For a young player, getting on the field in a game for Vicksburg High and Warren Central can be a difficult task.

They have to prove they belong and can contribute, pay their dues by shagging foul balls and keeping score, and often wait for upper classmen to move on before making their mark on the varsity level.

Now, while they’re waiting, they have something to do.

Both VHS and WC will field freshman teams next spring, separate from the current varsity and junior varsity levels. The new teams will help coaches at both schools to better evaluate young players and give them some playing time, coaches said.

“You get more guys to play,” Warren Central coach Randy Broome said. “They get to learn more from playing than they do practicing, and you get to see more of them than you do in tryouts. It gives us a chance to look at them for a complete year. It’s a benefit to the kids.”

The freshman teams will play a 10- or 12-game schedule over a six-week period during the season, Broome and VHS coach Jamie Creel said. Opponents have not been lined up yet.

“Anybody and everybody in the Jackson area,” Broome said when asked who they will play. “Anybody that has a team.”

The teams will have players in the eighth and ninth grades, and should increase the overall strength of both programs, Creel said.

“You have a chance to let the eighth- and ninth-grade players get better and give them some experience. In the past, our eighth and ninth graders have been matched up with other teams’ JV,” Creel said. “It’s going to get more people in the program.”