make the team

make the team

To be selected for an athletic team due to one's talents. I always wanted to play football, but the coach said I was too scrawny to make the team. Sarah finally made the team after her third attempt at the tryouts.
See also: make, team
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

make the team

to have been qualified enough to be selected to play on a sports team. I tried out, but I didn't make the team.
See also: make, team
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • the first string
  • team player
  • fair-weather fan
  • false start
  • a false start
  • done like (a) dinner
  • done like a dinner
  • done like dinner
  • full-court press
  • full-court press, a
References in periodicals archive
Telling someone they didn't make the team is never easy.
Lacking some skills necessary to compete at that level, inexperience and sometimes understanding how to play organized basketball as opposed to just playing in the gym or park with friends were just some of the reasons students didn't make the team. It might not have been the best way, but it was my way.
As a parent, it is sometimes difficult to understand why your child did not make the team. You see your child put a great deal of time and effort into practicing skills and then it all goes down the drain when cuts are made.
If you have shelled out money for private lessons, clinics and individual and team coaching, you may be quite upset that your child did not make the team. Remember that those lessons do not guarantee anything.
Remain calm at the meeting and ask what skills your son or daughter need to improve to have a chance to make the team next year.
Tony Parker, Russell Westbrook and Stephen Curry have a good chance to make the team. Lin's teammate, James Harden, is also a top candidate to be picked as a reserve.
``He's huge and if he doesn't make the team next time he's going to have a very, very strong case for a pick again.
"It's a pretty hard situation because Bernhard and I want to try to make the team," said Woosnam.
Watching that white cap bobbing up and down mile after mile after mile, it was impossible to believe that she had had to make the team in the Olympic Trials only 17 days after arthroscopic surgery on her right knee!
And we have never heard a female athlete complain that she failed to make the team because the coach didn't think she was beautiful enough.
There has never been a coach in history who would have looked at Babe Didriksen and said: "Sorry, kid, you're not good-lookin' enough to make the team." They'd all think she was beautiful.
What is the best way to tell a young athlete that he/she doesn't have the ability to make the team? How many hearts are you going to have to break?