Being a senior for Florida coach Amanda Butler was already a pressure-filled situation.
But now, Butler and the coaching staff, who are entering their third season together, know this group of veterans best, and Butler has used that familiarity to put more responsibility than ever on her seniors to lead by example.
"I put a lot of pressure on the seniors because it is their last chance, and it should mean more to them in a different way than it can to anyone else that's on the team," Butler said.
The seniors meet weekly to discuss the status of the team, and Butler meets with them every couple of weeks as a routine check-up on the state of the team.
It just further demonstrates the intensified level of communication being built between the eldest players and the coaching staff.
Redshirt senior Susan Yenser loved leaving those meetings with Butler with a renewed sense of structure and heightened passion.
"You seriously can't walk out of a meeting with Butler just ho-hum," Yenser said.
Yenser is one of five seniors taking on the responsibility of bringing the team together. She designed and ordered wrist bands containing each of the seniors' numbers on one side and "Fab Five" on the other.
As a senior, Sharielle Smith said, one of the biggest things for her has been to make sure the freshmen know how things go. Freshman Lily Svete has definitely noticed, and appreciated, the seniors telling her and her fellow freshmen where to go during certain drills in which they may be confused or lost.
"You have to put people in place," Steffi Sorensen said. "You got to be a good senior and let people know what they're doing wrong - you don't necessarily have to yell at them or get in their face."
Minimizing the learning discrepancy between the older and younger players is a huge focus in these early stages of the season, and seniors are expected to be vocal in order to establish that cohesion earlier rather than later.
"If you don't have the first player and the 14th player on the same page, then you're not really progressing," Yenser said.
The pressure to progress quickly is met with a greater urgency by the team's veteran leaders, who don't have as much time left with the program.
"You come home every single day wondering what you did to get better that day, because you can't get that day back," Yenser said. "It's the last go around."
