As an athlete, class did not have much of an impact in my choosing to play soccer. What class did have an impact on was the way I experienced professional sports. Back to being a Philadelphian, the blue collar city that loves their sports, my friends and I tailgate Eagles games all of the time, almost always without a ticket. We hook up our 27 inch console television to our generator, make our “tent”, if you will, when it rains, and have our chips and dip feast set up on a fold out Lifetime table. As college students, we can barely afford books, let alone a $150 ticket to Sunday’s game. We are a little bit more fortunate when it comes to Phillies games, because there are so many games in a season the prices tend to be a little cheaper, and they used to have promotions such as college night (which no longer exists because of disorder and anarchy) we were able to afford.
The downfall of having a world championship baseball team (partly thanks to the C.C. and the Brewers) is the once low priced Phillies tickets are going to rise. As of now, this is how my professional spectatorship is going. However, it was not always like this. Growing up, I did get to attend at least one or two Flyers or Eagles games a season. My parents, having some seniority at their jobs were able to receive some tickets from a boss or higher up. This is how it went for quite some time. The “rich and famous” would see a possible drizzle in the forecast and cough up lower level 50 yard line tickets to a well liked employee, which every now and then happened to be a parent of mine. Then sometimes, the combination of Christmas and a birthday present would be 3 bright shiny tickets for my dad, myself, and a friend.
For the past few Eagle seasons, my uncle’s company has purchased several season tickets for him, his wife, and several co-workers. My uncle being part of the upper class, is a bleed green fan, unlike many of his co-workers. Again, the forecast would consist of a white dusting or a drizzle and BAM my uncle and his wife would have, sometime, up to 20 tickets that are about to go to waste. With most of these co-workers either being too old of “too rich” this sort of situation would occur a lot. The McKnights have been offered many of the BDP’s season tickets over the past few years.
In the beginning of McKinney’s I Feel Whiteness’ she states, “respondents believe linguistic double standards surround the use of particular words and phrases” (McKinney, 2004). I read an article a while back regarding Andy Rooney on 60 minutes going on a rant about racism. In the rant, he talks about double standards and brought up interesting topics. He touched on topics such as Miss America and college scholarships for different races. He talked about the percentages of black in prison. His attitude might have been in the wrong place but the topics discussed were correct.

When I was younger I loved to watch sports. I watched the Mets and Islanders whenever I could and followed the teams as any older diehard fan would. I just loved sports. I started playing hockey when I was in first grade. I was already a very good skater and I loved to play. However, there was one coach that I encountered that didn’t care if the team wanted to have fun. He was the first coach I ever had that yelled at me because I was doing a drill more advanced than the one I should have been doing. After this I quit and regret it to this day. When he took the fun out of the game I didn’t want to participate anymore. I turned my focus to baseball and to little league at the time. In little league I had a great time. By the time I made it to sixth grade I was one of the better players from my town and was asked to play for the more competitive summer travel team. Of course I was honored and wanted to play. However, after about half of a season I recall not wanting to play anymore. The team was made up of most of my friends but I just didn’t really have that desire to play at such a competitive level. I didn’t quit baseball and I am extremely happy that I didn’t. By the time I reached the high school levels of baseball the game became fun again. There was more pressure on us and the coaches and drills became harder, but we were all such good friends on the team that we didn’t care. And we were good. It got to a point where the fun atmosphere around the team reached our coaches and they too loosened up and had more fun. Through my experiences playing sports as a youth I can understand why kids would quit if they are no longer having fun while playing a sport.
I felt lucky as a kid in terms of the amount of sporting events I was able to attend. At a very young age I was able to attend many Islanders games with my Dad and my brothers. It didn’t seem unusual to me that I was able to do this. I felt that it was something everyone got to do. As we all grew older and became interested with baseball and the Mets we got to go to games at Shea. We would get the ticket packages that would get us to a certain amount of games every summer. By this time I realized that it was not something everyone got to do. I was also very lucky that my uncle had tickets to every Yankee’s Friday night home game. I was often invited to go along with them to the games. I knew that the frequency in which I was attending games was not normal but I figured everyone went to baseball games. It wasn’t until I was talking to my cousins from North Carolina a few years ago that I realized not everyone does do this. I was very lucky and understand now that I was. I have continued going to games with my friends when I am home for the summer. Both my location and the fact that I have always known people who can get tickets are something that I have taken advantage of throughout my childhood. To me a seat at a game is a seat at a game though. Where I am sitting doesn’t matter as long as I get to be there. I would love to be sitting down next to the dugout but I know that is not realistic. So, I have learned to accept that any seat is a good enough seat. I do however think it is frustrating that those who are able to get the close to the action seats get more than those in the nosebleeds.
-Josh McGrath

My youth sporting experience was rather in depth. I grew up playing all types of sports including basketball, baseball, soccer, swimming, etc... I grew up in suburbia USA and therefore my parents fell into the social status/image trap of having their kids involved in all these activities. So for the time being I was able to participate in all of this sports with no problems. But as I got older my parents weren't doing as well financially especially in reference to the surrounding community. Plus as I got older the sports were becoming increasingly more and in return more financial responsibilities were needed. So with my three siblings and I playing three or four sports each competitive this was rather expense for my parents. All these sports required tournament fees, field/practice fees, equipment fees, etc... I remember my parents telling me that I had to choose a sport to play. I ended up choosing basketball.

