Whether it’s their first year in the sport or their fourth year, something, whether it’s being cut or promoted, needs to happen when a high school athlete reaches their senior year. Right now, DV seniors aren’t allowed to compete on JV – for a variety of reasons, mainly the physical aspects – but that leaves the question of what to do with them, if they don’t have the skill for varsity, up in the air.
Coaches face the dilemma of either putting them on varsity, even if they might not be able to compete at that level, or cutting them, even if they spent a large amount of time on the sport. However, the number of seniors who are in that position isn’t exactly high. Especially when it comes to the number of players attempting to first join a sport during their senior year, the consensus among several DV coaches was that few try.
When it comes to tennis, a cut sport, inexperienced seniors attempting to join are not much of an issue. “I would say really, I’ve only ever seen a maximum of two a year, so really not common. And typically they come to tryouts and they see the level of play and say, ‘I’m really not at this level’ and walk away on their own,” mens varsity tennis Assistant Coach Erin Bennett said.
Bennett added that while some seniors assume that they will have an easier time getting onto the team, the coaches still make them work for their spots, having them play matches just like all other participants during a tryout.
“However, if we see that, hey, they’ve been training and working hard, but they’re just not at that variety level, yes then we just kind of give them that extra bench,” Bennett said.“We call it an exhibition spot.”
Usually those seniors would, at least for tennis, place near the bottom, around the second or third double spot where space is less competitive. And if there is time in the game they usually try to give them time to play.
“If there’s freshmen and sophomores coming in that have game and can play, and those seniors can’t even really compete with them, then it’s hard to give that extra spot,” Bennett said. “Since we want to nurture that new talent, that’s usually when we ask them if they would be open to being more of a team manager.”
This alternative role, according to Bennett, usually entails the responsibility of setting up home games, putting in scores and helping to design hoodies and uniforms: general administrative tasks.
“We’ll try to make a spot for them, because it sucks,” Bennett recounted. “If you are a senior and you’ve played all these years and it’s like ‘dang, I’m just not good enough, I’m just not at that level, I’ve haven’t had the time to put into the sport’, that’s okay.”
Generally for cut sports, though, the decision is pretty easy: according to mens varsity tennis Coach Sanjith Senthilkumar, most players will be cut “if they aren’t able to get to a varsity level.” However, this isn’t always the case, especially when it comes to no-cut sports such as lacrosse.
Joren Reyes, the assistant coach for mens lacrosse, described a high frequency of people joining the sport in their senior year.“Yeah, a lot of the time, usually from people that play other sports, they want to give it try, especially with football players, as they don’t usually get to play after their session is over.”
The main effect that new seniors have on the team comes down to the bench lineup for the season. Nevertheless, Reyes noted how they usually try to balance their rosters out, in order to make sure that these new members get some amount of play time.
When asked about the performance of new seniors, Reyes added that, “It’s kind of hit or miss generally. No, they’re not going to be on the same level, because the stick is probably going to be the hardest thing that they’re going to learn, so it really depends.”
Because of the nature of the sport at Dougherty, the lacrosse coaches usually try to tailor their coaching style around more of the fundamentals, treating the start of the season more of a chance to “shake off the rest.”
Reyes ended off with his opinion on whether or not seniors should be allowed on jv, “I think that they should be allowed to if they strictly at a first year level, but I guess it’s kind of wishy washy right because it is dangerous to place a senior against a freshmen, I think it really depends.”
