As the school year begins and fall sports are starting, the impact of certain players has been made apparent.

The 2015-2016 fall sports consist of football, volleyball, cross country, women’s swimming and men’s golf. This year, teams are led by many seniors.

“This year the seniors have been the main motivators of the team,” Kennedy Smith, senior women’s swimmer, said, “Not just in the water but out of it too. The whole team works really well, and I think that’s partially because us seniors work so well together.”

As seniors are the oldest on the team, many are forced to carry the legacy previous seniors left behind.

“We want to win state just as much as the previous seniors did, but we have different obstacles to overcome that they didn’t,” Cameron Stump, senior men’s golf player, said, “There are also a few that believe we will continue to set the standards that they put in place when they were in the program.”

Because there are many seniors on this year’s sports teams, many underclassmen will be forced to take their spots next year.

“We have to be good role models because we know that younger girls are looking up to us. We demonstrate leadership by leading team cheers, or if we see someone struggling in our 5 a.m. cross fit class we motivate them to keep going,” Smith said.

“Our seniors are very vocal, hardworking and strong players which helps our team a lot,” Gabbie Meyer, jr., said, “Off the court they keep things in line and organize everything for the team.”

Being a senior athlete can mean having other tasks, not just leading a team during the game.

“One of our jobs as seniors is to make sure that everyone is working hard, but is having fun, and making sure everyone feels like they belong on this team,” Smith said.