The crowd is cheering and the band is playing. Their palms sweat as the nerves sink in. The underclassmen are about to run out of the tunnel for their first varsity game under the Friday night lights. All of the hard work, all of the training has led up to this moment. Running out of the tunnel next to their teammates, they know it’s game time. This is their chance to prove themselves.

    Being an underclassmen is tougher than it looks. They are the ones who get beat up every practice and get no respect from their older teammates.

    “They’re the bottom of the iceberg,” football coach Bill Lowe said.

This means that the underclassmen must hold the rope everyday to make a better team, even though nobody sees the bottom of the iceberg.

    This year the SW football team had many freshmen and sophomores playing varsity sports. They may not get as much respect as the older players but they work just as hard.

“It’s great getting to play under the lights, getting this opportunity at such a young age is awesome,” sophomore wide receiver Sam Randall said.

    Sophomores go to all of the same practices and camps as the older players. During the summer the SW football team went to a camp at Olathe Northwest High School. At the camp sophomores got their first taste of varsity football.

    “Going to all of the camps and practices with the older guys helped me prepare for the regular season,” Randall said.

Knowing that they would have the opportunity to play in the fall, the sophomores had extreme pressure to prove themselves by the time the season arrived.

“I was so nervous stepping onto the field as a sophomore, I didn’t know what to expect,” sophomore wide receiver Nathan Peroo said.

    Playing as an underclassmen will help them in the long run. Even though they go out there and get beaten up play after play, practice after practice; it makes them more prepared to play when they become older.

    “I think we will be more prepared than any other school when we become older, we’ve already had two years of varsity experience,” Peroo said.

    Underclassmen do more than people think. Most people look past them and focus on the older players; however, they are vital to the team’s success.

    A football team is an iceberg, the underclassmen are the bottom pushing the rest of the team up.

    “As underclassmen we work just as hard as the older guys,” Randall said. “I think it’s time we start getting recognition for all we do for our team.”