Having a strong junior varsity team is a vital part to any successful sports program – whether it comes from the development it offers the players or the higher level competition that it allows them to play against.

Bearden boys basketball is no different, as the JV had an exceptional season going undefeated for the third year in a row. 

One of the biggest advantages that JV provides is the preparation it gives the players for playing at the varsity level.  

“I think the biggest way JV prepares players for varsity is practice every single day,” JV boys coach Tyler Place said. “In practice, the JV guys are always going against the varsity guys, and that gets them ready for varsity level competition.

“They get used to the speed and they get used to the strength, so when they’re juniors and seniors they’re ready to play against the other varsity teams in the league.”

Success at the junior varsity level is crucial to the future success of the varsity. Start a winning culture early and it helps for future teams to succeed. 

“Having a successful JV team sparks the varsity up to wanna be great too,” freshman King Hubbard said. “Being a freshman and playing against older people definitely gets my confidence up too.”

It also helps during practice with the younger players competing against the older ones to help sharpen their skills. 

“I think that having a successful JV team helps a lot,” freshman Jamichael Blaire said. “It helps a lot in practice because we do a lot of stuff in practice that carries over to the game.”