The memo must have gotten lost in the mail.

High school sophomores aren’t supposed to be this good this soon.

Take a quick glance at the leading girls basketball scorers in Butler County this season and most aren’t even old enough to drive a car.

“The Simpsons” have been around longer. The Pirates’ run of futility has had more birthdays. The old couch in my game room has seen more of the world.

But what these super sophomores lack in age, they have made up for in points and skill.

Yes, I remember the day when sophomores were practice fodder, junior varsity interchangeable parts and sometimes quite awkward and clumsy.

My bones creaked when I was a sophomore. I had a growth spurt during that year and, subsequently, I had the coordination of a baby giraffe.

It wasn’t until my junior year that I developed enough athletic skill to be just good enough to be average.

But this sophomore group is well ahead of the curve.

Butler sophomore Caitlin Baxter and Slippery Rock High sophomore Morgan Siebka are second and third in the county in scoring average. At times, they also have carried the burden of team leadership.

Freeport sophomore Jessica Aulicino is close to averaging a double-double, and Slippery Rock’s other standout sophomore, Haley Angerett, has been a dangerous 3-point shooter and scorer at times.

You could put together a pretty potent girls team made up of nothing but sophomores. A team of Baxter, Siebka, Angerett, Aulicino and Kelsey Boocks of A-C Valley could challenge for section, region and league titles across Western Pennsylvania.

They’d just have to be home by curfew.

Only one sophomore has won the Butler Eagle Girls Basketball Player of the Year award and that was Jence Rhoads of Slippery Rock.

But she was special. She went on to win it the next two years.

This year, a case could be made for Baxter or Siebka to win the award.

No sophomore has come close to winning the boys player of the year award, and while there is no clear-cut star among the sophomores this season, there are a slew of solid players.

A-C Valley starts four sophomores around senior Allan Eaton.

Freeport sophomore Brendan Lynch was a standout in football at quarterback and now is a solid contributor for the basketball team.

Dakota Bruggeman at Knoch and Andrew Armagost at Moniteau are two more sophomores, to name a few, who are having solid seasons.

No sophomore slumps for these players. Just sophomore surges.

Mike Kilroy is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.