For my Cultural Reporter project, I am
choosing to study the wonderful world of athletics. I was actually an athlete from the age of 5
all the way through my sophomore year of high school. I played softball, soccer, basketball, and
volleyball. Although I didn’t really excel
at any of these sports, I loved volleyball in particular. I was a part of a 3 time state title team at
Papillion LaVista South until I found my passion for performing. Though I was never really a star at sports, I
am still interested in them. This is why
I am choosing to study the athletic culture; soccer in particular!
I think that athletes definitely
have their own culture. They live a
lifestyle that is very particular and different from non-athletes. As I progress I plan to find out everything
from a soccer player’s diet to their workout and practice schedule. I will be studying the UNL Women’s Soccer
Team, so I am also interested to find out what it’s like being under the
spotlight all the time as D1 athletes. The
reason I chose to study the UNL Women’s Soccer Team is because I have two girls
in my sorority pledge class who are on the team. I am eager to find out about their exciting
and dedicated lives.
To expand my knowledge of the sport as a
whole, I did a little research on the history of soccer. As baseball is “America’s Pastime”, I would
like to compare soccer as the World’s
Pastime. Although modern day soccer
evolved in Europe, traces of the sport date all the way back to the 2nd
and 3rd centuries BC in China. According to “The History of Soccer”, you can
easily say that this popular game has been played for more than three thousand
years.
In 1815, soccer
became popular in Universities. In
England, the Cambridge Rules were established which prohibited rugby style
plays such as kicking, rough housing, and carrying the ball. In
1863, the Football Association was established in London, and soccer and rugby
were defined as two different sports. As
the game further developed its rules and regulations, FIFA was established in
1904 and held its first famous World Cup in Uruguay. Today, the World Cup is one of the most
celebrated sports events in the world, right up there with the Super Bowl and
the MLB World Series.
The
UNL Women’s Soccer team has been an established program at UNL since 1994. Since then, Nebraska has earned over 280 wins
and has made 11 NCAA Tournament appearances (thisisnebraska.com). Just this past season in 2013, our Husker
women brought home the BIG 10 championship title!
As I begin my report, I am aiming to
answer a few questions about this culture.
What are the pros and cons of being an athlete? How do athletes practice and execute their
culture differently than other cultures? What is it like being a part of a
culture who is in the spotlight frequently?
I am excited to live vicariously through the life of these D1 athletes
since I could never be one myself. This
should be a learning experience that is fun and enlightening at the same time!
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I completely agree that sports and athletes have a culture of their own. I think this culture becomes more dominant and you can see it more as the sports levels rise and the athletes become better. Of course high school athletes have a culture of their own, same for college athletes, but I think it really just becomes easier to see as fame and power increases. Big sports stars act a certain way because within their culture it is viewed as acceptable. I never would have thought as athletes having their own culture, but they really do and it becomes a pretty dominant one as time goes on.
ReplyDeleteAs a former student-athlete, I can completely agree that there is definitely a culture implemented in sports. I played football at a D2 school called Washburn University in Kansas. Although it wasn't a D1 school, the demand for excelling on the field and in the classroom was an everyday grind. It was a night and day difference when I stopped playing because I was shocked of how much free time I had.
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