Junior varsity (often called "JV", sometimes spelled out phonetically as Jayvee) players are the members of a team who are not the main players in a competition (such as a football, basketball, or baseball game), usually at the high school and college levels in the United States and Canada. The main players comprise the varsity team. Nearly all junior varsity players are in their freshman and sophomore years in school, though occasionally upperclassmen may play on JV teams. For this reason, junior varsity teams are also often called junior/sophomore teams. Especially skilled or physically mature freshmen and sophomores may compete at the varsity level. Some private school associations may permit very skilled seventh- or eighth-graders to compete on varsity teams. At larger schools, there m