Cuts made by track team produce mixed feelings

By Carson Stout

It may seem normal for a sports team to make cuts for the sake of creating a team of maximum ability and potential. When the track team made cuts for the first time in years, the feelings about the cuts were controversial between the coaches and the students that were cut.

“They told me I got cut because of my attitude,” sophomore Zhaleiga Culpepper said.

Some of the runners were upset about the cuts because they made a commitment to run track and now they have an entire new daily routine.

“I don’t hate the track team or anything, but now I have nothing to do,” Culpepper said.

While the runners that were cut believe that the cuts were unfair, the students that did not get cut, along with the coaches, believe that the cuts were mandatory for the success of the team.

“The cuts were mandatory because we had too many runners,” sophomore Victoria Almeida said. “They had 70 guys and 40 girls and they only allow 30 people on each team, and they told us that they were going to make cuts the first week.”

“I think that the cuts were mandatory because we had way too many people on all of the teams,” junior Joshua Kent said.

When a coach decides to make cuts, it is a decision that is made for a reason.

“If you have a bad attitude and you don’t try, then you will get cut,” said Almeida.

Although the cuts may have been mandatory, some students are not seeing them this way.

“I don’t think that the cuts were mandatory, I just think that they were a result of favoritism because a lot of the people they cut were really good,” Culpepper said.

The coaches that decided to make the cuts say that they were planning on making cuts the entire time and that they were entirely fair.

“I absolutely think that the cuts were fair,” track coach James Owens said. “We decided to make the cuts throughout the entire conditioning process. Every practice up until the first meet was conditioning.”

Any sports team and its coaches have the authority to make cuts. The players have no say so in the matter. The only thing that the players can do is voice their opinions and feelings. Although feelings on the matter vary between different runners and the coaches, it is the coach’s ultimate decision on what happens with the team.

“If there was one thing that I could say that would express how I feel, is that I am upset,” Culpepper said.