unfair tryouts

Question
My son attends high school in California (southern)he is a junior and has played previously as sophomore for this same school. over the summer his school played in some summer tournaments my son did not attend he traveled over the summer. this year i was told by the coach that he could not participate in their program because he did not play over the summer with the schools team.  there were no tryouts held for the jv team his coach told me the try outs were held the previous year for the jv team. in other words to play on the 2011-2012 team you would have had to try out during the 2010-2011 semester. is any of this legal? i thought kids were allowed to tryout each year for any particular sport?

Answer
Hi Terrance,

This is not my area of expertise, however, once you get to the High School level and above, it's all up to the coach how the program is run. If he/she has certain rules or guidelines you must follow in order to play, then you have to follow them. I agree it seems unfair for your son to miss an entire year of playing. If your son is really good and you think he might have a future to play college, I would look into playing for another school. But to answer your question, it's perfectly legal.