At ISB sports is a key attribute to the schools community. And every sports team in the ISB high school consists of two teams: JV and Varsity. Many have wondered what the true differences between these two are. Is it harder practices and longer training seasons? Or is it simply due to differences in age and skill? This article will explore the differences between the two, taking into account the opinions and perspectives of varsity players Kelly Rutherford, Trent Szydlowski, and Lucas Wilson.

Trent Syzdlowski (grade 11), a varsity baseball player, states, “Varsity is more about building strength and endurance whereas JV is a lot of skill building.” This is probably due to the fact that varsity players have already acquired all of the skills needed to play games efficiently and win them. Lucas agrees with this, stating, “JV training is more about acquiring the skills needed to efficiently play and win games, whereas varsity is more practice of those skills that players already know.”

He also states, “Varsity starts almost every day with a 30 minute workout led by the school physiotherapist James. JV has nothing like that.” As conditioning and strength is a huge part of being able to play games well and efficiently, this is probably why varsity stresses the importance of this so much. Kelly Rutherford (grade 11) follows up on this, saying, “Varsity practice would definitely be more difficult and possibly faster as most of us are more experienced and have a higher skill level.”

However, both players come to the conclusion that overall, the differences between varsity and JV are not that large, and they are mostly the same. Trent states, “Other than (what I said before) it seems like it is near the same,” and Kelly states, “I would say that there isn’t much difference because we are all trying to improve on our play… once a week, we try to practice JV and Varsity teams together because repetition is key and every player no matter what level needs to practice the more ‘basic’ skills to get better.” 

Whereas players are JV or varsity, overall they are an integral part of sports life here at ISB and an important part of ISB school spirit. So, what are your thoughts on the differences between JV and varsity? Tell us in the comments below!

Joon Lee