Our school’s motto advocates for “Opportunity, Diversity, and Respect.” These values supposedly serve as the foundation for classes, clubs, and other school-related activities. However, the word “opportunity” is often overlooked in CRLS athletics, in which many students are cut from teams. Cut sports deprive students of opportunities to improve their skills in a sport and build relationships on a team. Everyone should be given the chance to play a sport at CRLS, regardless of skill level. 

When Ana Cardona ’24, a student uninvolved in CRLS athletics, was asked if they had ever tried out for a sport at CRLS, they responded to the Register Forum, “No, I have not, because I know that I wouldn’t make the team.” 

It is clear that cut sports cause a decrease in confidence and motivation to play a sport among their peers, thus disincentivizing student engagement in athletics and lowering participation in CRLS sports as well as other activities. Cardona noted that if CRLS didn’t have cuts, they would try out for a sport because they “want to be proficient in at least one sport before [they] graduate.” When a student has not had the opportunity to start a sport early on, they must quickly develop skills in high school. However, cuts during tryouts generate the problem in which the student is not good enough to play on the team, and they are told, “Practice more and try out next year!” or “You just need more practice.” This creates an athletic paradox: students have no way to improve their skills if they aren’t allowed to play on a team.

Tryouts are a huge source of stress for students. They can reach a point where healthy competition is replaced instead by an environment where friends feel pressured by each other. Teammates may view one another as potential threats to their position on the team as a whole. If teammates view each other as rivals, this promotes an unhealthy atmosphere that can prevent student-athletes from forming genuine friendships and connections with their teammates, thus fracturing the culture of the team.

In addition, increasing the number of people trying out for a team improves its quality. Sayde Daniliuk ’23, the captain of the girls varsity hockey team, pointed out to the Register Forum that eliminating cuts could increase the number of people trying out, which boosts the number of students involved in sports, resulting in inexperienced athletes quickly improving, creating a better varsity team.

Non-cut sports are a rational approach to enhancing team quality through skilled players and unified team environments. They also improve the general CRLS student experience. CRLS should use its vast resources to cut out cut sports once and for all.

This piece also appears in our October 2022 print edition.