Absence of Preseason
Image Source: Finding School
By Joey Huang ’28
For the first time in recent years, St. Mark’s varsity athletes did not return to campus early for preseason. Instead, the Peer Discussion Leaders and Dorm Prefects were the only students who came on August 27 to welcome the new students. Previously, preseason gave students time to settle into the school environment without stress. These days allow students to reconnect and get to know each other without worrying about academic commitments.
On the other hand, preseason also has disadvantages: it shortens students’ summer break, leaving them less time to adjust after the SAT exam in late August, and international students may have more complicated travel plans due to the earlier move-in date. In addition, opening dorms, dining services, facilities, and the campus requires the school to put in more resources.
For many athletes, preseason means more than practicing their sport. It gives teams an opportunity to build team chemistry before school begins. The atmosphere during preseason is different from regular school days: the team spends the whole day together training, dining, and recovering from strain. This is a special experience that allows the members of the group to come close together within a short period of time. Team chemistry is one of the most important yet overlooked factors in team sports. In high school sports, team chemistry can sometimes be a decisive factor in a successful season: it is how much teammates trust each other, how they communicate under pressure, and how the team responds to losses. Additionally, preseason was also particularly valuable for younger athletes entering an established program. For a new student, preseason meant more than learning new plays or training; it also meant bonding with the coaches and upperclassmen teammates, and becoming familiar with the campus beforehand.
Furthermore, whether preseason should return cannot be examined only from an athletic perspective. Opening campus early results in additional expenditures, including food, staffing, and facility maintenance. Moreover, only invited athletes are allowed to attend preseason, not all athletes. The valuable experience that preseason provides also points to its disadvantage, as this experience is selective. Most students are not invited back to campus early, and they have to adjust to dorm life, schedules, and jet lag in a shorter period. This weakness is amplified among the new students. The new students who arrived on campus earlier had already met other new students and become familiar with one another. This difference in experience creates a disconnect between invited new students and new students who arrived on the regular move-in dates. Removing preseason gives more students a similar starting point at the beginning of the year.
The absence of preseason represents more than the loss of several days of sports practices. It changes the way teams form relationships, how new students enter the community, and students’ transition back to school. Whether the benefits of an equal start and expenditure savings outweigh the community-building benefits of preseason will be left to St. Mark’s School to consider as the school experiences its first year without it.