Senior year has been anticipated as the best year of high school for many reasons, including that it is also the last year for many things. It is the last year of strict schooling, the last year of childhood, and for many athletes, the last year to make a name for oneself in sports. Senior year is the year of opportunity, and it would be a disappointment if seniors had the opportunity of their last year to play a high school sport taken away from them. Unfortunately, this happens to some seniors at SHS.

As seniors, we just want to be a part of something bigger than us. They develop the mentality that they’re going to go all out and take advantage of their opportunities, even if they’re just on the side lines.

I find it unfair and unnecessary for our coaches to cut a senior athlete from their sport. Why does it make sense to deprive someone of their last chance to be a part of something, like their team? For those who have been playing as long as they can remember, to have that taken away from them seems almost unimaginable, doesn’t it? So many people at SHS try out for a sport their freshman year, and even if they do make the team, there are a handful of people who will not continue until their senior year.

However, those who do push through all four years deserve the reward of being able to play or at least be a part of the team their senior year. For our athletes to put in the time and effort towards the program and be rejected their final year upsets me and must upset those that are rejected. Some would say that it makes sense to cut the senior if they aren’t very good, but most likely those seniors already know they aren’t the best, and it doesn’t matter to them. They just want to be a part of the team.

Aubrey Drell, a senior who has experienced first hand what it is like to be cut from a sport as a senior says, “I didn’t even care about the playing time. I just wanted to be with my friends while playing the sport I love even if it was just during practice.”

Another point someone would try to argue is if the senior had never played that sport before (assuming they aren’t very good) then it would make sense to cut them. My argument would be, why don’t they deserve a last chance to be part of a team? That senior most likely doesn’t care about playing time, they might even just want to be in shape and part of something.

Seniors deserve their last chance at something and coaches shouldn’t have that right to take it away from them.