Now that I look back at it, I've never really looked at it this way but I might have chose basketball based on the financial obligations compared to the rest of the sports. All I needed was my sneakers and a ball and that was it. Plus I remember when I was younger that my parents would always talk about money and get into arguements. I would remember myself using this as motivation when playing ball. I would think that I could use basketball to help out my family financial and help them live an easier life. I thought getting a scholarship would help out and did everything to get this scholarship. However, Eitzen (1999) explains that the problem with this assumption is that while true for some, very few high school athletes actually receive full scholarships” (p.250). I still had to dream though and trying to fulfill that dream has taught me a lot of life lessons.

As far as sporting events go, I only really went to baseball games when I was younger. We would get those $5-10 tickets up the the upper section and spend a day at the park. I only went to two football games, one for my friends birthday and the other my buddy had an extra ticket so I tagged along. I would go to the Nuggets game sometimes, but only those "family night games" where they sold you the package of a ticket, hot dog, and soda for $10 and you had to buy a pack of four. Then you would get to the arena and you would be way up in the nose bleeds where you could barely even see the players.

I did get a chance to go to a NCAA tournament game a couple years ago. My friend had club level tickets. I remember the red carpet that circled the level, the high class dining and catering, the leather sofas and lounges that huddled around 40" HDTV's. It was quite an experience. I also remember seeing some kids running around the club level with all types of candy and food in their hands like this was nothing to them. Like this was a everyday routine, a walk in the park or something, like they expected this and thought all basketball games were like this.
Ryan Kannegieter

As I was growing up I generally played sports for fun, either to be with friends or because my brothers did it. As I got older and starting playing for school teams it was still fun because the same group of friends still played, and we worked well as a team. Playing lacrosse I was never the best on the team but I enjoyed playing because it kept me busy, kept me in shape and all my friends played. Both of my brothers played football and lacrosse so most of the games I would attend, they were playing. Throughout PAL, middle school, high school, and college, almost every weekend someone had a game. Whether it was my brothers playing football or me cheering, or any one of us playing lacrosse, and my older brother playing in college and me cheering in college, I became more and more into college lacrosse and football. I would even attend games for Towson as well as going to games such as the face-off classic at M&T Bank stadium. Since I was always attending games when I was growing up I knew it would be important to go to a good school with somewhat good athletic teams. I am still very interested in college football and lacrosse, and still get the opportunity to watch my younger brother play on our high schools’ varsity team, and hopefully though college.
My brothers and I were fortunate enough to grow up in a nice neighborhood with a good school district and a number of sports teams. It is weird for me to think that not everyone grew up with the same opportunities that I had. After reading the article Leaving Most Children behind I realized that many kids in poverty do not get the same education as the more wealthy. This leads to more violence and more dropouts. Giroux states: “It comes from a society that refuses to view children as a social investment, that consigns 12 million children to live in poverty, replaces critical learning with massive testing programs, promotes polices that eliminate most crucial health and public services, and defines masculinity through the degrading celebration of gun culture, extreme sports, and the spectacles of violence that permeate corporate-controlled media. Students are not at risk because of the absence of market incentives in the schools. Young people are under siege in American schools because far too many schools have become institutional breeding grounds for racism, right-wing paramilitary cultures, social intolerance, sexism, and homophobia. We live in a society in which a culture of punishment, fear, and intolerance has replaced a culture of social responsibility and compassion (p.100).”

Kristen S

As a child I was obsessed with sports. No matter what time of day it was, or what responsibilities I had to do, all that was on my mind was playing sports. As a young child I played every sport ranging from Soccer, Football, Basketball, Baseball, Golf, Tennis, Water Polo, Skiing Wiffle Ball. As I approached my adeloscent years I began to focus my primary efforts in sport on Soccer and Baseball. I began to focus on Baseball because it was the sport that I really excelled in and I believed I had a real future in the game. I also began to focus on the game of Soccer because I was good at it and our High School had an exceptionally good program which was always ranked in the top 20 in the state. Although my primary sporting experience as an athlete changed to focus just on Soccer and Baseball, my sporting experience as a fan did not. Growing up as a young kid in Haddon Heights, New Jersey it was the perfect location in the world to be a sports fan. It was located ten minutes from Philadelphia, sixty minutes from Atlantic City, ninety minutes from New York City, ninety minutes from Baltimore, and one-hundred and twenty minutes from Washington D.C. Due to being raised so close to Philadelphia I am obviously a die hard Philadelphia sports fan. Although being a Philadelphia sports fan is not always the easiest, I would not have it any other way. Growing up, I religiously followed the Sixers, Flyers, Phillies, and Eagles. As a kid I did not miss a Philadelphia sporting event and watched every game on the television. I was also fortunate enough to watch many of these games from the stands as well. I was lucky enough that my grandfather had four season tickets for each the Flyers, Eagles, and Phillies so every time their was open spot I would jump at the chance to go. The seats were perfect, always on the lower level and some of my greatest sporting experiences were from those games. One in particular is the 1993 Phillies playoff game, I was 6 at the time, and I still remember how electric the stadium was. Although I do not consider myself spoiled, I do realize that I was very fortunate to come from a pretty wealthy background and that not every child's experience is the same. Most kids growing if they are lucky probably attend two to three professional sporting events a year and it is probably from the upper levels. From personal experience, I can honestly say that the kid who is in the lower level does get treated a little better than the kid in the upper level. They get more souveniers, give aways, chances at autographs. Even with me being the kid who was treated better, I believe that it is not fair and as a future sport manager I intend for that to change. The article we read for class “Leaving Most Children Behind” by Henry Giroux also talks about how more impoverished children are treated worse than children with wealth in todays society. Henry Giroux is quoted as saying
“The more telling consequences of Bush's educational reforms are that children in poor rural and urban schools will be systematically deprived of much-needed institutional resources, smaller classes, and a challenging curriculum. In the end, these children will pay in the hard currency of human suffering as money is diverted from public schools to pay for initiatives such as massive testing programs, parental choice schemes, charter schools, scientifically based reading programs, character education, and a lock-down school safety program. Such proposals primarily drain money from underfunded districts; undermine social services, professional development, and drug education programs; and divert attention from reforms that would improve teacher education, reduce class size, and invest in more innovative curricula” (Giroux 2004, pg. 75-76). This quote shows how the poorer children are being taken advantage of and being deprived of the necessary resources to receive a quality education. While this is being done to the poorer child, the richer child is receiving luxuries and all the necessary resources in order to excel. Although I guess I would categorize myself as a “richer child” growing up I now see myself on the other end of the spectrum. Now instead of attending sporting events with first level season tickets I am forced to purchase cheap tickets. Being that I am a poor college student, I find that financially I am forced to go to six dollar fridays at the Orioles games or forced to buy standing room only tickets at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia for the Phillies games. I can now relate to the poorer child because from my experiences I now see where he is coming from. I think that seeing both sides of the fan spectrum will be beneficial for me in my career as a sport manager because it will allow me to have an overall perspective of the rich and poor fans.

