Benches have never felt so warm

These athletes work toward a set of goals, always trying to achieve something more. These goals can be as simple as making the team, starting on said team, or earning the captainship position on their team. These young athletes have hopes of becoming heroes for their team, role models for their peers, and most importantly they hope to meet all of their inner desires. This is the world of high school athletics and it all starts with the dreaded tryout. A pressure packed couple of days that decides the fate of a high school student’s athletic career. Those fortunate enough to make a varsity team soon discover that the real competition has just began.

It does not matter what grade you are in, playing on a varsity sport is a huge commitment and one that student athletes try to get the most out of. Most kids have trained their entire childhood to make this team. Joining the team as an underclassman and not seeing playing time is common. You are still inexperienced in the eyes of the coach, and therefore he does not trust you yet. You have to earn that respect through hard work and dedication.  Once on a varsity team as a junior it is normal to expect more playing time. You are an upperclassman. You have grown up and made new friends while becoming more comfortable with your high school setting. Once on varsity as a senior it would make sense that the senior would play. Being the oldest you are the most experienced members of the team who can serve as role models for the younger players. However, far too often this experience is pushed aside as seniors once again “ride the bench” for their last year on the team. This is where I put my foot down.

As a senior it is an embarrassment to not play, I can speak from experience. I played varsity soccer for my junior and senior years of high school. During my junior year I did not play too much nor did I expect to. Once my senior year rolled around I expected to play more, and I wanted to follow in my cousins footsteps and earn a starting role. Unfortunately I did not get to start but acted as a sub that played most games. I was content with my position but when I would find myself on the bench I was sitting next to my close friends who knew that cold steel all too well.  These players have sacrificed way too much to not play on the varsity team. These kids have spent hours upon hours of training to prepare for this team. Their hard work is not yielding success. Such an idea is dangerous to expose to kids. In the working world, people need to work as hard as they can to establish themselves. If these student athletes are psychologically damaged by this failure it could deeply affect the rest of their lives. Besides this possible effect, sports are supposed to be played for the fun of it; at least that is what all young player’s coaches told them when they were young.

As kids there was one message that the coaches and our parents drilled into our heads. Their point was to play the sport for the fun of it. “And remember, have fun kids” is a phrase used by coaches of all different sports. Even at the varsity level this same phrase was repeated by my coach. So if the game truly is just for fun, than why can’t everyone take part in it?

Besides the childhood aspect of equality the vision statement pertaining to Algonquin Athletics also proposes a valuable learning experience is a high priority in the realm of Algonquin Athletics, it reads, “To provide learning experiences through athletics that will enable our students to be better prepared to meet and successfully handle future challenges and responsibilities” A vision statement is created in an effort to show coaches how to lead their team. It is sort of a goal that coaches should try to meet. By having seniors not play this could be viewed as a learning opportunity, but certainly not one that anyone I know would want to partake in. Once seniors figure out that they will never play a significant amount of time, this severely dampens their self-esteem. The last thing any parent wants is a teenager with a low self-esteem. Low self-esteem leads to bad decisions, introversion, and poor grades.

I understand that the world of high school athletics can be incredibly competitive and the main goal for coaches is to win, but when a team is up by seven goals how is there an easy way for that team to lose? Emily Cohen posted this on a website called Mom’s Team about varsity bench warmers, “Why not use your subs, let them get their playing time when you’re in a mercy-rule situation, and let them HELP the team when the chips are down? Isn’t that a better overall plan for everyone?” Cohen is talking about the topic of benchwarmers in terms of baseball, but it still applies to all sports. Even when their team is winning by an astronomical amount, the seniors still find themselves on the bench. Competition is one thing, but not letting kids play in these situations is beyond me. It is time to let the seniors lead by actions, not by cheers from the bench that they have spent four long years warming up.