Not all parents, coaches, players, or fans agree on the proper way for a coach to handle Senior Night.
While coaches may have differing perspectives on how to handle Senior Night, all of the coaches want to honor the seniors in their program. I don't think the differing approaches to Senior Night are due to some coaches not wanting to honor their seniors.
In college, Coach Knosher always started the seniors on Senior Night. In my career at Knox, I had come off the bench half of my junior and seniors years, and started half of those games. As Senior Night rolled around, I was the first guard coming off the bench.
Before Senior Night, I went to Coach Knosher and told him on Senior Night I preferred to come off the bench like I was doing at the time. I expressed I felt comfortable in the role of coming off the bench. Coach Knosher, said I would be starting because he felt strongly it was an important expression of appreciation to seniors.
My logic as a player was based on my feeling my role coming off the bench was valuable, important, and something I was comfortable doing. I honestly felt by starting on Senior Night, it was in a way expressing my bench role was not as important.
As years have passed, I have never started seniors on Senior Night. I have seen too many Senior Nights where the coach would start seniors, play them for 2-3 minutes and then yank them out. It can become a situation where seniors are being placed in a role which is not their normal role in a competitive situation, and can turn into a bad experience. The seniors may start and their team may be down 8-10 points. The team may never catch up.
As years have passed, I have never started seniors on Senior Night. I have seen too many Senior Nights where the coach would start seniors, play them for 2-3 minutes and then yank them out. It can become a situation where seniors are being placed in a role which is not their normal role in a competitive situation, and can turn into a bad experience. The seniors may start and their team may be down 8-10 points. The team may never catch up.
In my earlier conversation with the coach, they shared a Senior Night story. He started the seniors, they got behind, lost the game, and some of the seniors were upset because they felt the coach chose not to compete on Senior Night.
My belief has been we honor seniors before the game on Senior Night. The ceremony to honor them is the special part of the night. The purpose of the game is to compete. On Senior Night as a coach, I try to get all of the seniors into the game, and in most cases have been successful- but we are playing to win.
Some people strongly disagree with my logic. I had a mother from a neighboring community tell me the coach at their school was being fired, in part because he did not start seniors on Senior Night.
I understand that some people would disagree with my logic. Some people would say,”So what if the team loses on Senior Night, it is more important to honer those dedicated players than it is to worry about winning a game.”
My belief is that you honor seniors before the Senior Night Game, and you honor seniors at your banquet. When the ball is tossed up, it is about the TEAM not individuals.
I understand that some people would disagree with my logic. Some people would say,”So what if the team loses on Senior Night, it is more important to honer those dedicated players than it is to worry about winning a game.”
My belief is that you honor seniors before the Senior Night Game, and you honor seniors at your banquet. When the ball is tossed up, it is about the TEAM not individuals.
Always annoyed as a basketball coach that somehow it is a "tradition" in basketball to start your seniors....but baseball, football, softball etc.....not so much. To add to your point...what if the game is for a conference title. It's a no win situation. I see more and more coaches doing senior nights the first non conference game of the year. Good compromise. . Let's celebrate the beginning of your senior season.
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