Seeing freshman and seniors competing in the classroom is a common thing, but on the field and on the court it’s a rare sight.

In most sports on campus, there is a varsity team, junior varsity team, and freshman team, with juniors and seniors the bulk of a varsity team and sophomores the foundation of junior varsity.

For majority of varsity coaches, the decision of who makes what team is a long, thought-out process.

“My personal philosophy is that, regarding the junior varsity, you don’t move a kid from the freshman team to play junior varsity, if he can move you move him to Varsity only, otherwise I like to keep freshman together,” head football coach Matt Green said. “I would say that kids could make the jump to JV much, much easier and you would see it a whole lot more, but most football coaches don’t move freshman to JV.  People typically believe you should keep your freshman nucleus together and let them win and succeed as freshman, then as a sophomore you’re either JV or varsity.”

Not only is it difficult to even make varsity, the skill level and practices are much higher and exhaustive than that of the freshman teams.

“As far as practice time and effort, our varsity practices and the requirements for a varsity football player are much more extensive than they are for freshman football players,” Green said. “You’re looking at a much heavier practice load and where they really get a lot more than freshman is the film study, and they really get a lot more film study because the level of play is so much higher.”

Although in volleyball the players don’t have film study, the level of drive and love they have for the sport can often determine if a freshman player is ready for varsity.

“It’s not rare to make JV, I don’t think,” Mitchell said.  “I think anytime a kid makes a jump from 8th grade to varsity it’s a rare thing, but it’s been done. Historically, I mean it’s not like we’ve been scared to do it. It’s not necessarily rare, but it’s a hard job. The biggest [change] is the speed of the game, so for a player to be able to make the jump from 8th grade to varsity, its takes a lot of adjustment and speed.”

The decision of having a freshman on a varsity team isn’t restricted to only team sports. For head tennis coach Adam Cherry, age is irrelevant.

“We have had freshman make the varsity tennis team since I have started coaching here which was 2010,” Cherry said. “Freshman can be at a disadvantage due to experience and strength. In tennis, I keep the top 10 boys and top 10 girls on varsity. Only the top 8 actually compete for the varsity. I would say freshman making varsity is a combination of seniors graduating and freshman who played tennis in middle school and develop their game outside of school through private lessons, junior development programs, and playing USTA (United States Tennis Association) events. I look for the top 10 tennis players’, boys and girls.  I don’t care how old they are.”