Rebekah Hong
One of the unique factors of Poly’s sports program is its no-cut policy. The policy allows every student to play on a team, regardless of skill, previous experience or sport. According to Director of Athletics Steve Beerman, the policy had already been instituted by the time he started working at Poly nearly 40 years ago.
The no-cut policy is emblematic of some of our school’s best values: fostering inclusion, balancing academics with extracurriculars and exploring new areas of interest.
“We value the experience that student-athletes get from being a part of a team, and those experiences outweigh any benefits from us cutting people,” Beerman explained.
However, one significant barrier prevents the objectives of the no-cut policy from being realized: uneven playing time at JV games. The joy that is meant to come from allowing everyone to partake in sports is diminished for those who rarely get playing time in games. Celeste Rodriguez-Garcia, a freshman on this year’s JV girls soccer team, said, “I, along with some other players, only got maybe five to ten minutes, while others got the whole half or even the whole game. I thought it was a bit odd, and to be honest, it’s not fun sitting on the bench the whole time.”
To understand the potential benefits of even playing time, we must begin by considering the purpose of Poly’s JV teams.
“At the JV level, we’re trying to give kids experience, we’re trying to allow them to experiment with the sport, where those that have a passion can continue to grow and improve, and we are trying to be competitive,” Beerman stated. Unlike varsity teams, JV teams don’t have a playoffs season and are ineligible for Prep League or CIF titles. Everyone likes to win. However, as seen in the no-cut policy, winning is not Poly’s top goal.
Instead, most student-athletes at Poly play JV sports for one of two reasons. Some seek to fulfill Poly’s physical education requirement. Those playing for this reason aim to have fun, and even levels of playing time would certainly create a more gratifying environment for everyone.
Others on JV teams aspire to one day play at the varsity level. For those players, JV is an opportunity to practice as much as possible to improve and qualify for varsity in the future. Even levels of playing time would give everyone equal opportunity to gain the experience needed to develop their skills at their respective sport. For students who do not play games outside of school, the JV team provides an opportunity to gain such valuable practice.
“For the most part, our kids that are coming to practice get to participate,” stated Beerman. However, when I asked if they get to participate equally in games, he responded, “I don’t think they should. We want to be competitive, so there are some decisions the coach may make in a game that some kids may play less than others.”
Beerman cited some challenges that arise on Poly’s JV teams, such as the range of athletic skill, players’ varying levels of commitment and the large size of some teams, which can limit athletes’ playing time.
“I think at times, especially when it seemed like winning was more important, they put the more experienced/older people in,” shared freshman Emma Bertran of the frosh/soph girls volleyball team.
Beerman said, “The idea that you get to just show up and play if you hadn’t been at practice isn’t true. I think there’s a level of accountability on every team. The goal should be, in order to feel part of a team, you need to play. I do believe that is the goal of our coaches, and I do believe we execute it most of the time.”
Yet, Rodriguez-Garcia shared a different experience. “It was frustrating seeing people who rarely came to practice get more playing time than me,” she said.
If playing time was allocated based solely on attending practices and effort, coaches could use playing time as an incentive for participation. Higher levels of commitment would generate more dedication and achievement, resulting in both a larger and more skillful set of varsity players in future years.
In a Student Ambassador blog post, freshman Luciana Piro praised the no-cut policy, writing, “At other schools, some kids will never get the chance to play, but at Poly, everyone receives a nurturing and fun experience.” Now is the time for Poly to truly make that experience a reality for all.