Youth Sport

Mo'ne Davis

On February 11 and 18, 2016 my American Sport in the 21st Century class learned about organized youth sports and whether or not they are worth the effort. We discussed the topics of origins of organized youth sport, social changes related to youth sport, and the benefits of sport. Youth sport consists of athletes below the age of 18. About 65% of those below 18 compete in at least one organised sport. Below you can view the topics discussed in class:

Origins of organized youth sports

-Organized youth sports emerged in the 20^th century

-The first programs focused on “masculinizing” boys (cooperation and assertion)

-Organized youth sports grew rapidly in many industrialized countries after World War II

-1963 President’s council on physical fitness by president Kennedy

-Kraus Weber 1959 (Difference between American and European youth)

-Programs in the U.S. emphasized competition as preparation for future occupational success

-Girls’ interest generally ignored

Social changes related to the growth of organized youth sports

-Increase in families with both parents working outside the home

-New definitions of what it means to be a “good parent”

-Growing belief that informal activities provide occasions for kids to get into trouble

-Growing belief that the world is a dangerous place for children

-Increased visibility of high performance and professional sports in society

Benefits of sport

-Develops and maintains fitness

-Preparation for adulthood

-Opportunity to learn values

-Teaches interactive skills

-Provides opportunities for leadership

Based on the benefits of sport it can be said that youth sport is worth the effort. If we just left children to play and games they may not get opportunities for leadership or to learn values as youths.  Here you can see the major trends and problems in youth sport today:

Major trends in youth sports today

-Organized youth sport programs have become increasingly privatized

-Organized programs increasingly emphasize performance

-Increased participation in “alternative sports” 

-Questioning of competitive readiness

Major problems in youth sport

-Overemphasis on winning

-Pressures by significant others to achieve success

-Instilling unrealistic goals of stardom or professional status 

-Overuse injuries/overtraining/burnout

UPMC Sports Medicine posted an article titled "Pros and Cons of Youth Sports Participation" on February 1, 2016.  The pros and cons described in this article are very similar to those that we covered in my class.  The article also offers advice for creating a positive experience for youths. 

Full article:

http://share.upmc.com/2016/02/youth-sports-participation/

Sports in High School and College

My American Sport in the 21st Century class examined whether varsity sports contribute to education on February 23, 2016.  This class focused on high school and college sport. We examined the arguments for and against interscholastic sport, the cost of high school sport, and a brief history of college sports. Varsity sports are a part of the American culture, we are an outlier in the fact that we have high school varsity teams.  They make up a big part of our society and both sides of the argument surrounding them are strong.  See them below:

Arguments for and against Interscholastic Sports

Against:

-Distracts attention from academics

-Increases passivity and injuries

-Create superficial and transitory spirit

-Waste resources

The Oregon Duck

-Create pressure and distort status system

For:

-Involve students in activities

-Build self-esteem

-Enhance fitness and lifetime participation

-Generate spirit and unity

-Promote support

-Develop and rewards skills

The answer to whether sports contribute to education is answered by the "Against" category but not specifically in the "For" category. In this one can assume that sports may take away from education. If you examine the "For" category sports does also provide other things that may be hard to come by in other activities. In addition to distracting attention from academics, sports also waste resources. Here you can see the cost of high school sports as well as the brief history of intercollegiate sports:

Cost of High School Sports:

-United States High Schools cut $2 billion in funding for athletics last year

-A HS athletic program is no longer a given

-Schools in 43 states charge students to participate (average is $150-200 per sport). Ohio legislature just passed pay for play law for high schools-$625 per sport (2015)

-Led to schedule reductions, travel restrictions, cutting coaches, eliminating athletic directors and feeder teams (JV, freshmen).

Brief history of intercollegiate sports:

-First contest 1852 (Rowing)

-First football contest in 1869

-Initially student run, based on British model

-Faculty get involved in 1880’s

-First league formed in 1895 (Big 10)

-Intercollegiate athletic association formed in 1905

-Becomes NCAA in 1910

-A highly commercialized entity- 400,000 NCAA athletes (116,000 have Financial Aid)

Robert Greenwald wrote an article titled "College Football is Stealing Your Education" for the Huffington Post: Huffpost College on October 13, 2015. In this article he describes how college tuition is skyrocketing and how athletics are leading to faculty and degree programs being cut from universities. He also provides a short educational clip about these events, which you can see below the link to the article.

Full article:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-greenwald/college-football-is-steal_b_8282690.html

Video:

A Look at the Past

During my American Sport in the 21st Century class on February 4, 2016 we examined the beginning of sports in America starting in the Pre-Colonial period. We talked about major events, historical figures, material items that changed sport, along with other events that affected sport in America. The purpose of these teachings were to enlighten us about how the past can help us understand sport today. View the full timeline below:

Pre-Colonial America before 1600

-Population spread widely across the country

-Physical activity and games were very important, and often linked to spiritual beliefs

-Common sports: lacrosse, archery, running

-Staying fit was very important

Colonial period

-Settling of Jamestown-1607

-Restrictions on participation (puritan ethic, slavery)

-Tavern became the site of social gatherings-drinking, cards, billiards, cock fights, bear baiting

-More tolerant of sport in the south

-Horse racing, fist fighting, gambling popular

1700-1800

-Emergence of the “bees”-barn raising, quilting were followed by recreational activities (dancing, eating and wrestling)

-1732 Schuylkill Fishing Company

-Collegiate sports still in infancy (banned in 1787 by Princeton)

-Blue laws (1781) banned recreation on the Sabbath

1800-1850

Alexander Cartwright

-Growing emphasis on organization in society & sports (industrialization)