Tanner Strow

As I said in my last topic I grew up in a wealthy area and got to play the sports I wanted to play. Sports were very important in my life and I really enjoyed going to see games and meeting athletes. During the years I probably went to around eight sporting events including my once a year trip to Philadelphia to see the 76ers and Flyers. I even had a chance to be a ball boy for the 76ers.
Going to games for me was like a rush of excitement for me from the opening tip to the final buzzer and I didn’t want to miss a second. Once when I went the Super Bowl to see Tampa Bay play Oakland I was upset when my dad wanted to leave early because it was a blow out. I didn’t care if the score was 100 to nothing I just loved to be there.
Being in a good background made me had this privilege and makes me feel that every one should have a chance to at least go see one game in their life time. Then they could see how it feels and get the same excitement that I feel when I am at a game. Also all children should at least attempt to play a sport. I know in some places it will be hard to afford to play in a league of some type but there still places you could go out and pick up sports or even just throw a ball in the backyard.
Obama giving the kid cotton candy was nice in all and I enjoy that he is enjoying his share of games but he needs to get out there to the lower class. He could go shoot some hoops with them because as we all know that Obama is big basketball fan and has a sweet jump shot. He should go out and teach under privilege children to play it will make him look better and also help the children who can’t afford to go to the Wizards game and get free cotton candy and a chance to meet the president. Also he she try to help with children academics as the article Leaving Most Children Behind says, “ Academic success therefore became largely a measurement of one’s speed in taking high-stakes standardized test, rather than ability to engage knowledge with thoughtfulness and critical analytical skill” (Giroux, pg. 87) Why can’t Obama help change this and make under class people have another way to move up the ladder because some students including me just aren’t good test takers.

Sports were an extremely large part of my life since I was three. Whether it was organized activity or on a more personal level with the kids from my neighborhood I was always involved. I grew up playing baseball and football mainly but in high school I was introduced to track and lacrosse. As a child, my father and I attended our traditional Yankee games which typically consisted of 3-4 games per year. Other than that, I have only been to 2 football games, one the jets and the other the giants, and one hockey game. The Yankee games were my favorite and my dad tried to get one good seating game and the rest average. We would sit right behind home playe and I had a great view and enjoyed the experience. Typically it was families who sat around us and middle aged individuals who came to enjoy the game. When we sat more towards the outfield and in the middle tier we were surrounded by the more rowdy individuals who were constantly drinking beer after beer and enjoying the game in another way. There was more excitement there with every pitch and play having their on soundtrack from the fans in our section and the game seemed to come alive. I guess you could say that I preferred the more “intense” atmosphere where the people connected with the game instead of just watching it. Today my favorite seats have to be the bleachers and outfield because of the crowd. My experience was still enjoyable in the more controlled area but the feeling was just not the same.

Growing up I always loved sports and still do. When I was little I participated in many organized sports like baseball, football, soccer, and basketball. I played until I was in high school. I stopped playing organized sports because I was not good enough to play for my high school team and there are little to no options for county run sports at that age. If there were I would have continued to play. Instead of playing organized sports I played sports in my neighborhood with other kids that liked sports but were not able to play for a formal team. It can be hard to organize sports in the neighborhood. There were only 5 kids including myself that were always looking to play something. We would play basketball, football and roller hockey. With an odd number usually one of us had to sit out. No one ever wanted to sit out. On rare occasions when we were able to round up a lot of kids we would play baseball or a big game of football. To do this often we would have to go to a couple of different neighborhoods to find more kids to play. Playing sports after school was my favorite thing to do.

I was able to attend sporting events. I would estimate that I went to 3 or 4 events a year. Mostly I would go to Camden Yards to see the Orioles play. Most of the time I would sit in the lower level in the outfield or on the baseline but still in the outfield. On rare occasions my family would receive tickets from a friend or from my dads work. Those tickets were always better than our normal seats. The tended to be a few rows back from the dugout. It always made the game feel more special sitting in such great seats. Sitting in those seats can spoil you and it is not as exciting when back in the cheaper seats. Once every few years my family would get tickets to a Redskins game. We had friends that were season ticket holders and would give them to us. Redskins tickets are all season tickets and they are sold out with a lengthy waiting list. These tickets were much more expensive than the Orioles but were worse seats. They were always in the upper deck and it could be hard to see all the action.

