@nwaters26[/author_info] [/author]
Football has become of the greatest forms of entertainment for people to enjoy, whether it’s from the stands, the comfort of their own living room, or in the action on the field.
Hard-earned championships and seasons are propelled by a team’s hard work and commitment sacrificed behind the scenes, but even beyond those unseen positive workings, there can be more negativity amongst team than meets the eye.
Favoritism in terms of playing time in football in nearly all levels is something still prominent in today’s world and continues to go unnoticed and swept under the rug on numerous occasions.
“I wasn’t even considering playing this season to be completely honest,” said a current senior high school football player. “When my coaches found that out, they immediately came to me in the offseason and claimed how much they needed me on the team this year. I was supposed to start on both sides of the ball according to them, but I’m just sitting on the sidelines, watching the rest of my friends play. I guess I’m more of an ‘insurance policy’ if anything.”
“Sure, I wear the jersey, I work hard everyday in practice, I watch the film, I go to the team dinners, but I don’t even feel like I’m part of the team,” added the unnamed player.
It’s a hopelessly obscure area for these athletes, as there appears to be absolutely nothing that they can do in their power to justly earn their role to contribute to the team.
Kyle Volkmann, a former quarterback for the Monroe Falcons (Monroe Township, NJ), had his high school career derailed by favoritism shortly following his sophomore year.
“Favoritism ruined the game of football for me,” said Volkmann. “It was a huge part of my life, and I loved everything about the game, until I played for this coach. It can completely ruin something great.”
Volkmann was the ideal football athlete. He showed up and worked hard at practice every single day; he never complained, never quit, and always cooperated with coaches. These efforts would prove to pay off as he made his way from the junior varsity team to become a varsity starter on both sides of the ball by the midpoint of the season.
A concussion injury in the second to last game of his successful sophomore year held Volkmann on the sidelines, as his high school football career would soon drastically change right before his eyes.
“I never had a bad relationship with the coach,” said Volkmann. “But going into my junior year, a younger QB came up. The coaches loved him. He was praised in pop warner as some sort of ‘star QB protégé’, but by the time he came to high school, his skill level had evened out with everyone else.”
Returning the following season as a junior, Volkmann was told by his coaches that he and the younger up-and-coming QB would be “splitting time” at the position. Things didn’t get any better for Volkmann afterward either, as the younger QB took more than “80 percent,” according to Volkmann, of the snaps that year.
It could be argued that some players can outperform others for a starting position (being that it’s a common occurrence in any sport), and that a coach should be fully trusted in making the right decisions on starting and utilizing the best fit players for the team. Sometimes, however, it’s not necessarily all that simple.
“The team struggled that season, but whenever I was put in the game, the pace picked up, the crowd got into the game and we looked like a good team,” said Volkmann. “But whenever that would begin to happen, they would pull me back out. By the end of the season I was moved to receiver, and was playing defense again.”
Volkmann contemplated quitting the team, but knew it could very well be his last season to ever play the game, which ultimately held him back. Following his junior season, Volkmann returned to the team again as a senior to play in what would be his final season of football. As expected, coaches had stuck with the younger QB yet again to start, as Volkmann continued to play at safety and receiver until a broken wrist injury allowed him to regain his starting quarterback role.
“I definitely showed the coaches they had made a wrong decision based on how I played the rest of the season,” said Volkmann.
There can be a variety of reasons as to why favoritism becomes an entity on a given team. Politics, relationships, pressure, reputation and a player’s physical attributes can all be a few viable causes for the presence of a coach’s bias.
Naturally, a frustrated player that feels that he not only put the hard work and time, but also deserved the starting position overall will approach his coaches face-to-face about the issue. Unfortunately, these words typically fall short in their intentions to personally reach the coaches, as they usually have their minds already set on the players they plan on playing.
Favoritism, unfortunately, has simply become a part of the game of football and amongst many other sports as well, but it can deprive an athlete in more ways than one.
“I was miserable for most of my high school football career,” said Volkmann. “ I just felt like this coach was basically bullying me. Like they were just playing with my head.”
Volkmann also admits that his experience with favoritism in high school helped him grow and mature as a person, but the fear of dealing with the same situation forced him to pass up his opportunity to play Division III football in college.
Because favoritism is more of a private issue that occurs behind closed doors of a team, it’s a difficult issue to combat. It’s not illegal to start one player over another, and the verbal reasoning from a coach could very well be different from his actual motives, but who’s to fully know?
“I don’t think favoritism can be prevented,” said Volkmann. “There is no way to find someone guilty of favoritism. If there is someone with a position of authority, like a head coach, he can do whatever he wants because he has the final say.”