomores that are nipping at the starters spot make the best scout team players. I loved it when we had to tone down sophomores on scout team

My senior year, our center was a sophomore, his classmates absolutely loved to try everything to beat him. He also had a bit of a lisp so a lot of line calls were things he struggled to say. I personally loved to lineup across from our DI committed tackle and just frustrate him to high heaven.