Over all I would say that I was pretty lucky to be able to participate sports one way or another. I could not imagine not having the time to play sports because I had to work or take care of my family. Also having the privilege to go to events and spend time with my family. Sport moments have been some of my greatest in life. I hope I can continue to experience sports this way.

My youth sporting experience was for the most part a great experience. I was raised in a family in which sports was the center for our entertainment, exercise and the topic of most of our discussions. I grew up with my dad and younger brother and from as far back as I can remember all three of us were heavily involved in type of sporting experience. My dad taught my brother and me how to play tennis, basketball, and golf and introduced us to the world of ju jitsu. Every Saturday or Sunday morning we were at a field, in a gym or on a court of some type honing our athletic skills and perfecting the lessons and skills taught by coaches and/or my dad. I later in participated in cheerleading, a sport in which my dad did have much experience in. Even though he knew little about the sport he was still able to help with my endurance and fitness training. As far as the type of games that I attended in my youth years they included all types of sports. We frequently attended Georgetown basketball games, receiving tickets from my dad’s company or friends of the family. I remember us always having tickets but never buying them. In Howard County there are plenty of golf courses and the neighboring course to my community hosted the Senior Open, a golf tournament which my friends and I would always go to no matter how hot it was. Thinking about it now, even our fundraisers were heavily sport influenced. My high school cheerleading team did volunteer work for golf tournaments and invitational’s as well as helping out at local basketball and soccer tournaments. I was exposed to many sports and was able to try which ever sport I liked with all the equipment necessary. I believe that is directly related to my social background which followed me into my adult years. Sports and sporting events have always been a huge part of my life growing up and is the reason why my personal sporting interests today are so strong.
Today my sporting interests are just as strong as, actually stronger as when I was a youth. While in Arizona I was a familiar face in the lounges of the US Airways arena, always yelling and watching the games instead of enjoying the social setting like my friends. I play tennis with my boyfriend and friends all the time. When the weather is nice out I think of what sport can I play instead of wanting to lay out and get a good tan. I watch ESPN like it’s a course I am taking, watching the same footage again as if I will be tested on it. If you haven’t gotten the point by now, sports is the biggest external influence in my life today. I get upset if I can’t watch a game and get in heated debates over sporting issues. I am known as the sports girl anywhere I go, and I love it. I believe that due to my social background growing up it laid the foundation for my passion and sporting experience today.

Aleka Ross

While growing up I did not play any organized youth sports. I usually played in my backyard with other kids around the neighborhood, but it was hard to find enough kids to actually get rear games started. When we did, it was either football or baseball. My parents did not have enough money to put me on any youth teams, although I wanted them to every year. It wasn’t until 4th grade that I started playing lacrosse, which I literally begged my parents to let me play and spend the extra money. They were so against it they said if I missed even one practice they would take me off the team. I continued playing throughout middle school and high school, and play club lacrosse at Towson now. In high school I started playing football, since it was free and I only had to get cleats. I loved playing, and I wish my social background had let me play years earlier.

With regards to attending games, my social background had the same affect it did on me playing youth sports. I wanted to go to any game I could, but we didn’t have the money. I didn’t go to an O’s game until I was 12, and it was an exhibition game against the Phillies. I didn’t go to a Raven’s game until I bought my own tickets, and I have never been to a basketball game even though I love the Terps. The only games I would go to on a regular basis were $10 college lacrosse games, which my coach paid for and took me too. I would visit my grandparents, who live outside of Ocean City at the time, and they would take me to Delmarva Shorebirds games. I can honestly say that I have been to more Shorebirds games, a Class A minor league team, than O’s games and Raven’s games combined.

Although I rarely went to games growing up, I still love sports and every chance I get to attend any game, especially Raven’s, I take it. At the same time though, I would sometimes prefer to just sit at home and watch a game, it’s what I am used to, and definitely saves me money. I have grown accustomed to watching sporting events on TV and being able to see everything and listen to commentators, so when I do splurge on tickets, especially Raven’s tickets, I spend enough money to get me close to the action. I can not stand the nosebleed sections, and while this does not correlate to my social background, because I only go a few times a year, it is like going a few more times and sitting in horrible seats.

Early in my childhood I really didn’t play youth sports. I played around outside in the neighborhood with other children. When I got to middle school I became involved in organized school sports and did the same in high school. In middle school I became involved in organized football and did workouts and football drills with the high school football team. My social background had some affect on my early childhood because at that time my parents were not that aware of organized youth sports and we could not really afford the long traveling trips or the many dues that have to be paid.

As far as attending games when I was young, my parents were big sports fans and we would try to go to a few sporting events live every year. However, we would never have tickets for the first row like the kid with President Obama. Our seats were usually pretty decent and comfortable. Sometimes we would get lucky and have some real good tickets from people my parents knew or worked with. We use to go to Redskin games, Met games, Wizard games, Oriole games, Raven games and even minor league games. We use to even go to wrestling shows at the Verizon Center when it was still the MCI center. I remember on a few occasions having box seats at the Verizon Center or Camden Yards. Even today it is hard to get really good tickets to events without paying a lot or knowing someone with good tickets. As a college student with limited funds I find myself in the nosebleeds or the six dollar section at Camden Yards.

