New JV Teams Develop Upper School Athletes

The Upper School tennis, so ball and boys lacrosse teams have all added junior varsity teams this spring season.

With an over ow of participants, JV teams allow more students to participate in the sport of their choosing.

For tennis, the program introduced a JV team to develop students and allow them to compete in a sport, according to Head of Athletics and Physical Education Jarrett Shine. ose who attended tennis tryouts either made the JV or varsity team.

“ e purpose of athletics is to make sure that all of our kids are healthy and are competitive,” Shine said. “If we cut some of these kids, they don’t have an option to participate in sports [and] we’re doing a disservice to our athletes and our students.” e boys lacrosse program added a JV team due to the increase in turnout, which included many students new to lacrosse.

“We have a lot more players than last year,” sophomore Rhett Mulder said. “I think the addition of JV teams will help the program in the long run because more players will be able to develop.”

Many of these sports programs have either never had a JV team or have not had one in the last couple of years.

“Two years ago, [the girls so ball team] could not ll our Upper School team, but our Middle School numbers were strong,” Varsity Girls So ball Head Coach Monica Stephens said. “ at year, those ve kids would show up every week and they stuck with it, knowing that Middle School was coming up.” e learning curve between a JV and varsity player varies depending on the sport. For some, it may come easily, while others require very speci c skills.

Varsity Boys Lacrosse Head Coach Jack Fisher says varsity players tend to be more comfortable with the lacrosse stick.

“ e big di erentiator in lacrosse is typically stick skills for our newer players,” Fisher said. “We have some brand-new players who are outstanding athletes, but still, there’s that learning curve.”

Along with JV and varsity, the boys lacrosse program also has a “swing” group of players. e swing group consists of around eight players who will play in both JV and varsity games. e JV team will also play in all the varsity home games.

“We are dressing all of our players for our varsity home games,” Fisher said. “We feel it’s important for everyone to be a part of the game at the varsity level.”

Sophomore Rhett Mulder says he likes the concept of being a swing player, as he can learn from older players.

“I’m pretty happy being a swing player, because even though I may not play as much I still get to go to all the games and learn a lot by watching the varsity players,” Mulder said.

Junior Varsity Tennis Head Coach Vivek Kuppurajan says that both JV and varsity players have a good feel for the game. However, there are impactful di erences between the teams.

“Both levels know how to hit a ball and play the game,” Kuppurajan said. “Instead, there are di erences in the minor details. Some examples include players’ footwork, how they use their energy [and] how they carry themselves on the court during practices.” e main di erence in the so ball program is that a few members of the JV team have never played so ball before.

“If you know anything about so ball, you can’t just pick it up in a couple of weeks,” Stephens said.

Freshman Maya Jagsi is on the JV girls so ball team and says that players are eager to learn the game, despite being new to the sport.

“Everyone is doing really well and learning quickly, considering people have barely played,” Jagsi said.

Two years ago, [the girls softball team] could not ll our Upper School team, but our Middle School numbers were strong. That year, those ve kids would show up every week and they stuck with it, knowing that Middle School was coming up.”

With the increase in size of each of the programs, obstacles are present for each team to work their way around.

Heading into the season, Boys Varsity Tennis Coach Scott Cotton says he thought court space would be an issue with the addition of JV tennis teams. So far, however, he says that hasn’t been the case as the team has been able to schedule practices in a way where everyone always has an opportunity to play.

“Usually [JV] practices are in the a ernoon when the girls team is either practicing in the morning or doing [High Performance Center workouts], so the court space is not an issue,” Cotton said. e JV boys lacrosse team has been scheduling practices when the varsity team has games as the teams have to share the same coaching sta

“We’re at a point where when the varsity is playing and the JV isn’t, we want to make sure that we’re having practice to continue to develop skills,” Fisher said. “Since both teams share the same coaching sta , we’re trying to make sure that our coaches can be there for all of our players.”

Kuppurajan says he hopes that the new JV teams will help underclassmen develop and eventually be able to contribute to the varsity teams.

“ e constant goal I hope for the JV players to have is to become varsity players next year,” Kuppurajan said. “Every single person on the JV team has the potential and drive to become capable of playing full challenging matches.”

Jagsi says that playing at the junior varsity level has allowed her to contribute to the team, improve her so ball skills and prepare her to play on the varsity level.

“Playing on JV now will help me down the road because I’ll be able to focus on developing more advanced skills because I’ll already have the foundations mastered,” Jagsi said. “Especially because JV focuses a lot more on that.”