Last year, the Canton High School girls’ basketball team ended up with six players available for districts. Some players were injured, others quit, and one moved. The team had two juniors, four sophomores, no seniors, and no freshmen who played in the district game. Some schools do not allow freshmen to play on the high school team, but Canton does.  Freshmen are also allowed to play in the junior high games.

Freshmen should play high school basketball. Even if they don’t get to play many minutes, practicing with upperclassmen will help prepare them for the future.  If freshman play up, they get more experience, and they grow more as players.  In the end, that will help the basketball program overall.  All games played, whether junior high, junior varsity, or high school, give each player more experience.  However, the high school games are played at a higher level and freshmen will learn that they pay for mistakes like bad passes or not handling the ball well.  If freshmen only play with kids their own age, they will not be challenged as much.

This year, nearly half of the high school girls basketball team is made up of freshmen.  If the freshmen did not practice with the high school, then the high school players would barely have enough to scrimmage each other.  Freshmen can learn a great deal from senior leadership, and in the end, Canton will have better basketball teams for years to come because we invest in the future by teaching younger players.