I grew up in a middle-class family and that had a strong influence on my sporting experiences. Throughout my childhood my favorite sports were volleyball and swimming; later I started to play tennis which became pretty much a part of my life. Now I realize that I approached these three sports in a completely different way. Volleyball is the sport that I played just for fun, there was no pressure of any kind and I would play with my friends from school and/or town. It was never about winning or losing, just about having a good time. The fact that we had the same social background and therefore very similar ideas, principles, tastes and even aspirations, made it very easy for everybody to get along while exercising. Swimming, however, was not as fun for me. Probably because, it is an individual sport, meaning that even though I had practice with a group of kids; the interaction with them was very limited. And also, I think that there was a sense of discipline and responsibility that will obviously take the fun away from a kid but it was not bad after all, I got used to it and managed to keep swimming for a few years. Finally, tennis was a combination of both fun and discipline which lead me to play this sport in a very competitive way. As I mentioned in the last blog, as I grew up I noticed the difference in social backgrounds but that did not change my perception of sports. As part of a middle-class family I had limited access to sporting events. However I do remember going with my family and friends to the most important soccer games and having a great time. I feel like I have been interested in sports my entire life but now I appreciate how much you can learn from it and how it reflects our social environment.

Evelyn Izaguirre

My youth sporting experiences revolved around my involvement in organized and unorganized basketball. I played in recreation leagues for many years and attended several basketball summer camps. It was a great experience for me to play in leagues and summer camps regularly because basketball was my sport and my parents supported me fully and economically backed me. The reason I participated in these leagues was mainly for fun but was also to gain real competitive game experience. As I got older I gained experience and got better and better. I eventually went on to play varsity basketball at my high school and improved greatly under my coach.

My youth experience in attending games was very positive and fun. My dad and me would attend Baltimore Orioles games every now and then, usually for special occasions. We would also attend some Frederick Keys (minor league baseball team) games once in a while throughout my childhood. The first professional basketball game I attended was a Washington Bullets game at the Capital Center with a friend when I was in only 5th grade or so. Since they moved to the Verizon center in downtown DC I have seen them many times since. It was a great thrill to go to baseball and basketball games because of the experience and our family doesn’t attend them that often. We usually get to see a hand full of games a year that are usually in decent sections of the arena. My dad loves to attend baseball and hockey games whenever possible even if the tickets are not that great. I always love going to basketball games and have recently started playing baseball so I have more of an interest in watching live baseball. Since the nationals came back to dc we go see them a couple times during the summer. My family loves to attend sporting events of every sort and we usually get tickets from my parent’s work connections. So as a middle class family we go to games once in a while, but we don’t make attending sporting events a major expense for us.

Evan Johnson

I grew up with the philosophy that you never know what you're good at until you try, so growing up I think I tried about every sport out there. I mostly participated in rec. sports like soccer, basketball, volleyball, and lacrosse. I participated in individual sports like ballet, ice skating, baton twirling, and running. I found out that I was basically good at any sport I tried, never great, just good, and I never took a sport serious enough to get better. I always thought about going onto travel teams or onto club teams but I never had a desire to do so because that would have meant too much commitment and not enough new adventures.

I do think my social background allowed me to be picky with the sports I decided to play. I didn’t have to worry if my parents could afford to play the 35 + dollars to allow me to play each season. This allowed me to be able to play the sports for fun and not have to worry about being the star athlete that would go on to earn a scholarship for college. I also had parents who didn’t push me to become the best athlete on the team. My mom told me that if I wanted to be the best and if I wanted to excel, that the desire would have to come within. The only time I remember my mother remotely pushing me to be the best was when I ran track in 9th grade and had the potential to be pretty good. Then my lack of commitment and dedication worked in and I shattered those dreams for her. The only reason I believed she pushed me like she did was because she used to be a pretty good runner herself. Youth sporting experiences in my opinion happen in several different ways, one is born into a social background where they need sport to be able to go to college, one is born into a social background where sport isn’t an option, and one is born into a social background where they can pick up and put down a sport as they please. All have their benefits, all have their downfalls.

As a child I played in various youth sports such as football, basketball and baseball. Fortunately for me, I was able to participate in various youth sports which lead into me playing sports at the high school and college level. There is no doubt that as a child involved in youth sports that the concept was to have fun. Once I’ve gotten older I quickly came to the realization that all that matters was winning. Another aspect of my sports past that had noticed was how social backgrounds were inevitably connected to the sports that you play and even the teammates that you have. The best example of this came from my travel baseball team. Everybody on my team was middle to upper middle class. This was a familiar trend in the teams I’ve played against as well. As I’ve grown older and wiser towards society’s trends, it became easy to understand why these trends have occurred and still do throughout travel baseball. Playing on a travel team requires you and your family to reach many demands. Most of these demands dealt with money or time. The amount of money that your makes and the amount of time that you have are directly correlate because making money does require for many long working hours. Money is needed to pay for tournaments as well as equipment needed to play.
On the other side of the spectrum, when I played basketball the culture no longer consisted of mainly middle to upper class kids. A reason for this is that basketball does not have as much of a financial demand as does baseball. Throughout the league there were kids on my team and on other teams that were from various social backgrounds. In both baseball and basketball I’ve witnessed this trend maintain throughout the high school level.
Nowadays as I take broader approach to the way I view sport cultures. I’ve noticed that at the collegiate level, these trends have carried over. Although in professional baseball it is skewed due to it being such a globalized sport, at the college level you mainly see white players. In basketball there is a much broader social background all the way from youth basketball up to the professional level.
The trends seen in baseball and basketball and the social backgrounds attached to them have always been around. According to Henry A. Giroux “Obama’s reforms, particularly his economic and education policies, offer no alternative vision about how to change the underlying values and institutions that shape these important sectors of society.” These trends don’t seem to be leaving any time soon.

