Pete Moye’
Sports Button

Is it worth the wait for student athletes?

Many college athletes usually are not big fans of redshirting their first year on an athletic team unless they know it will be beneficial to them and the team.

Most student athletes are usually given the option to red shirt and miss a year of competition, but can still practice as a member of their sport or team.

Redshirting could be used for a variety of reasons, such as to learn or get familiar with the team’s playbook or system, to save a year of eligibility if they plan to stay at the college longer than expected, if an athlete has missed a long period of their eligibility due to an injury, or if there are more experienced players ahead of an athlete on the team.

Depending on the situation for each athlete, it could be very beneficial for both the athlete’s career and their college team.

Unless freshman athletes coming straight out of high school could make an immediate impact for a team and make them better, they are often redshirted their first season and play the following year, when they are more likely to get playing time in their respective sports and teams.

For example, Cerritos College student athlete Andrew Salazar decided to redshirt his first year with the wrestling team.

After competing at the high school level for two years, Salazar felt that he would not have been ready to compete at the college level in his first year with the team.

Now that he is coming off a red shirt season, he feels all the preparation he needed to compete this year after spending time working out and working on his wrestling technique will pay off.

This also works to Salazar’s advantage in the long run with his career at Cerritos.

By skipping his first season to compete on the team, he skipped what was likely to be a light season with the chances of only getting few opportunities to compete.

He will now have a shot in the next couple seasons to further improve on the wrestling mat and have many more matches during the season to help have an impact on the success of the wrestling team.

Salazar still has all the opportunities and eligibility he will need to work towards impressing scouts and receive a wrestling scholarship to a university.

Another student athlete following the same path is Gabriella Villalobos.

Villalobos joined the Cerritos cross country team and also made the decision herself to redshirt her first year.

Since Villalobos had never run cross country before, she wanted to get a full season of practice and experience before she had officially competed at the college level.

As Villalobos begins to prepare for her first season of competition, she looked back at her decision to redshirt and still stands by it.

She said it was worth the wait and that she can keep up and compete with some of the girls who have been running cross country before and have more experience.

Villalobos may be in her first year with the team, but has her mind is set on hopefully making the top seven on the Cerritos team and going to state.