The entire student population was shocked to hear the new sports introductions. As opposed to last year’s speeches, where each athlete was given a personal introduction, the captains instead gave a short speech about the team’s progress, and the coach read off the names of team members. Not only was this a drastic change in the intrinsic nature of previous sports introductions, it was also completely unexpected. Other than few minor rumblings from angered sport captains, there was absolutely no indication of the change to come.

The gravest implication of the new sports introductions comes to light when one realizes that the sport captains’ team introduction is considered his senior speech. A senior speech is perhaps one of the most important parts of a US boy’s career. While it is certainly true that regular senior speeches are subjected to some censorship, for the most part, seniors can talk about whatever they want. The vast majority of speakers take advantage of this opportunity by talking about their passions or an important life lesson, while employing some humor along the way.

Sadly, the same cannot be said about sports introductions: “The current set-up of the sports intros restricts the student in terms of what they can talk about by giving them exceedingly specific parameters. I really wanted to tease my good friend Dan Accordino, but even with his consent, I was not allowed to,” said the visibly upset varsity cross country tri-captain, Akshat Chowksey ’18 – an insider to the process of the introductions. It is simply unfair for most seniors to have longer speeches with relatively few restrictions while the varsity captains have to make short, heavily censored speeches.

Each varsity captain spoke of the important role of comradery in a sports team. However, isn’t the best way to actually represent the deep relationship by having the captain give each player a personal introduction? The brotherhood formed by working hard on the field (or golf course) with your closest friends simply cannot be personified by reading names off of a list!

“It hinders school spirit and prevents comradery,” claimed Rahul Jagetia ’18, fellow varsity cross country tri-captain.

Mr. Bryan explained the reasoning behind implementing the new measures, stating, “It came from the coaches. There was a little roasting and satire involved, and it would be a little easier to acknowledge everyone on the team in this manner as opposed to the way it was done before.”

“More and more kids were using the introductions as an opportunity to get laughs and ‘roast’ their teammates,” said Mr. Somers, varsity cross country coach, “this trend was detracting from the real purpose of the introductions, which was to uplift athletics at University School.” However, Mr. Somers also sympathized with the students, acknowledging “I know [last year’s introductions] wasn’t done in a mean-spirited way.”

“I actually like it better this way,” Mr. Bryan argued, “I feel that it actually recognizes the team as a whole and it will only get better in the future.” Mr. Somers corroborated, saying “I think that it has made the whole thing more serious…and I don’t know if that’s necessarily a bad thing.”

With no clear consensus on the popularity of the new sports introductions, all that is certain right now is that they are here to stay, for good or for worse.