Think Rule Four ...
 

Point taken. However, they're the oldest kids in the school, playing on the most select and competitive basketball team that the school has to offer.

According to my Funk & Wagnalls: Varsity: any first string team, especially in sports, that represents a school, college, university, or the like.

Yeah, I understand that's why they're calling it "varsity," but it just comes off as one more example of dumbing down certain achievements.

They're what? 10-11 years old? I don't care how select and competitive they are, they're still middle school kids learning the games. Junior high comes next to 'em, Billy, not the NBA.

Jmo but sometimes I think that we do have to keep things in perspective.

When viewed from our perspective, which tends to rank the entire spectrum of playing ability, it seems pretty silly to call this level of ball "varsity". But perhaps when viewed from the child's perspective it's a pretty big deal. They are playing on their school's best team and that is a big achievement for them. ;)

I would tend to think Jr High, 5th & 6th Grade, 3rd & 4th Grade, etc might be more accurate and sensible in terms of naming the teams. But, we live in the age of euphemisms, don't we?

Perspective ...
 

High school is next. We pretty much no longer have junior high schools here in Connecticut

And they do try in this league. Depending on the division: No strict coaching box rule, just stay away from the table. Yelling in the face of an opponent for any reason is not permitted. Three point shot only for upper divisions. Girls ball for younger boys. No overtime for younger kids. The game ends tied. Each team member must play a minimum of six minutes (one period for younger levels) in each game. Play zone inside three point arc and no fast breaks with big lead for younger levels. Kids in the youngest divisions are allowed to move closer to the basket if they can't reach it on free throws. We, as officials, are encouraged to explain our calls to all but the oldest kids. Sometimes we're more like basketball rule teachers out there on the floor than officials.

Interesting side note: T-shirt, headband, wrist bands, and jewelry rules are strictly enforced. If we, as officials, don't enforce these rules, we don't get paid by our assigner. All officials know this, as do all coaches. After a few reminders the first week of the season, we no longer have any problems with these "Fashion Police" rules. No, "The officials last week let her wear her lucky polka dot headband".

So are 7th graders walking the hallways with 12 graders? Or are 8th graders walking the halls with kindergarteners?

Reading, Riting and Rithmetic ...
 

In the case of our small Catholic parish schools (described in the posts above), this is the case. Often these schools only have one, or two classes, in each grade, from kindergarten through eighth grade, after which they move on to high school, usually one of our Catholic high schools. My local parish school only covers kindergarten through grade five, with only one class in each grade. After graduating, these kids often move on to the public middle school, or to another parish school in our town that has kindergarten through grade eight.

Most of the public schools in Connecticut have a three tier system. Kindergarten through fifth grade in elementary schools. Grades six through grade eight in middle schools, and grades nine through twelve in high schools. Some towns even further break down the elementary schools into upper and lower schools.

The junior high system (grades seven through nine) was done away with about twenty-five years ago here in the Constitution State. The school system that I retired from was one of the last in the state to use such a system. There are only a few systems lift that still use the junior high system, which is why our state high school sports governing body uses grade ten through twelve population to determine the school size for state tournament divisions.

My "jr. high" was 7th and 8th. I wasn't aware there was a distinction between "middle school" and "jr. high" other than semantics. There was one district in my previous locale that had and 8th and 9th grade school.

Pretty much the way it was when I was a kid in both VT & Maine. In FL, they kept referring to "Middle School". So, I would think, "That is 5th & 6th grade." But, actually, grades 6-8 are housed in the same buildings, and are referred to as 'middle schoolers'. K-5 [as opposed to K-9] is the elementary school age group. And Junior High exists only in our minds.

That's how it is here, too, I just thought the semantics were arbitrary. Interesting.

And none of that changes the fact that you're still only dealing with 10 & 11 year old kids.

If the 10 & 11 year olds are in Jr High, they might not necessarily be the best athletes.

Taught To The Tune Of The Hick'ry Stick ...
 

Here in Connecticut, for many years most towns had elementary schools (K-6), junior high schools (7-9), and high schools (10-12). About twenty plus years ago, based on educational research available at the time, towns started to convert junior high schools to middle schools (6-8). They figured that sixth graders were ready to move out of the self contained elementary classroom setting, where one teacher taught, for the most part, all subjects, to a setting where specialized teachers taught different subjects (science, English, mathematics, French, Spanish, geography, history, etc.). They also figured that since ninth graders were receiving high school credits toward high school graduation that they might as well be in the same building with the other "high school" kids. Junior high schools, for the most part, actually changed the name on the school building, i.e. John F. Kennedy Junior High School became John F. Kennedy Middle School.

As far as I know, there is only two "real" junior high schools remaining in Connecticut. They are part of a regional school district involving three different small towns. All three towns send their kids to one regional high school. The two smaller towns send their kids to one junior high school, located in one of those very small towns. The largest town sends it's kids to the other junior high school, located in that town. There have been several attempts to switch to a middle school format, but the largest town refuses to give up local control (like they have over their elementary schools) over their ninth graders and turn control of said ninth graders over to a regional district.

The 10 & 11 year olds were in fifth and sixth grade, as posted by Billy. I don't care what group they were part of or how "competitive" their league is; they're still freaking kids. And imo, when you're officiating you should be making some allowance for that.

IOW maybe wait until they get selected to a Grade 7 competitive team before you start treating them like high school varsity players.

That was my point.