The Piedmont Highlander

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The Piedmont Highlander

The Piedmont Highlander

Men’s JV soccer plans to double

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There will be two Junior Varsity Boy’s soccer teams this year if 30 or more players sign up for tryouts.

Rory O’Connor, the head Varsity coach for Boy’s Soccer, said “It’s not definite, and depends on the number of players who show up.”

The school does not have enough money to supply for a separate freshman team, so O’Connor wants to form two Junior Varsity teams, which would technically still just be one team.

“Both teams will be practicing together two to three times each week, and will be expected to watch each other’s games,” said O’Connor, “they are a unit and will work together as if they were a single team, the two different teams are strictly just for matches.”

If the plan goes through, O’Connor said he plans on making the two teams on a equal skill level, distributing experienced and inexperienced players evenly among the teams, with each team playing every other game.

“During practices, having the teams scrimmage and practice against each other will help all new players develop, and also help experienced players by opening up more leadership opportunities,” said O’Connor.

Junior Carson Armstrong said he likes the idea of having two teams.

“It is better for the overall team atmosphere to have more people on the team, rather than having to cut them,” said Armstrong. “We have more potential for the whole team to improve.”

O’Connor believes that including more people enhances the team by bringing new talent that may have gone unrecognized.

“Last year, we had to cut around four people. This year, we anticipated having to cut even more, and I thought it would hamper the school’s chance for development by having to cut out so many people,” O’Connor said.

Varsity Captain senior Matt Baringer believes it is good for player development and will get kids more experience, but won’t help those already good because they will not get as much playing time.

“If I were on JV, I wouldn’t want two teams because it would take away from my playing time,” said Baringer. “Overall, including so many people does benefit the school team by allowing more potential people to try out for future Varsity, but hurts returning JV players.”

 

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