8th grade holdback

**Chubzfan** · February 11th, 2007, 08:58 PM

Can anyone clarify exactly what the rule is on holding back in the 8th grade. If you play J.V. basketball in the 8th grade can you hold back and play J.V. again, then as a 9th grader go to varsity.

February 11th, 2007, 09:55 PM

Check the county and school rules CLOSELY. Some of the schools seem to be really against this. You can sell drugs, but a kid better not wanna spend an extra year in high school, even if they wanna go to college, and get some core classes out of the way. Folks will holler about costs, but the teachers and schools are already there.

**Squirell** · February 11th, 2007, 09:58 PM

The way I understand it is this. If you are a regular 8th grader you can play jv sports. However, if you are a hold back 8th grader you are not supossed to play any jv sports. Once the holdback reaches the 9th grade he is elgible for varsity. As far as your question goes. If you play jv while you are a true 8th grader and decide to hold back you can't play jv again the following year. I am aware of one kid for sure that is in this situation. He played both 8th grade and jv basketball last year and decided to hold back and wasn't allowed to play jv.

February 11th, 2007, 10:10 PM

Play 8th grade your 8th grade year and jv your hold back year, the VHSL doesn't care about less than high school . This means varsity sports and 9th grade, catch- some schools won't let you take that many classes of less than high school level the second year. It is discrimination, no different than failing. If a kid fails anywhere in school , then they would have to lose a year of playing time. No, I don't believe this, but the board will never win this argument if you get your stuff together.

**fathokieboy** · February 12th, 2007, 12:38 AM

You have 4 years of to play once you reach 9th grade.

**sup-rbeast** · February 12th, 2007, 12:52 AM

at the beginning of this school year there was talk that they were going to change the rule starting next school year. The change would be that instead of setting eligibility for varsity sports as 8 consecutive semesters starting in the 9th grade, it would be changed to eligibility for both jv and varsity sports would be 10 consecutive semesters starting in the 8th grade. This change would make no player eligible for jv until he or she was in the 8th grade; thus, eliminating any chance for a holdback year. Still the athlete would have the same eligibility as now once in the 9th grade. Don't know if it has been passed or voted on...but before the spring is over we all will know if this is the case.

**imported_Counts** · February 12th, 2007, 09:45 AM

The rule did change

28-4-2

[ QUOTE ]
A student who is repeating the eighth grade after having successfully
completed the eighth grade (held back), must be enrolled in five new courses in order to
be eligible for a second year as an eighth grader.

[/ QUOTE ]
http://vhsl.org/Handbook.pdf

Now there is a heck of alot more to it than there used to be.

Add to that the fact that the rule has no teeth since

#1) It does not affect the players varcity elegability
#2) Worst case it leads to JV Forfits (and who really cares?)
#3) The the kid does it in 7th Grade there is nothing to stop him/her
#4) Call it middle school ball insted of JV and all is well

So YES there is a rule change and NO it will change nothing

**sup-rbeast** · February 12th, 2007, 10:41 AM

Your post on the rule was a compromise earlier this year...there has been talk since of fixing the rule as I stated in my post for next year. But, as for now, your post is the way it stands. I have heard the compromise on the rule this year was to avoid law suits and complaints from parents who had kids that had held back already...but at the same time serves notice that the intention is to eventually phase out holding back in order to avoid lawsuits when the rule is changed.

**imported_Counts** · February 12th, 2007, 10:50 AM

If I remember correct they were looking at making Varcity elegability end 10 semesters after the student entered the 8th grade but still only be able to play the last 8 (9th grade on)

That did not happen this year and we got the watered down change.

I had not seen anything that sugusted that they were looking at making another change next year (Not saying that it is not in the works but I had not seen it brought up anywhere yet)