Seniors who get cut from varsity teams like volleyball and basketball should not play JV in order to provide a fair opportunity for underclassmen to participate and build the programs for the future.
Playing on the varsity team is a goal many high school athletes hope to achieve one day. The question is: What happens to the seniors who cannot achieve that goal? Although there are many pros and cons to this question, seniors should not be able to play on junior varsity teams.
Currently in the Far West League, seniors are not allowed to play on most junior varsity teams. This is present mostly in sports where there is a limit to the amount of players that can be on a team, such as volleyball or basketball. For some grade levels this does not have a huge effect. Typically the smaller the class, the less competition it has. However, in the case of a larger class, there are so many students that some have to be cut. Even an above average athlete could be cut because there are so many other students to compete with.
Seniors should not be allowed to play on junior varsity teams because at a high school there is more than one class participating in a sport. A large senior class could potentially fill up a varsity team and make up the majority of junior varsity. Juniors, sophomores and freshmen would get very little experience coming up through high school, the experience they need to continually improve. Athletes playing sports at their level will make them better and make the team better in the future.
Another reason seniors should only be allowed on varsity is one that any coach could explain. In a sport, growing the program is one of the most important goals to accomplish in order to give future players more chances to succeed. If seniors are playing on a junior varsity team, that means one less junior, sophomore or freshman is practicing to better themselves and strive for the goal of making varsity. If underclassmen cannot get on a team because there are seniors taking their spots, then the following year they will go into the year with little experience, and therefore, have a team with little experience.
Giving priority to seniors is understandable, and I hope to receive that in a few years. However, there is a thin line between getting priority and actually taking away the chance that an underclassman would otherwise receive. Seniors should not play junior varsity in order to give more juniors, sophomores and freshmen a chance to prepare and get better so that when they are seniors, they get a chance to play on an experienced varsity team just like the seniors before them did.
