Over the past five years, there have been at least 80 Roseville High School student-athletes with at least one year of varsity experience that have not played during their senior years. Coaches and athletic programs feel the effects of the lack of experience and leadership that seniors provide.
BY MEGAN ANDERSON
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For at least the past five years, several Roseville High School seniors who had previously participated as varsity athletes for at least one season have failed to participate in their final year of eligibility. In this time span there have been at least 80 RHS student athletes who, after playing varsity for at least one year, did not participate as seniors.
Varsity girls basketball coach Josh Errecart feels that the lack of senior participation in varsity sports causes athletic programs to suffer. Varsity teams are at a loss without the leadership and “mama bear” roles that seniors naturally bring to the table.
Errecart feels that one reason that some seniors decide to not play during their final year is because they are unsure of their own abilities as an athlete. Because they have typically had previous varsity experience, seniors are able to predict how well they will meet varsity expectations because they are already familiar with them and will then make the decision to play or not play with this knowledge.
“I think programs often rely on senior leadership so when you don’t have it, it hurts the whole program in terms of not having that person that mentors the younger athletes or shows them the ropes,” Errecart said. “However, I think that a lot of the people not deciding to play their senior year are the ‘bubble players.’ That’s part of the reason they aren’t playing is because they don’t see themselves in any critical role. I am not convinced that it is our star athletes that are choosing [to not play] but I think it’s just some of those athletes that start to realize that work or social life is more important given their position on the team.”
Current senior and former varsity volleyball player Breeya Linton decided not to play on the team this year and instead chose to put more of a focus on her club team, the Auburn Aces, after being disappointed with the amount of playing time she had received in her previous year on varsity.
“I didn’t play volleyball senior year because I didn’t get any playing time junior year when I was on varsity and it seemed like that was going to be the case again my senior year,” Linton said. “I didn’t want to sit the bench again when I could be do something else outside of school like bettering myself for club volleyball.”
Senior Rae Martinez found herself in a similar situation to Linton this year and chose to put a stronger focus on her academics rather than basketball. Looking back, she feels as if she made the right decision.
“I think it was a good choice not coming back because I got the chance to focus on my academics,” Martinez said. “It led me to getting accepted into seven schools so I think it was the best choice.”
Paige Crouch, a 2013 RHS graduate and soccer player who is currently playing soccer at the Division 1 collegiate level at the University of Arizona, did not play on the varsity team during her senior year as well. This was because she suffered a torn ACL while playing soccer on the RHS varsity team.
Instead of getting back out on the soccer field during her senior year, Crouch took the opportunity to run track on the track and field team in an attempt to ease herself back into athletic activity before she attempted to play soccer again at a competitive level. Since she already knew that she was going to attend the University of Arizona to play soccer, there was no rush to get back onto the field in order to prove her skills to colleges.
“I tore my ACL junior year and came back knowing I would be a little slower than usual so given that I was going to [the University of Arizona], I thought it would be best to work on my speed and fitness with the track team,” Crouch said. “I think I would have been sadder if I didn’t do track and stopped sports as a whole [that year].”
Crouch also said that she has had other experiences with this trend of senior athletes not playing their varsity sports.
In the past she has observed that some student athletes who were already committed to a college to play a sport were asked to not play for their high school teams in order to minimize the risk of injury which would jeopardize their potential to play at the collegiate level.