-Most sports were segregated by social class

-Women’s participation in sports was limited

-Newspapers kindled interest in sport participation

-Baseball (New York Knickerbockers)-1845

-Alexander Cartwright invented baseball (not Abner Doubleday)

1850-1918

-Acceleration between Civil War and WWI

-First (American) YMCA-Boston 1851

-NL-1876/AL-1900 (expansion due to civil war)

-First World series-1903 (Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Boston Americans)

-Basketball-1891 (James Naismith)

-Volleyball-1895 (William Morgan)

-Blossoming of Intercollegiate sport

-Harvard vs. Yale 1852

-Foothold in education in 1870’s

-NCAA formed in 1910 (IAAUS-1906)

-National championships Princeton vs Rutgers (1869)

-Resurrected from 746 BC-343 AD were the Modern Olympics (1896) by Pierre De Coubertin

-NHL-1917 (Stanley Cup-1903)

Babe Ruth

1920’s

-1919-1930 Golden Age of sport

-Affluence

-Automobile

-More Leisure time

-Newspapers

-Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Red Grange, Bobby Jones, Helen Wills Moody, Gertrude Ederle, Sonja Henje

-NFL 1922

1930’s

-Depression

-Gains lost (especially for women)

-Emergence of the industrial leagues

-Negro Leagues (Cuban Giants 1885)

-Final four 1939 Oregon beat Ohio State University

Jackie Robinson

1940’s-1960

-Breaking the Color bar

-Commercialization of Sport

-TV

-Sport as big business

-NBA 1946

-NASCAR 1948

-Superbowl-1967

1970’s-2016

-Role of media increased-athletes more scrutinized

-Rise of global athlete icons

-Title IX-1972(emergence of women’s sports-wnba-1996)

-Divisions in NCAA (1973/78/2006/2015) “Super conferences”

-Commercialization of college sports

-Free agency (professional sports)

-Astronomical salaries/endorsement deals/naming rights/rights fees/billion dollar athletes

-New stadia/luxury boxes/Personal Seating Licences

-Players’ unions/Collective Bargaining Agreements/Labor disputes/lockouts/strikes

-Dominance of African Americans/Hispanic Americans/Asian Americans in some professional sports

-Violence (fan and player) Concussions/CTE’s

-Rise of alternative sports (X games/ Dew tour)

-PED’s (Mitchell report)

-Sport scandals-Penn state, Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong, Ray Rice

-Global sport/leagues-athlete migration

-PPV-made for TV sports (WWE)

-Fantasy/virtual sport-impact of technology-equipment/internet/phone applications

The list given does not include every important event in the history of sport itself, but every single one of these has led to what sport has become today. As you can see the events spike during the industrial revolution and from 1970 until today. The creation of many sports and leagues came as a result of the industrial revolution. Since then the commercialization of sports has led to the recent spike in changes being made to sport in America.

Joe Theismann, featured in Josh Peter's article

If the past can help us understand what is happening in sport today, then Josh Peter's publication in USA TODAY Sports can help us understand the dangers faced in football. "Quarterbacks past and present on safety, future of football," published February 8, 2016, is an article that USA TODAY put together through interviews from past and present quarterbacks.  The interviews touch on subjects of the consequences of playing, the NFL's concussion protocol, and the future of football. The main subject in these interviews is head injuries including CTE's.

Full article:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2016/02/07/quarterbacks-past-and-present-safety-future-football/79963294/

Sport and Social Values

On January 28th, 2016 my American Sport in the 21st Century class discussed values in sport and society. The purpose of this topic was to compare these values and participation in sport. We went over lists of values in American society and sport, Competition/Winning, Health/Fitness Promotion, and Nationalism/Patriotism.  Below you can see what we learned about these topics.

American Societal Values:
-Achievement and Success
-Materialism
-Moral Orientation
-Humanitarianism
-Progress
-Equality
-Freedom
-Conformity
-Nationalism
-Individualism

Values in Sport:
Character Building
Who Says? - Coaches, former athletes, professionals
What Character traits do they build? - Integrity, work ethic, leadership, sportsmanship, teamwork, honesty, respect, self-confidence, responsibility
What happens if you aren't good? How does the bench build character? What does this do for a child's self-esteem? Do athletes get a free pass for being good? Are they spoiled? - No clear evidence either way

Charles Darwin

Competition/Winning

-Darwinian- Survival of the fittest. Life is a struggle and only the strong survive

-Sport prepares one for the competitive nature of life

-Focus on winning? Leads to over-emphasis and ‘winning at any costs’

Health/fitness promotion

-Result of athletic participation?

-Rates/costs of obesity (37% increase in 5 years; $147 b per/annum)

-Reduces pregnancy rates in teens

-Sport promotes unhealthy practices like eating disorders in gymnasts, divers, figure skates, wrestlers. Concussion/Alzheimer’s/early deaths (contact sports) PED’s

Nationalism/patriotism

-Sport used as a means of promoting love of country

-Reinforces American identity

-Inspires intense devotion

-Reinforces national conflicts, ethnocentrism (judge others cultural practices using your own as a reference)

Pope Francis

In a Sports Business Journal publication titled "Pope Francis sees sports as a world changer" from January 25, 2016, John Ourand talks about a multifaith sports conference being launched in October by the Vatican. He talks about how the Vatican will be examining the role that sports play in society. The Vatican will be launching this three day event and hopes to include around 150 world leaders from sports, government, and religion. Pope Francis hopes to identify a way that sports can bring people from all over the world together in peace. Bernie Mullin, CEO and chairman of The Aspire Group says this initiative could lead to "more youth sports programs and opportunities for kids."

Full article: 

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2016/01/25/Sports-in-Society/Pope-Francis.aspx