Sport has a powerful influence over our society. For example, Mr. Patterson showed students a 1994 documentary film directed by Steve James “Hoop Dreams” in class. The film is centered on William and Arthur, two poor talented African American high school students living in Chicago. Along with, their dream to play professional basketball as a way to escape poverty.
In their neighborhood, playing basketball is considered to be a healthy activity. From watching the movie, it is clear that playing basketball kept William and Arthur away from drugs and crimes. In addition, through playing basketball, it helped them to graduate from high school, and later successfully enter college.
From watching this movie, I can clearly see that playing a sport
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William Tang
• Symbols: objects which have significance beyond their mere existence. For example, flags, anthem, historical site.
• Social and economic institutions: organizations designed to further the values and beliefs of the larger group. For example, government system, education structure, banking system.
• Normative behaviour: the usual or expected behaviour within a particular society or social group. Includes written and unwritten expectations. For example policy, culture do’s and don’ts.
• Language: the words, terms and meanings which have particular meaning within a cultural context. For example ,Canada has two official languages French and English , also eh, and pop vs soda
• Technology: the tools, innovation, level of advancement found within a culture which helps define it. For example, transcontinental communications, telephone, kayak
William
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Knock-on: “occurs when a player loses possession of the ball and it goes forward, or when a player hits the ball forward with the hand or arm, or when the ball hits the hand or arm and goes forward, and the ball touches the ground or another player before the original player can catch it” (Rugby World).
Ruck: “A ruck is a phase of play where one or more players from each team, who are on their feet, in physical contact, close around the ball on the ground. Open play has ended” (Rugby World).
Scrum: “The eight forwards from each team bind together and push against each other. The scrum-half from the team that has been awarded possession feeds the ball into the center of the scrum from the side most advantageous for his hooker (which is typically the side of loose head prop)” (Rugby World).
Flanker: “Forward player who usually wears jersey No.6 or No.7” (Rugby World).
Technology: GPS trackers on players, it collects data such as heart rate, speed, and acceleration. The data is used by coaches and physicians to determine one’s physical conditions. Whether, he is
William
Going to a public school, gave Arthur less opportunities to work with better coaches and scouts that could help him by giving him scholarships for college. His dream slowing started to deteriorate because he realized that basketball didn’t make him happy anymore and same with William. William by the end of high school, didn’t have the same view of basketball as he did when he was a sophomore and most people don’t make it to pro. According to the NCAA, out of the 541,054 high school players, only 1.2% of college players get drafted by the NBA. So the chances of him making it in the NBA were very
Offensive Play It’s time for kickoff. The kicker tee’s up the ball and is waiting for the call from the referee so he can kick the ball. The tension is building up with the opposing team as they await the kick. The whistle blows and the referee gives him the clear to kick the ball.
Hoop Dreams is a story about two young men who want to become basketball players in the NBA. The author Ben Joravsky wrote the book. The idea for the book came from the documentary movie, Hoop Dreams, which is a true story. Arthur Agee and William Gates are the names of the two boys who were followed from eighth grade to twelve grade to do the movie. Arthur Agee was a 5'6 125 pound guard from the playgrounds of Chicago when St Joseph recruiters saw him. Arthur was playing against guy's three years older than he was and he was still the best in the neighborhood. Arthur's parents Bo and Sheila Agee were very poor people who were on cocaine and could not support their family. Big Earl, the guy who recruited Arthur told his family that St. Joe's would be able to pay Arthur's tuition if he played basketball for them. Arthur went to St. Joe's and met William Gates. They had become friends in grade school but had never really done anything together. Eventually William turned out to be the better player and all the attention and money was focused on him. Therefore, Arthur was booted out of St. Joe's in the middle of the school year. He was forced to enroll at Marshall, the area public school. As a result, Arthur could see his dreams of the NBA were slipping away. Along with that, he couldn't keep his grades up enough to attend a Division I school. He and the Marshall Commandos ended up going downstate Arthur's senior year. They finished third in the state overall. Arthur ended up going to a junior college named Mineral Area in Flat River Mississippi. After his two years in Mississippi, Arthur received a scholarship to Arkansas State. He finished his degree in communications and he graduated. Arthur never did reach his dream of going to the NBA, at least yet. As you can see, it takes a lot for an inner city boy to try and reach his dream, but most of the time it never happens. William Gates was also 14 when he was recruited to go to St. Joseph. He and Arthur both had to wake up around 5:30 every morning so they could get on the subway to make it to school in time.
