Any who has played a team sport is most likely familiar with the concept of playing time. Many athletes deal with a lack of playing time, while others have too much. Coaches struggle to balance playing time throughout their team, which can make players who don’t understand the decison making process upset. Sometimes, things athletes have no control over can even play a part.

This was an added struggle for senior Ben Sieben’s already-lacking playing time at his travel basketball team when he started: “I was the smallest guy on the team. There were kids who were bigger than me, and they were also coaches’ kids, which didn’t help either.”

He describes this experience as a confidence killer, but not a demotivator. In fact, he took it as motivation, and has worked his way to starting point guard for Spartan varsity basketball since, fully confident in his abilities.

These sorts of stories are uncommon, though, as 70% of kids quit organized sports by age 13, according to the Center for Sports Leadership and Learning.

While there are other factors that influence this, a large factor is playing time, leading to demotivation. Sieben’s story is a unique one, emphasizing the journey of playing a sport. While Ben Sieben’s experience with playing time was a difficult struggle, it is still important to understand how to balance it.

To balance it, it’s essential to also understand what’s behind play time decisions, which is something girls’ varsity basketball head coach Natalye James has been learning with her new roster.

As James puts it, “We’re still learning basketball.”

She enforces her ideals of playing time with a practice-hard, play-hard mentality. She expects her players to work hard, and many of them have begun to understand this: “They’re starting to buy in, and they’re starting to realize that the more work, the higher expectations, the better the outcomes are.”

The outcomes speak for themselves, to say the least. Going into winter break, the Spartan varsity girls held a perfect record of 3 wins, 0 losses.

James’s vision is to reward players who work hard, are leaders, do the things the coaches ask of them, and are overall good teammates.

At the moment, though, “A disadvantage that we have right now for the girls team is we only have a few people,” James acknowledged, “so playing time is varied.”

For the most part, though, playing time is balanced throughout James’s team, even though some players get more playing time on some nights than others. She has kept her vision clear as her coaching experience continues to grow.

Whether it be Sieben’s story or James’s vision, playing time remains debated; every coach and player has their own opinion, but it’s always important to remember, the amount of playing time you get does not determine your worth as a player.