North Raleigh Christian vs. Wake Christian - JV Football (Photo by: Teri Saylor, VYPE)
Oct 19, 2009
The air doesn’t crackle with excitement; a few parents patrol the sidelines, cameras in hand. A few more parents and fans are perched in the stands. Cheerleaders are out front, performing stunts and leading the rally, but there’s no band and no halftime show.
On some teams, athletes run out onto the field in hand-me-down jerseys, sporting numbers and logos from days gone by.
Welcome to Thursday Night Lights.
And welcome to the best pregame show in the Triangle.
Junior Varsity Sports Night.
No one has to sell Matt Lanahan on the value of JV soccer. The Green Hope junior made the 2009 Varsity soccer team this season, after laboring for two years on the junior varsity squad.
“JV is lots of fun. You get to hang out, and you get lots of playing time,” he said. “Junior Varsity gets you ready to play at the next level.”
The Green Hope JV soccer program is indeed fun, especially after coming off two undefeated seasons in a row. So far this season, the JV Falcons have won every game.
“Playing JV sports gives athletes confidence, helps them grow, and gives them more game experience,” said Green Hope JV Soccer Coach John Green.
“I’d rather play on JV and play than play varsity and sit on the bench,” said Falcon forward Drew Altman, a sophomore.
Tim Meserth, head volleyball coach at Broughton High School, has an innovative way of giving his JV team much needed game experience. He knew he would be losing five talented seniors to graduation after the 2008 season, and he had a talented group of underclassmen who could compete at the varsity level if they could be exposed to a higher realm of competition.
“I did not want this group to ride the bench behind the varsity starters, and I was worried that only playing the junior varsity schedule wouldn’t be challenging enough,” he said in an interview last winter.
Meserth convinced the players and their parents to let him create an “extended varsity” team made up of the freshman and sophomore non-varsity starters.
“My goal was to get the extended varsity as much high level competition as possible so they would have the experience necessary to step in and play when we needed them,” Meserth said. “They won some of the sets and lost others, but I was very pleased at their improvement through the season.”
Green Hope sophomore midfielder Michael Montero enjoys the abundance of playing time he gets on the JV team.
“I wanted to get on the varsity last year, but there were a lot of returning players,” Montero said. “But it’s good to be on the JV team. We get lots of playing time, and we get to practice with the varsity.”
Montero also likes Coach Green.
“Coach Green is a good coach. He’s young and cool and fun. He takes us out to eat,” Montero said.
And of course there’s that winning record, although the coach works to instill in his players respect for the game and their opponents each week.
“We can never expect to win,” Montero said. “Every game is a new game.”
Try telling that to the Garner High School junior varsity football team.
The JV Trojans have racked up a 13-year record of 134 wins and six losses.
Coach Stancil Hines is still kicking himself over his first season as head JV coach when his record went 7-3.
“I felt bad that year because the previous coach had racked up 42 wins in a row and went 10-0 the year before I took over,” he said.
Hines quickly redeemed himself.
“We went 10-0 the next season,” he said.
Junior varsity is known as a building block for the varsity teams.
“Junior varsity sports can help to build successful varsity sports programs,” said Bobby Guthrie, senior administrator for athletics in the Wake County Public School System.
Indeed, at Garner High School, a contender in the Greater Neuse Conference, the Trojans have long been respected as a top performing football team. At the end of September, Head Varsity Coach Nelson Smith was poised to earn his 100th career win.
“We kind of set ourselves up as a farming ground for the varsity,” Hines said. “We keep it simple. When we get a kid in JV, we just start from scratch. It’s a building process and a learning process. When Coach Smith gets them on varsity, he takes them to the next level.”
Hines reckons that about 90% of his JV players make the move up to varsity at some point in their high school playing careers.
North Raleigh Christian Academy’s junior varsity football team is small but mighty.
Coach Bob Winstead’s 49-player team has lost just one game in two years.
“Our guys believe they are champions and they deserve to win,” he said. “They take that attitude and the fundamentals of football to varsity and translate them to victory there.”
Because North Raleigh Christian is a small school, its junior varsity football team includes players who would traditionally be classified as middle-schoolers – in the seventh and eighth grades. The JV team also includes ninth graders.
“I love the JV,” Winstead said. “There’s so much growth between the seventh and 10th grades.”
Garrett Pratt, 15, is a sophomore on the North Raleigh Knights varsity team. The varsity squad has only 22 players, and like most of his teammates, Pratt plays several positions. He likes playing wide receiver the most.
“It’s incredible to catch a pass,” he said. “It’s amazing to see the ball in the air and hear the crowd go still, and then you catch the ball and everyone cheers.”
It’s a heady experience, to be sure, but he also enjoys playing strong safety on the defense.
“It releases energy when you hit someone you don’t even know, and then you get back up and hit him again,” Pratt said.
“We have about 13 or 14 true athletes on the team, and most are studs who play both ways,” Winstead said.
As much as Pratt enjoys playing several positions on his varsity team, he misses Winstead and he misses his former junior varsity teammates.
“I love Coach Winstead, and I love the atmosphere of being with my buddies. I can’t wait until they get to varsity,” Pratt said.
Pratt’s affinity with his junior varsity coach, like other JV players might come from the growth he experienced during his formative years.
“Junior varsity sports can be a proving ground for high school varsity sports. Students may develop and grow during the 9th and 10th grade years to be productive members of varsity squads,” Guthrie said.
Winstead strives to facilitate growth both on and off the field.
“We provide leadership training for our players on and off the field,” he said. “Our responsibility is more than the game of football.”
Winstead’s son, Hunter Winstead, sees the value of leadership training in his efforts as a defensive end, tackle and right guard on his JV team.
“On the junior varsity team, you can have a leadership role that you would not have on varsity, and you can get to the top level,” he said.
Hines was an assistant coach for the varsity team at Garner when the head JV coaching position opened up, and he gets a lot of satisfaction out of his job.
“I enjoy seeing the guys progress and get better,” he said.
He enjoys watching them go up to the varsity level and is glad when they make it on the college level.
“I believe junior varsity sports are building blocks for kids. It’s a maturing time for them,” he said. “Staying involved in JV sports keeps them focused and helps them set goals.”
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