I would see them eyeing the girls practicing for the pep rally and then reluctantly shifting their gaze back to their own courts. I would see them staring at the Lululemon shirts, then looking down at their own thick blue uniforms. I would see the junior varsity girls getting ready to play and then their eyes when the varsity tennis girls had the courts for a tournament. I could see their disappointment. After all, I felt their disappointment.

I had many opportunities to play with varsity when they needed more players because an opponent had a larger team. The turnout at those games was always something I had admired. Not only parents, but also students, had come to watch the varsity matches. At the JV games, the rare spectators would be a couple of loving parents.

I felt like it did not matter to the school community that I was on JV tennis. I felt like if I was not on varsity, only one thing could be true: whatever I did, no one cared.

Varsity sports are held above all else. They are celebrated in the pep rally, watched by the students and acknowledged by their peers. On the school athletics website, if the sport has separate practice teams for JV and varsity, varsity is the only one mentioned.

Subconsciously, these actions of the school community have a negative impact on athletes. The JV or freshman athletes lack the confidence and drive to work at their sports because they do not feel as though it matters.

Yet, this only applies to sports that have concrete dividers between the team levels, meaning the teams will not only play separate games but also get different clothes or have separate practices.

Teams like field hockey and cross country seem like good examples of what other school sports teams could make an effort to do.

According to a JV field hockey player, both JV and varsity practices are held together, both get the same shirts, and both go to the same events. The only difference is the games they play in, which is the reason there is JV and varsity separation in the first place.

The same goes towards cross country. During the pep rally, all players involved in the sport get to participate, unlike other teams where the JV and freshman players just sit out to watch.

If all sports had that kind of separation between the different levels, athletes would feel a lot better about themselves, how they are appreciated, and also put a lot more effort into their game, increasing the victories towards Clayton.

As a community, we have a responsibility to celebrate everyone’s achievements. Any athlete who works hard and wins some games should be acknowledged for it. They should be celebrated for those achievements in school events like the pep rally. This appreciation should not be only directed towards varsity players.

Until this change in the level of appreciation occurs, most junior varsity or freshman players on school teams will be those ghosts on the courts and fields once again. As Clayton High School, it is our responsibility to make sure that these athletes will not be in the same situation in the future.