For m. soccer bench jockeys, plenty of action on sidelines

For the men's soccer team, the distribution of playing time is less flexible than on other teams. When it comes to the starting roster, usually it's quite simple: you're on it, or you're not.

The highest echelon on the playing-order ladder contains the 11 leaders, stars and most senior and experienced players who grace the field at the start of each contest. A tiny "middle class," consisting of two to three guys, can anticipate seeing some minutes in most games. And the remaining 10 or so players fall into the usually untouched bin of reserves who are underpaid in minutes, known more affectionately as the "bench."

What the bench players may lack in playing time, however, they certainly make up for with their wealth of crazy stories and edgy jokes from on and off the field.

"There's some stuff I could tell you; you can't put it in a newspaper, though," sophomore David Metcalf said.

Unlike the situation found on many teams, the bench is not just a cold, hard place to spend the game remorsefully.

As stressed by Metcalf, who has appeared in one game this season, the bench provides the most vocal and moral support for the guys on the field fighting for the Orange and Black. In addition to their essential lively presence, oftentimes the bench players may also physically work out on the sidelines just like the guys actually playing in the game.

Head coach Jim Barlow '91 often forces the bench to warm up for extended periods of time, especially in the second half. So, 13 or so guys could all be warming up, jumping around, getting some touches on the ball — all so one could be chosen to hit the turf and actually get in.

To spice up the routine, though, sometimes Barlow will pull one of the unsuspecting bench players on short notice and give him the nod to get in the game.

"Coach sometimes comes up with random decisions. The first time I played this season, against FDU [Fairleigh-Dickinson], I had no idea I was going to play at all," Metcalf said. "We were down, 2-0, and Coach was like 'Yo, Metcalf, get ready, you're going in,' and I was like 'Oh, Jesus!' I had five minutes to get ready."

Each bench player has his personal strengths and can fill a gap in certain game situations. Senior Bolko Rokicki, the spirited anchor of the bench, also made his first, and so far only, appearance on the field this season on short notice against Fairleigh-Dickinson.

"We were down, 2-1, against a ranked team, and we really needed a goal," said sophomore Ted Wolfson, who has seen action in eight of nine games this season. "At that point Coach was just throwing in strikers ... He put in Bolko as an extra striker, so we had three strikers at that point."

Despite gross disparities in their earned minutes, the starters and the nonstarters are not worlds apart in skill and ability.

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"[In practice], we play starters versus nonstarters," Metcalf said. "In the [practice] games, the competitiveness takes over, and sometimes whoever loses gets pissed off."

This gung-ho spirit can lead to a temporary rift between the players, but no harsh feelings last long. Even after an occasional overthrow of the game-playing aristocracy in practice play, the 26 guys are still tight-knit off the field.

In the Princeton soccer world, class divisions don't build walls blocking friendships. For instance, bench player Metcalf rooms with Wolfson, a "middle class" player who has notched one assist on the year.

All tiers of the playing structure — starters and nonstarters alike — enjoy the added team dynamic of the bench players. With the graduation of senior bench king Bolko, however, the social structure on the bench itself and the team as a whole will be forever changed. For just as senior starters and captains leave legacies, so too can the bench guys.