He is cut because he is not good enough to make it and is consequently given no opportunity to practice on a regular basis so that he can become good enough to make it - so he is rejected again the following year. Cutting students is necessary because of limited budgets. Those who cut do not do so for financial reasons. According to the Ellensburg High School Athletic Director, requests for funding to avoid the process of cutting individual students have never been made. The real issue with cutting is the parents' self-esteem not the child's.
Parents have every right to defend unfair policies applied to their children.
The fact is that being cut from one's peer group can be one of the most embarrassing, humiliating, and degrading events in a teen's life. Cursory examination of the literature on adolescent development, teenage alienation and drop out, and gang involvement testifies to the significance of peer group affiliation during the high school years. The fact is that the students who are cut are not the highly skilled and highly self-confident. They are the low skilled and most in need of instruction. Evidence abounds to show that self-esteem is not built on the basis of failure.