Back when I played soccer in high school, there was a lot going on behind the scenes that a majority of people didn't know was happening unless you were on the team. We were always looked at as one of the best teams in the state and sometimes the country, so people put us on a high pedestal. We had to work hard to get there and this put a lot of stress on people, in particular the varsity coaches and varsity players. Now, I understand that being stressed out can be tough on a person, but there is only some extent I am willing to go on what is justified or not. I only played on JV in my two years of playing soccer and so there was a lot of backlash thrown to us that weren't on the varsity team. It was worse my freshman year because I was the youngest in the program and was treated like it as well. It started right when we made the team and had practice the following week. We were treated as servants, not as teammates whatsoever. Along with every other freshman, we had to do all the dirty work for the varsity because they felt that they were in a whole other class above us and the coaches let it slide too because they believe it to be the same too. Before every practice, us freshman on JV were forced to bring all the water bottles out for the varsity players, move all the goals to the field for the varsity, and set up the field for varsity practice. This happened everyday while they did not have to rush after school to get right to the field like we did. While varsity players had the whole field to play on every single day for practice, us on JV were only allowed to use a twenty yard area of grass behind on the the goals if we were lucky. Some days we weren't even privileged with that and we had to play in the outfield of out baseball field with the grass being very high because they weren't in season. After the first few days we felt out worth to the team and it was tough to deal with sometimes. It didn't even end there, for games we had to do even more work for the varsity. If we had a home game, the JV freshman were required to line the field every afternoon for the varsity, set up the corner flags, get the audio system working for the speakers, and much more work that took a lot of time and effort. If we had to go on the bus for an away game, JV had to bring that bags of balls for varsity, we had to fill up their water bottles and bring them on the bus, and while each varsity player had their own seat on the bus, every JV player had to double and triple up on seats. Sometimes if we had a lot of equipment to bring on the bus, some players had to sit in the isle between the seats because a varsity player wouldn't let us sit next to them. It bewilders me that the coaches allowed this to happen and not rationed the work out equally and I still can't think of any rational explanation as to why they didn't. The high egos of the staff and players seem to have brought this situation alive in my opinion and I don't see this ending anytime soon in the program as long as we stay a powerhouse in the sport. Some may consider this a price to pay to enter a great program, but the endless demoralization brought upon some players got really tiring after some time.
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