The group I chose to study was people that played basketball in the SRSC. The gym is located on E Law Lane. For the most part, I only saw males playing basketball in the rooms with the basketball courts in them so, that group was who I chose to focus on. I ended up asking close to 10 people if they would be willing to be interviewed about the sport but, most of them had schedule conflicts or didn’t want to take part in it. Once I found a willing participant who was eager to talk about his experience with playing basketball, the interviews proceeded from there. After the interviews were conducted, I was able to take time and reflect on many different aspects within them.
Personally, I believe that one of the most important things that came out of the interviews is what I was able to take away as an outsider. As I listened to my interviewee during the first interview, I was able to gather that the importance of the sport varies from person to person. During his freshman year, he always played in his free time at the SRSC or at “Compton” – the basketball court that is closest to the Wright Quadrangle. Also, one of the points he made was that he even considered trying out for the IU basketball team. Though he still plays at the SRSC when he can, it was later explained that now that he is working instead of going to school, basketball has dwindled down on his list of priorities. It was a sport that he enjoyed and put a lot of effort into in high school that he now describes
While interviewing them their answers were basically the same, but in different wording. The males that I interviewed were Isaiah F, a freshman basketball at Savannah State University (Division 1) and Shombe R, a junior at Claflin University (Division 2). The first question asked was, what motivates you or what drives you? I found it humorous that both male players replied “My mother is my motivation”. The second question asked was, what made you want to compete in collegiate level? Together their answer was exactly, “Something I have always wanted to do to be closer to the pro of some type”. The third question was, would you consider yourself to be a leader on the court? Isaiah’s answer was “Not yet, because I am a freshman”, while Shombe replied “yes, because as a junior I have to prove myself to become captain for the following year”. The forth question was, what steps do you take to improve your experience? “Constantly in the gym working on thing I need to improve
In the collegiate world of sports, basketball has become an increasingly recognized sport among African Americans, predominantly males. The hope of any young basketball player is that one day a scout will come and recruit them into stardom The question that presents itself as a problem to the lucky few who are chosen to go professional, is whether or not an education is more important than a million dollar shoe deal, “The NCAA's (1998) annual six-year study reported that only 33% of Black male basketball players graduated, (Chronicle of Higher Education, 1999). Individually, basketball reported the lowest graduation rate in all divisions,” (Robinson, 2004:1). Basketball players have become so idolized in the eyes of young
Literature surrounding athletic participation and its impact on the college experience is well documented (LaForge & Hodge, 2011). Many scholars purport that athletic participation enhances the academic experience, while others argue that it creates a divide between colleges’ missions and student-athletes lived campus experiences. To support this claim, Lawrence, Henedricks & Ott (2007) found in their study that nearly one-third of faculty who responded to their survey indicated that they believed that academic standards are lowered to achieve success in the sports of football and basketball. One question that is often posed by
The NCAA believes “that a student-athlete is a student first and athlete second.” Student-athletes benefit more than from playing a sport that they love. The graduation rate is higher among the student athletes than the general student body. “NCAA studies show that student-athletes enjoy high levels of engagement in academics, athletics and community: have positive feeling about their overall athletics and academic experiences: attribute invaluable life skills to being a student-athlete: and are more likely to earn similar or higher wages after college than non-student athletes.”
As an individual I love staying active, socializing with others, being dependable, and keeping busy. Playing Basketball for Flour Bluff ISD, since the seventh grade, has granted me the opportunity to achieve all of these goals. For some peculiar reason I have consistently felt that I lacked experience of which my peers had, and that I would never be able to acquire it. Soon after I started playing I became intimidated of my fellow teammates and worried about the time I felt I lost, due to beginning so late in my childhood. Without fail, I always feel a sense of accomplishment after making it through tryouts every year and as I approach my final season, it has become clear just how much of my life was devoted to Basketball, that I truly love it and how I am thankful to be a part of something much more than just a team.
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.
This past Thursday I had the opportunity to sit down and conduct a phone interview with Jordan Maleh. Jordan graduated from UConn in 2006 with a Bachelor’s in Sport Management and then his Master’s in Sport Management and Sociology in 2008. He currently works at the Big Ten Network in Chicago, Illinois as the Director of Digital and Consumer Marketing. As a graduating senior, this interview was very helpful to me because it gave me the chance to ask a professional in the sport industry, such as Jordan, questions about his experience at UConn and how he got his start in the sport industry and to where he is today.