-Mike Levy

As a child I grew up playing mainly 2 sports which were basketball and baseball. I would say that I enjoyed playing both sports very much, but I think I put more passion into basketball because I was a lot better at it and had more confidence in myself to perform at a higher level. My father, knowing that I loved to play basketball and watch college basketball on TV so much, surprised me for my birthday one year when I was 13 and told me he had bought season tickets to the Maryland Terps and that I would be going to every home game with him. I was so shocked and excited at the same time because I had only been to one other college basketball game at the time and I loved it. I guess you could say that since my dad had the money to buy these tickets, I was privileged to be in a family with enough economic income to afford these tickets. In the article by Giroux, he talks about test scores and how schools wit higher test scores will get more money to fund them but isn’t that exactly how sports are portrayed? If you can shoot a jump shot better than someone else, don’t you start rather than ride the bench? Just because a school has low test score doesn’t mean we should shun them and the other kid who is not as good should still get a chance to play. Growing up around all these sports and playing basketball has really had an influence on what I do today. I watch the MD Terps religiously and watch sports center everyday for at least 3 hours a day. I Love sports because I have always been surrounded by them and enjoyed them.

My family’s social background not only influenced the sports I participated in, but also my ability to attend sporting events. I spent plenty of time at small local sporting events, such as my dad’s softball games. This was something we did together as a family, because it was free and kept us busy. Many people do not even have the opportunities to attend small sporting events like this, so I am glad I was able to attend these regularly. I think these events went a long way in developing my passion for sports.
As for attending larger sporting events my opportunities were definitely limited due to geography and financial restraints. My first large sporting event was the minor league baseball team Tidewater Tides. We went primarily to see Gary Carter who was on a rehab stint in the minors. Due to where we lived and my family’s limited income, it was a rare opportunity for us to see a MLB player in action. Fortunately overtime my mom started working and both of my parents worked their way up the salary scale. When I was born my parents were in the lowest-income fifth and today my parents are in the highest-income fifth, according to Yeskel’s definition of “families with incomes starting at $83,700 and ranging up to the top income earners in the land.” As the income increased so did the opportunities to attending sporting events, and luckily I was able to attend quite a few. This winter break we were able to attend to the “Meineke Car Care Bowl” game in North Carolina (WVU vs. UNC). Ten years ago attending this game would not have been an option. We could have never been able to afford the tickets, transportation costs, and the hotel for such an event.
Lucas Conrad

Sports have literally been the center of my universe since I can remember. As previously stated in the last blog, I live in an extremely rural area, and my folks decided playing sports would allow for me to meet people and learn the basic necessary characteristic that playing sports teach. I participated in softball, soccer, basketball, and most important lacrosse because of my participation in it at the Division I level. I traveled a lot and spent majority of my youth playing sports, and as a young person with minimal experience in the real world, sports was really all that was important. That thought process transcended into an even larger idea when my priorities were all based around getting an athletic scholarship. School, the amount of time I spent with friends, and practicing was all based on the possibilities of a scholarship. For anyone who has been a athlete in high school and/or college, as sad as it is to say, athletes are giving lets say more second chances and more help in relation to school. This is fact, especially at the college level, for student athletes, I have experienced some supper ‘shady’ situations in classes between teachers and student athletes, but this is reality of business, and sports at a Division I level are business oriented, they make money for the institution and what needs to get done, gets done. You’re probably wondering why I am taking this approach, seeing as it has little to do with social background; I reassure you it will connect to my current sporting interests and their affect on my current life.
As a child I attended many games, Terp’s basketball, Raven’s, Oriole’s, and The Blast, most games were in the nose bleed sections though. Attending those games for me was such a gift, as a young person being at arenas of that size was out of this world, and that’s pretty much all I got from those games, was the intensity and reality of professional sports. However, I believe my father wanted my brother and me to experience the professional sports world and to show us how much it really takes to succeed. My brother and I were both big into sports he played baseball and wrestled in college, and those experiences definitely glorified sports for both of us, my dad was a successful in wrapping the idea of hard work around our heads if we wanted to excel in sports. Now if I take a step back and walk into the Rutgers weight room for the first time not as me, but as a recruit from a less fortunate childhood, a childhood that never saw the glories of professional or college sports my blog would be much different. By this I mean I took my sporting experiences slightly for granted. I was able to see professionals, the best of the best playing the sports I loved, experiencing that made my dreams feel closer to reality, and lucky for me they did come reality, but I took them for granted, and believed those opportunities would always be there no matter what actions I took. I learned the hard way that I was wrong. In the instance of a childhood that was committed to sports because it kept them off the streets and safe, it is harder for that dream to feel real. This example portrays the incessant cycle of self indulgence that is advertised and active by upper class people. For example, you buy expensive tickets you have more chances to win free stuff. If a person spends less, they have less of a chance of getting something free. This is happens not only in sports but in everyday society. Ryan, the simple and realistic answer is in what you teach us. Sports and society are intertwined. Sports allow young people to make a choice to stay away from trouble and out of the streets, so shouldn’t professional sports, the sports that have a economic impact on our society put forth help to the education and programs that surround them? Yes, but people cannot believe a free T-shirt is going to do it. That closing statement is why I want to work in sports, to make money and bring communities closer to the teams they admire, to give the chance that was given to me, and give it to strangers.
- Kathryn Lawrence

