Jesse Zhou’16
Staff Writer
Many students who want to participate in a sport but do not necessarily have the skills to make the varsity team often play on the junior varsity or thirds teams. They train and practice just as hard as everyone else, playing equal amounts of games and putting in the same amounts of time. However, with Blair Day just in the rear view mirror, the question of whether or not JV and thirds teams should count as much as varsity teams in scoring for the Potter-Kelley Cup has come up often. Many say that because teams are not on the varsity level, they should not count as much. However, all teams should be scored equally during Blair Day competitions.
People have tried to make JV and thirds competitions worth less, even cancelling them out of scoring all together. A prime example of this is JV cross country. In recent years, JV Cross Country has not been scored during Blair Day competitions, even though this year the Peddie JV team was exceptionally strong. In fact, if the JV team had counted, its victory could have given Peddie back the Potter-Kelley Cup. Even though the JV cross country teams are not the fastest on all of cross country, the members work equally hard as anyone else on the team. Yet their efforts are somewhat wasted, as none of the runners are scored in the biggest, most important race of the season.
To put this into perspective, a Peddie runner that came in sixth place counts less than a thirds soccer player. One proposal that was put forward aims at making all thirds and JV games worth nothing; however, this would be extremely unfair to all JV and thirds athletes, which make up a majority of athletes at Peddie. Therefore, all teams should still be scored equally, regardless of being varsity, JV, or thirds. By scoring all teams equally, all athletes are accounted for and are able to contribute to the scores. When a student signs up for a sport, he or she is committing herself to it to the fullest of their ability. All the effort they put in to it should not be wasted, especially on such an important day as Blair Day, when unity and school spirit is celebrated.