In the documentary “hoop dreams” the director uses a variety of techniques to attract the viewer. In the beginning scenes we meet william gates and arthur agee to boys with high hopes of playing high school and college basketball both coming from poor neighborhoods which appeals to pathos create a sympathetic feeling in which you want the 2 main characters to succeed in their dreams. William gates and arthur agee live and play basketball as part of their everyday life, which can be reflected from their family arthur father played in his earlier years and william's brother curtis talked about his carrera the director uses a voice over narration with photos of him playing at high school and college level, curtis dropped out of college after being unable to keep up his academics. The director uses a point of view shot when a small recruiter finds arthur and william playing in local courts, he takes them to tryout at St. Joseph's a private school. The director uses a small pause when telling the viewer if william or arthur made the team, they announced william makes varsity and narration of
The likes of Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Tracy McGrady, Amare Stoudamire, and Jermaine O’Neal are setting the tone across the nation for high schoolers considering by-passing college for the NBA. Two of today’s biggest stars, Garnett and Bryant, have never attended college, but both were immediately successful and popular in the pros (Head to Head). The biggest star in the NBA right now, Garnett, is having an MVP-caliber season and is leading his team to their best record in franchise history. The teenagers with high hopes admire these professionals living their dream and hope to someday be in their shoes.
It is important for the athletic directors and other authoritative figures in men’s basketball to strive for a common goal and establish a better sense balance among those in the basketball environment by changing the contradicting expectations and policies of the NCAA. Some say basketball players have been taken advantage of for far too long and ask “how much longer are universities willing to wait [the] before students see them as a threat and an aid to the issue rather than a source of education and athletic support”? Neglecting the issue has only postponed its significance to emerge as more relevant. By helping address this issue with urgency will allow the players to feel acknowledged and help create a solution for everyone’s benefit to the issue at
The topic that I chose for this ethnographic interview was sports in American culture. Sports are popular in America, and are a big part of the culture in America. I would say most people in America have played sports, whether they played as kids, in high school, at the collegiate level, or even professional. A great deal of people also enjoy watching sporting events. The following were the questions asked during the interview. How have sports affected your life? Why do you think sports are so popular in America’s culture? How are sports a part of the culture in America? What do you think about the amount of money spent on spectator sports?
College was a dream that was made possible by playing more than one sport. College is an easy transition for these athletes because it’s not that much different from their high school lifestyle. The routine is easier for them, they can manage their time with homework, practices and a social life at a stress free cost because of their time management skills. In the early stages of an athlete’s recruitment, many coaches are drawn to them because of their multi-sport abilities. Making friends comes easy to those athletes and they have the ability to become close to all of your new teammates and with the coaching staff. Athletes can go into this season ready to play, healthy body at hand, and fully confident in their success in this year. This was all possible because they played multiple sports. It laid down the path to their dream. And like everyone else they did everything possible to help them achieve
There were a total of 30 people interviewed throughout this research. There were fifteen men and fifteen women, all of which are in a profession that is related the field of sport leadership. The subjects were randomly selected. There were 5 athletic directors, 10 athletes, 3 sportscasters, 7 athletic administrators, and 8 were a part of the academia side of athletics. The subject pool consisted of fourteen African Americans, ten Caucasians, and six Latin Americans. Each race was divided into equal parts: male and female. The age range for the subjects ranged from 22 years old to 50 years old. Interviews are a form of qualitative research, and was deemed the best way for the researchers to gather information on the topic. There was much brainstorming associated with building the questionnaire for this research. The researchers had to come up with a way to answer each aspect of the topic. The researchers were able to divide the topic being examined into five parts: leadership, coaching, equal pay, presentation, and team sports. Each section was different, but each other related in some way back to the presentation of females in team sport leadership. Three pilot studies took place to ensure validity of the questionnaire, and then edited by the researchers to better suit the study. See Appendix I. The questions were randomly selected by the researchers to gather information on people’s views about females in sport leadership roles. The process of selecting questions for each
I believe my entire life revolves around basketball. Any time anything else comes up I immediately think of my schedule with basketball. I’ve played the sport since kindergarten and haven't stopped since, so without the sport my childhood would be not very exciting. All of my closest friends today have been on my basketball team at some point in my life, therefore without it I would be in a completely different friend group then I am today. When I switched schools my main concern was basketball and what team I would play on. I started out on a Lincoln team, but during the summer of my 3rd grade year a few of my friends and I started playing on JYD coached by an old farmer named Rick Karr. We practiced 3 days a week for 3 hours in an old, small
The three primary research methods that I chose were: surveys, interviews, and observations. I thought that these three primary research methods would be the most beneficial in finding out most of the answers to all of my questions. I made a survey of ten questions related to sports. Some of the basic questions that I asked were: What is your gender? How well do you like sports? Did you play sports in high school? Do you watch sports on television? Some of the more in depth questions that I asked were: When watching your favorite sporting event, how excited do you get? What is your favorite sport to play? What is your favorite sport to watch on television, if any? Have you ever been to a professional sporting event? How many hours of sports, on average a week do you watch? Do you think that sports are primarily for