As mentioned in my previous post, I was able to play any sport I wanted and it was mainly through the local rec leagues, though I doubt I would have been able to play on club teams (maybe due to my lack of talent, who knows). But my high school teams were top notch in several sports, club caliber even. And I was lucky enough to try any sport, with no pressure to play a certain sport or give up any sport for that matter.
The sporting events I went to were mainly college or minor league games, basketball, ice hockey or baseball. My family usually went to a Caps game a season with my brother's hockey team, cheap seats but certainly not a bad view. Orioles games were either the student nights because it was cheap, or through a family friend who was a scout and pitching coach for another major league team. Personally I love going to the minor league and college games because usually it is a smaller venue, more relaxed with athletes who are not getting paid, or very little, playing because that is their passion for the most part because many of them will not get paid the multi-million dollar contracts in the end.
I do not play any sports at the moment, but give me a choice between watching a NBA game or a college game, I choose college (March Madness rules our house). I will generally watch any type of sport on tv or go to any sporting event if given the opportunity. Though thinking about it, I have never been to a football game, except for a handful of homecoming games in school. Maybe it was because my brother never played or mainly because my group of friends were not interested in the sport either, but that is one sport I have little interest in seeing in person (televised games is a different matter). If someone offered me a Ravens ticket, I probably would turn down their offer, and I know many of my friends and family go to the games for the tailgating and other various things, not specifically for the game as other people from another culture might.
~Cory

As a child I played a lot of youth sports for the community. I assume that my parents thought giving me a wide variety of sports would help me determine what I like and also show me how to work as a team. In communities, youth sports are fairly inexpensive so this could be another reason why my parents had me play a couple at a time. For some people community sports are too expensive for them which will lead to children being left out. “The Bush administration’s silence suggests that children are not simply being abandoned, they are being ransomed in the interest of profit and greed (Giroux, 74)”. Some children are being abandoned from youth sports because there parents can not afford them. There should be a reduced recreational sport fee, just like reduced lunch. But whoever is responsible for these sport fees, seem to just not care.

As for professional sporting events, my family did not attend many. If we did go to any sporting events it was because the tickets were given to us. Now that I am older, I try to go to as many professional athletic games as I can. The most recent game I went to was the Wizards vs. Sacramento game, which I saw exactly what Ryan saw. The children sitting closer to the floor received a lot of free things. I wasn’t that far from the floor but I was still too far to receive free items. There were four younger children sitting next to me. While the Chipotle people threw free burritos the father left and came back with pretzels and cotton candy. He seemed to know that the children were going to get upset if they didn’t get a free burrito so he stopped the disappointment before it happened. We were still in the 100 level, with face value of $155. I could barely see the people that were sitting all the way at the top. I assume that their tickets are less than $50 and that their parents would not be able to stop the disappointment before it happened. So if you have money and you can afford to sit court side you also get free things throughout the game. But if you do not have money, you get seats so far up that you feel like your falling out of your seat and don’t even think about the blue man throwing a burrito that far.

My youth sporting experiences solely revolved around hockey. At the time I was not aware of the financial commitment that came along with a sport such as hockey. My parents never let me worry about anything like that. Instead, they would buy my the best equipment, pay for all my rink time, travel expenses, and any other hockey related things that I would need or ask for. Since I am sitting here right now my aspirations obviously did not pan out as planned. While I played at the highest level and against the best all around North America my parents always backed my love of the game never expecting anything in return. Without all of the money that was spent on my hockey career it would be difficult to say if you would have gained the skill, and knowledge that I have for the game today. As far as sports for entertainment, my dad and I had season tickets to the New York Islanders and we went to almost every home game until I was about 13. We had incredible seats and I still can picture us both sitting in the decrepit Nassau Coliseum side by side enjoying the best sport on earth. A handful of times we would even sit in the luxury boxes atop the arena with Islanders great Bobby Nystrom. None of this would have been possible if it weren't for the financial situation my family was in. Hockey is an expensive sport and sadly many people cannot even begin to know why it is so incredible due to the fact that it is so costly, both to play and watch at the professional level.

I guess I am not the best or the most qualified to talk about youth sporting practices since I stopped playing an organized sport in the 3rd grade. But I guess I am qualified to discuss my the "othe side" of why I made my decision. Now don't get me wrong I love sports as much if not more than that next person, but due to my circumstances growing up I was forced to make difficult decisions. I grew up in a household where everyone played sports growing up even the women. The only downfall to that was that most of my family didn't graduate. So when it came time for me to participate in sports everything was different because everyone put so much pressure on me to be different and break that cycle. So after the third grade my entire mentality changed. I just focused on school and as I got older I got infatuated with making money. So doing whatever necessary to make a dollar became my first priority and sports just kept falling further and further down the list. I still played pick basketball and football games as well as other sports, but I just didn't have the time to pursue something on the organized level. So the next best thing for me was that I was always cool with athletes. I think in a strange way I always wanted to be out there with them and honestly I think that they all knew that. So just that bond between the two of us just continued to become stronger and stronger. I began working out with them on a regular basis and they began teaching me different aspects of their respective sports. I studied the sports that I knew and liked as if I were playing myself. That mentality has followed me even today. I spend majority of my time either working out or around something sports related. I will always consider myself as an athlete at heart.

As I talked about in my previous post, privileged is a word that could be used, I was provided with season tickets to both major sports in San Diego at the club level which included waiter service and heating/ air conditioning. Club Soccer and Little League Baseball were the 2 main sports played. Both included lavish uniforms, family parties, major tournaments, and trips to play teams from different areas. In other words team funding was a giant part of the team itself. While improving our technical skill through coaching, I think it is important to mention that living in these sheltered communities hindered aspects important to sport such as aggression, prospering from playing dirty, as well as the “outrageous” thought of performance enhancers. Generally, the largest minority was of Latin decent and spoke Spanish while playing these sports in Southern California, it is interesting to read how the little league world series provided little or no help to try and help bridge the gap between the players from the many nations participating in the event, as well as the media to the target market watching the event. I distinctly remember our coaches referring to certain teams as “dirty players” indirectly referring to their impoverished upbringings.

