Varsity or Bantams?

HShockeywatcher · Post by **HShockeywatcher** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 5:55 pm

Do kids ever go play varsity in public school communities as freshmen? There are freshmen on private school teams all the time but it seems most kids stay to play bantams their freshmen year. If the kid is good enough, will he go play varsity his 9th grade year, or will he stay with his bantam team?

thorhockey · Post by **thorhockey** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 6:10 pm

this has been discussed many times in previous forums. Many kids stay with bantams for more ice time and to improve on skills (rather than sit on bench as a fourth line on varsity)- also to play with friends one last time since being together since mites. Many players choose junior gold for the same reasons

State Champ 97 · Post by **State Champ 97** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 6:14 pm

You see a lot of freshman playing varsity in the really small places. In section 8A Bagley and Kittson Central did not have Bantams this past year and moved up all of the bantam aged kids due to numbers problems. They also scheduled JV games for these kids and had some of the sophomores play with them. I have heard of other places that may being looking at doing the same thing. I don't think it is a permenant situation and I don't know what will happen once they have bantams again.

mnhockey1030 · Post by **mnhockey1030** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 8:34 pm

hopkins' coach moved up to freshmen goalies to play on his team last year

EREmpireStrikesBack · Post by **EREmpireStrikesBack** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 9:27 pm

Depends on where they are on the varsity team. Obviously 1st or 2nd line, they play varsity. But 3rd line varsity or 1st line bantam, most will choose bantams not only because of the playing time, but they get nearly twice as many games. Depends on what the HS coach sees too. Some really want them on the varsity, some would rather see them get more ice time and develop. Depends on the program and the player obviously.

HShockeywatcher · Post by **HShockeywatcher** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 10:59 pm

I'm curious how trying out and such works. Can a kid try out hoping to make the 1st or 2nd line, make the team but sit on 4th line, then quit and go play Bantams, or would they have needed to be on the Bantam team during the time this is going on?

SunDoggie1 · Post by **SunDoggie1** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 4:32 pm

HShockeywatcher wrote:I'm curious how trying out and such works. Can a kid try out hoping to make the 1st or 2nd line, make the team but sit on 4th line, then quit and go play Bantams, or would they have needed to be on the Bantam team during the time this is going on?

It is all local policy. We had a kid this last year who opted to play up because of age (he only played 1 year as a bantam) but his friends all moved up to high school this year. He didn't make the cut Varsity or JV and wanted to move back to Bantams. The local policy/decision was not to allow this move. He was allowed to try out for and he subsequently made the JG team. The local policy reasoning is that if you allow 1 kid to opt up to high school for try outs and then allow them to come back to bantams then before you know it EVERY kid wants to "try out" for the high school team knowing that they can always fall back on bantams. It also isn't fair to the bantams. Where do you put him? did he even try out for the bantams? if he didn't then do you "bump" a kid who worked his butt off to make the "A" team? That doesn't seem right either...........

Part of life is making decisions that affect your future. By all means make a decision but live by that decision. You can't change your decision at a later date because you didn't like the outcome. Life lesson 101. Isn't that what we are supposed to be teaching these kids in this game?

HShockeywatcher · Post by **HShockeywatcher** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 6:12 pm

So basically unless the varsity coach has winked at you (we wouldn't want to accuse him of recruiting, would we?) then you probably should stay an extra year in bantams?

sid_the_kid · Post by **sid_the_kid** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 1:41 pm

well i played varsity my freshman year and i dont think it hurt me much

Sid

EREmpireStrikesBack · Thu Apr 19, 2007 10:33 pm

Idk if this is still how it works, but in ER in the past the bantam teams were picked well before the HS team has tryouts. Players will tryout for varsity and see where they end up and decide from there. I think they had to sit out of bantam games during that time or something. Or at least that's how it used to work.

Warrior18 · Post by **Warrior18** » Wed May 09, 2007 10:43 am

Depends on there age weather they stay or play varsity

RLStars · Post by **RLStars** » Wed May 09, 2007 11:01 am

MN Hockey allows roster changes up until Dec 31st, so a player can go to HS and move back down to play bantams before the MN Hockey roster finalizations. Since MN HS teams are not USA Hockey registered, there is no violation to the rule of only being registered on one team.

Most youth hockey associations will have a move up policy inplace and the movement and player fees are worked out at that level.

packerboy · Post by **packerboy** » Wed May 09, 2007 11:34 am

Bantam A teams will have been selected, scrimmaged a couple of times, and played a league game or 2 before high school begins in mid November.

If a player signs up for bantams, makes the team and then tries out for high school and doesnt it make it, I dont know how any associaton can deny him an opportunity to play Bantams.

If a player doesn' t try out for Bantams, hoping he will make high school with no commitment from the coach, he might not do well in life.