Pros-It helps prepare the team for the regular season and assists the coaches in their decisions for a final roster.
Preseason warm up games have always been the key to any sports teams success. Pre-season not only helps to better players and get a better feel for the team as a whole, but it also reinstates the physical awareness needed to dominate in the main season.
Senior varsity women’s soccer goalie, Sarah Houssian, said, “Pre-season games are very helpful because the not only help in building team chemistry, but they also get the team ready physically and mentally for the tough season ahead of them.”
A coach’s final lineup decisions for the regular season, could very well be decided on how well they did in a preseason game.
Senior varsity football player, Ryan Bogsdanski, said, “Pre-season is beneficial because it gives you a chance to strap up and go against another team and the game doesn’t count so whatever happens can be made into a learning game so when it actually matters you don’t make those mistakes and it also will show what kind of team it’s gonna be.”
Performance is the key to success in athletics. In between seasons are when athletes are much less active, causing the athlete t stall in the development of their skills. Pre-season helps to condition the athletes for the upcoming season. If an athlete begins a season with having done no conditioning for a number of months, there is a greater chance for injury.
Kayleigh Haight // Business Manager
Con- It’s only a glorified game of scrimmage.
As the beginning of the school year starts up again, so does the slew of athletic events offered to students. With the multitude of games available to attend, a question on the minds of students is, “What exactly is a preseason game, and is it really necessary that I go?”
A preseason game is a contest between two different teams from two different schools that don’t count against (or for) the regular season record, and don’t determine any playoff positions. Although it is a game that follows all regulations and uses officials, it essentially is a scrimmage.
No future position is declared based on the outcome of the game, only bragging rights.
“Preseason games are at times sloppy,” said Coach Jose Jordan. “both teams are both just learning how to play together as a unit. Every year, you lose one-fourth of your team and gain another fourth of brand new players.”
This type of “practice” game differs from a main season game, because the further you get into the school year, the more experienced the players are, and the better they are at playing together as a unit, the better they are as a team overall.
Another factor of a preseason game is that coaches are more willing to substitute players.
“We’ll substitute a lot more [players], we’re trying to evaluate different players to see who’s going to be the best in certain situations,” added Jordan.
Once this first draft of sorts is done, the coaches have a smaller, more refined pool of players to use during main season games, making the team its strongest by using the best players for the job, their strengths displayed during the pre season game.
Preseason games are also often scheduled before the school year even begins or very early on in the year, making it hard for students to get accurate information about the game, or even attend the game, as opposed to a main season game that is heavily promoted and covered better than a preseason game.
Obviously, a student is more likely to attend a game they know their peers are attending as well, and a game where they can be confident their team will play well. No one wants to pay to watch a practice run that counts for nothing, especially when a win isn’t explicitly guaranteed.
“I think back to last year, when the preseason game was even one week before school started,” stated Coach Jordan. “But other than that, high school kids usually like to enjoy Friday night football as cheap entertainment.”
So although a preseason game is important to players and coaches by providing an outline and game plan for them, the kinks are still being metaphorically ironed out to further make the team work as a well-oiled machine.
So before you purchase a ticket for a preseason game, consider forgoing the on-field floundering and save that ticket money for a main-season game, when the team works collectively better with each other and provides a much better (and entertaining) sports experience.
Jillian Dradzynski // Opinion Editor