“ABC required that all participants introduce themselves in American-English, a feature that would be inserted into each game. This resulted in a number of the young players struggling to (Anglo) phonetically reproduce their name – the resultant broadcast offering a less than flattering, in fact stumbling, stuttered, or slow depic-
tion of anyone who could not speak American-English. Finally, and despite
the significant presence of Latino/Latina populations in the United States,
generally, and the over-representation of these populations in baseball
specifically, only one on-field announcer employed at the production,
Alvaro Martin, could translate from Spanish to English.”

I believe it is extremely ethnocentric to force culturally different teams to conform to the American ritualistic ways we find in our youth sporting events, yet this is what happens at the worlds largest youth event, the LLWS. The unfortunate on goings of this idea that American sports are the best way, is part of the reason why worldly popular sports such as soccer can not seem to top the charts in terms of popularity to the American public; and it’s a real shame.

Growing up, I would say that I was fortunate when it came to my sporting experiences. As I said in a previous blog, I was given the opportunity to participate in many sports. I tried lacrosse, football and recently picked up golf (all fairly expensive sports). Not only was I allowed to try these sports out, but my father purchased a PSL and season tickets for the Ravens when they came to town. It was him and his three friends, but whenever one of them couldn’t make, he would take me. This had a huge impact on me, especially because I was so young. I got to go to football games and hang out with my Dad. They were some of my favorite times. Of course, my whole room was littered in Ravens memorabilia and I would try to keep up with the news and rumors so I could join in on the Ravens conversations with my Dad and his friends. After a few years, one of the guys dropped out so my dad bought the other PSL from him and started taking me to every game. This really meant a lot to me, not only because I got to spend more time with my Dad and the Ravens, but because it actually sparked an interest for a potential career path for me. By the end of high school I had decided that I wanted to be a Sport Management Major and I wanted to work for the Ravens. I realized that working for a professional sports organization was the goal for a lot of people and it would be a very competitive field, but I worked hard for it. I started out volunteering for them at various events they had and worked my way up. I’ve been interning for the marketing department for the past three years and I can honestly say that it’s all due to the fact that my Dad took me to the Ravens games growing up and they became such a big part of my life.

I would consider my childhood a excellent example of people from lower middle class moving up to the upper middle class. When my parents finally realized that they were able to afford more luxuries. They also deceided that we should try out different sports. So, we went skiing and tried hiking at the grand canyon. Since I have been in a range of social class schools I have had many different experiences with sport. At the white rich school, they taught me how to play golf and how to count while you are duck pining. We went on field trips to the bowling alley and there was one to the golfing range, but unfortunatley I was unable to attend that due to my previous commitment to gymnastics. We learned how to play many other sports such as softball and hockey but you play on the concrete surface. Then when I went to High school which was a lower to middle class school which was 99% African American. Most of the things we did in PE class were batmitten, we ran track a lot, tennis and kick ball. When I looked at the differences between the two schools I notice that my high school taught us sports that were cheap, while my middle school bought equipment so we could play most of the sports. So my experience has been very diverse but I do believe being apart of each side of the classes allowes me to appreciate more in life. Now in terms of going to games, I have never been to a NBA basketball game, Hockey game and I went to my first Football professional game this past season. When I went it was pretty exciting, but we could not afford the best seats so we sat all the way in noise bleed section. But the people around me where so much fun that I had the time of my life. I can’t wait until next season when we are able to go to another game.
Alise McDonald

As I was growing up I generally played sports for fun, either to be with friends or because my brothers did it. As I got older and starting playing for school teams it was still fun because the same group of friends still played, and we worked well as a team. Playing lacrosse I was never the best on the team but I enjoyed playing because it kept me busy, kept me in shape and all my friends played. Both of my brothers played football and lacrosse so most of the games I would attend, they were playing. Throughout PAL, middle school, high school, and college, almost every weekend someone had a game. Whether it was my brothers playing football or me cheering, or any one of us playing lacrosse, and my older brother playing in college and me cheering in college, I became more and more into college lacrosse and football. I would even attend games for Towson as well as going to games such as the face-off classic at M&T Bank stadium. Since I was always attending games when I was growing up I knew it would be important to go to a good school with somewhat good athletic teams. I am still very interested in college football and lacrosse, and still get the opportunity to watch my younger brother play on our high schools’ varsity team, and hopefully though college.

Kristen Stottler

I had a lot of youth sporting experiences. My first time ever going to a NBA game I was 9 years old and saw the charlotte hornets take on the Washington bullets. When I first heard we were going I was so excited. I was a huge basketball game and had never seen one live. So I figured, just because I was a kid and it was my first time, we were sitting in the front section and were going to get autographs and maybe a jersey from a player. I went so prepared with about 20 basketball cards of all the players I had I was watching, a huge poster, and dressed to impress. When we got to the game we were so high up u could barely tell who was who, our poster would be scene by nobody, and my cards were useless because they would not even let kids go down before the game for autographs unless you were sitting down there. I was so upset I cried and my older brother threw a bigger fit and there were o many open seats around us he didn’t even sit next to us because he blamed our parents. It was just us being young and not enjoying what we had at the time because we could see other kids down there getting free shirts being shot out of a cannon and chances to go on court and meet players. My father was just starting a new business and could only afford those tickets at the time. He eventually got us tickets when we got older right behind the basket and even right behind the bench and it is a experience of a lifetime but I still sit up high and enjoy it just as much.