What is PLCs philosophy on playing time?
Because PLC regards play as so important to children’s development as well as physical and psychological health, PLC asks its youth sports organizations to develop policies that welcome all children to the youth sport experience and to give them as much playing time as possible. PLC believes that youth sport organizations should guarantee each child as close to equal playing time as possible through the 6th grade and substantial playing time (at least 25%) in the 7th and 8th grades. We differentiate the 7th and 8th grades from the earlier grades because 7th and 8th grade leagues often function as a transition to high school sports. At the high school level, PLC recognizes that an “everybody plays” philosophy is difficult to mandate. However, it is important for coaches to give each player as much opportunity as possible to play during practices, junior varsity games, and scrimmages. It is important that no matter how many minutes of playing time an athlete gets, the coach should treat
