Symbolic Interactionism In Intercollegiate Sports

Sport’s are an aspect of life that affect societies across the globe. Athletics affect everyone's life, whether that be playing the sport, watching games, or hearing about a sporting event. There is a big difference between playing an individual sport and players relying on their own athletic abilities versus a team sport when members of the team rely on their teammates to complete each individual's specific responsibility to reach the team's goal. Team sports bring people together in countless ways, and they teach many life skills for the athletes that participate in them. Some of these skills include communication, teamwork, discipline, work ethic, dedication, leadership, and numerous more that will help them in their personal and work

Coaches and athletic administrators are leaders and models for good sportsmanship and ethical behavior. They are responsible for upholding the codes of conduct, standards of behavior and integrity of all members of the program from the coaches and support staff to the student athletes. For this reason those who lead and set the example for others must clearly understand the virtues and/or civic responsibilities that they are to uphold. The Ten Christian Virtues and Civic Responsibilities of Coaches and Administrators as Leaders of Sport in the 21st Century is a guideline for the men and women who teach, coach and lead. (Appendix H) Relational, ethical and enthusiastic are three of the

Following the Civil War in the United States, African-Americans still faced extreme forms of racism and troubles all the way up until the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. African-Americans were excluded from nearly all forms of participating in society including the ability to participate in professional sports and be paid at the same level as white athletes. The segregation of sports in this country was never declared by law, however it is something that our culture refused to accept (Reese). The eventual integration of sports in the United States, beginning with baseball and boxing, played a major role in the Civil Rights Movement and had a lasting impact on

The relationship between an athlete and a coach is an unique and (humble??) one. It’s all about learning, growing, and overcoming failures to its successes. About looking forward to the future together in the game and beyond the life of sports. The interaction between them should be upheld and agreed upon, to be held together. They are the most influential character of the competitive environment. I believe in the value of a coach.

Sports was a part of my life growing up - whether it was attending games with my family to support the Huskies at Rentschler Field or Wolfpack hockey games at the Hartford Civic Center or even being part of a basketball team since before middle school, I have grown to love the atmosphere that sport brings. Whether it was assisting my Mom coach in our town’s T-Ball league or working with the disabled or even with the students at Wish Elementary School, through sports, I have been able to build a solid sense of a wider community. It is not just about the game itself but it is about what happens in-between and after. It is the indescribable bonds that form between

In our society sports are a very important social construction. As sports continue to grow, they are becoming more integrated into the major spheres of social life. Sports have become an entity, due to the fact that they not only create entertainment and jobs; sports have become a huge platform for various causes. Sports are extremely important to our society and have very powerful influences. Though experiences vary from person to person, most people have some sort of experience with sports. I personally have experienced sports more from the spectator and participant stance, and have been impacted from each perspective a great deal. Compared to sophomore safety, Jamal Adams my sports experience has been very different from impact and perspective.

While working hard is an important factor in being successful in every sport, it is especially prudent in football. The hype behind the sport causes athletes and communities to love the sport. No other sport has a week like homecoming, football players are put on a pedestal and academics are essentially put on hold due to the lack of focus. The entire week focuses on Friday night’s game. This hype draws the biggest and best athletes to want to be a part of the fun—to be on that pedestal. This in turn makes the competition within the sport better. Being on the team isn’t enough though, as my head coach used to say, “Homecoming is fun, but it’s worth nothing if you lose Friday night.” Knowing the entire week is dedicated to one game causes the team to work harder than the athletes in other sports. The standard expected by the coaches carries over to the classroom and into the athlete’s lives outside of high school. Kevin Kniffin, a behavioral scientist as Cornell University, studies and teaches about the leadership skills and character traits of athletes from

Amateurism By Levi Kay  “Amateur competition is a bedrock principle of college athletics and the NCAA. Maintaining amateurism is crucial to preserving an academic environment in which acquiring a quality education is the first priority. In the collegiate model of sports, the young men and women competing on the field or court are students first, athletes second”. The student athletes are provided accommodations, free education and a chance to play sports.

Coaches have become fond of saying things like, It's not whether you win or lose, it's the team that has the most fun. This thinking may spare feelings and reduce conflict in the short term but this story raises questions about the impact on society in the long run.

The study “The Relationship Between Ethical and Abusive Coaching Behaviors and Student-Athlete Well-Being” was conducted by Mariya A. Yukhymenko-Lescroart, Michael E. Brown, and Thomas S. Paskus, and was published in the journal Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology. The researchers sought to understand the effects that a coach’s behavior had on a student’s morals, satisfaction, and impressions of team unity. Social-cognitive theory has long thought that we learn by imitating those around us, particularly those in leadership positions. The coaches of sports teams are especially prominent models in a student athlete’s life, given that they have actual authority over the student’s life. The idea of self-efficacy, which suggests that an

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is requiring colleges and coaches to make an effort to track the grades and progress of student athletes. There are more than 360,000 student athletes, according to the data only 1% of those student athletes will ever play football professionally. NCAA wants to make sure that student athletes are prepared for careers other than professional sports. Education World.com is an online source of teachers, administrators, and school staff members. World Education has provided resources since 1996. The article did not list an

It goes without saying that coaches and many of their student-athletes are highly competitive individuals. I know from my time as a student-athlete, along with eleven years as a coach, that on game days I was a little bit edgy, tunnel-visioned, and ready to compete. Competition, after all, is what makes sports exciting; it keeps the games fun for the players & coaches and exhilarating for the fans. However, there is a balancing act that all coaches and athletes face between having a ferocious will to win, while also displaying appropriate body language, speaking the right words, and being a part of a positive team culture.

Every week between August and December there is at least 1 collegiate football game that airs on National TV. Doctors, Teachers, garbage men, nurses people from all over the country watch college football during the week The games or shown everywhere, from local bars, airports, barbershops, stores, and in local business. Millions of people watch a group of college student-athletes compete on a football field as entertainment. Entertainment with friends, family, or coworkers, football is watched. People may spend hundreds of dollars per season some a week on a college football game. From admission to the game, parking, food, buying merchandise of their favorite college player, to the tv ratings, tv companies receive from the millions of viewers. Money is being spent on collegiate football rather it is directly at the game or indirectly from watching it at a bar in the local neighborhood. The players on the field, training year round to perform and put on a good performance to put their team in the best situation to win. Win for the people watching, buying tickets to come to the game, buying jerseys, spending their money on high end suits just to watch their team win against any component. Players training to win for their university, more winning for the university means more fans come to support. More fans come to support, more money the school makes from the game. The change in excitement and income for the fans and the university, but the same outcome in return for the

Robert Lipsyte narrates his coaches’ remarks with regard to the different kinds of men within the campus. His coach, Bill Stowe lamented that there are only two kinds of men on the campus, the Jocks and Pukes. He gave the qualities of jocks to be manly, goal driven, brave, focused and patriotic. On the other hand, pukes were rather girlish, distractible, unsure and wooly. The article continues to explain the myths of virility and the power pervade in sports, and then why those myths are inescapable in everyday life. In this article, Robert uses three of the rhetorical elements: informal language, quotes and similes.

Sports, admittedly, have had a huge impact on our culture. Some of us even use sports as an excuse to gather our family for some quality time with each other, whether they just hangout for the sake of entertainment or engage in a meaningful conversation full of fervid passion when discussing spectacular plays, athletes, and coaches. However, people talk about the multitude of positive traits that sports are associated with, one must be informed about the abundance of issues that sports face; issues that keep sports from being what we want it to be- free from malicious intent and more along the lines of a peaceful collaboration perpetuated by authentic equality; coming together to proclaim our love for the game. Inequality, for example, is