Both of their passions in the beginning of the documentary came from simply their love of the game. Overtime, both began to realize the serious side to basketball. Starting with Coach Pingatore harsh coaching skills. He pushed William so vigorously that he ended up obtaining a severe knee injury, and was out almost an entire season. William’s knee was definitely a constant setback for him. There were innumerable times in the documentary when he was playing and his knee would give out. The frustration of not having the same capabilities made William desire to conclude his basketball career. William not only faced pressure from his coach, but as well as his family. The family was relying on him to achieve basketball professionally, and support the family financially. The leading reason why he began to give up was due to the fact that there were such high expectations for him, and he didn’t want to let anyone down. I remember a situation in the documentary when he was talking about how people back home were talking about when he would play professionally to not forget anybody, but he expressed that he hopes they don’t forget him when he doesn’t
Basketball is a chart-topping sport that is loved by many fans. It’s been a hit since 1891 when it began, starting in Springfield, Massachusetts. It grew rapidly in popularity and spread around the world. Many people found it comforting to play, such as Pat Conroy. Pat Conroy was an outstanding basketball player, who was committed in going far with his teammates. Although he seemed superb, he had a troubled life growing up at his family home. His parents were abusive and uncaring towards him, therefore he used basketball as an alternative. In My Losing Season, Pat was able to obliterate the thought of his abusive parents. His comfort was playing basketball with a team he will never fail to remember. The outcomes Pat acquired were admirable,
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 Black male basketball athletes, that the value of education appear to be less important in the development of these young men, “According to Sailes (1997), there is an over-representation of Black males in particular sports and an under-representation in other segments of American society. He provides the example of percentages of Black males competing in the NBA (77%), NFL (65%), MLB (15%), and MLS (16%) in comparison to the fact that fewer than 2% of doctors, lawyers, architects, college professors, or business executives are Black males.”, (Robinson, 2004:1). The idea of the attainment of a professional basketball player’s salary in the NBA, without even having to go to school for the time it takes to earn a degree is very appealing to some players. Those with a wealthy, or even upper-middle class upbringing may not view material assets as a priority. In the Black community, we have theorized that money and success play a more important role than education in most households. Although these two seem to go together, one resulting from the other, this does not apply in the sports world. Our research will examine the role that the family value system plays in influencing Black vs. White male athletes to turn professional, as opposed to obtaining a college degree before turning professional.
For example, a header in soccer is when the player redirects the ball with their forehead, by taking it out of the air, to pass, or to shoot. With all the concussion prevention and media that has been centered on the NFL recently, the spotlight has turned over to soccer.
In sports, there is no shortage of black success stories. Meanwhile, two black men of prominence in Odessa (who are not athletes) fell from grace. Willie Hammond Jr. (the first black city councilor and county commissioner) and Laurence Hurd (a minister and desegregation supporter) were glimmers of hope for the black community that were both snuffed out. Hammond was arrested on charges of arson conspiracy and perjury and Hurd is in prison for burglary and robbery, leaving a hole in the morale of the black community that was not repaired. These losses, combined the with negative news of black people circulated via media, made the possibility of succeeding in a white man’s world inconceivable. Yet, there is no shortage of black success stories in sports, like Michael Jordan and Bo Jackson; in every area that is not a “rich man’s sport”, black athletes dominate. To the poor children on the Southside, there is something very alluring about the “Cinderella stories” of men from poor black neighborhoods rising to prominence through sports. Based on these examples, there seem to only be two paths for a black teen to take: criminal or athlete. Many of these teens aspire to be sports stars and depend on nothing else because there is nothing else. Some may become the superstars they hope to be or they fall into ruin as Boobie Miles, Derric Evans, and Gary Edwards
football field not knowing how serious there injuries are. The return to play policy helps protect
“African Americans have just as amount of chance of becoming a professional athlete as he or she winning the lottery”. This so called goal of theirs is unrealistic and is highly impossible. There are so many sports athletes but majority of them are of a different c...
Wiggins, David Kenneth, and Patrick B. Miller. 2003. The unlevel playing field: a documentary history of the African American experience in sport. Urbana: University of Illinois Press
When it comes to physical contact sports, there are two categories, collision sports and tackling sports. American football, ice hockey, lacrosse, boxing, and many more are considered collision sports. Tackling sports would consider rugby, Gaelic football, Australian rules football, and even soccer as some of the world’s tackling sports. A collision sport is way more dangerous than a tackling one. For example, in a football game, it is pretty typical to see players lose their helmet’s, ripped out of their jersey’s, and be taken off the field by ambulance. Reason being is because nowadays players feel like they are Iron Man...
Korfball is a co-ed sport similar to basketball, except it is typically played on a large, grassy field. The game is fairly simple. You score when you throw the ball through the other team's basket, which is on a post about 11 ½ feet high. After two goals the teams change zones: the defenders become attackers and attackers defenders. At half time the teams change ends. It mat sound a lot like basketball, but there are a couple of major twists.
for netball a person will run from the back line of the court to the
Rugby is a sport that was invented in Europe supposedly as a spinoff in soccer supposedly in 1823, but had yet to develop into a full-fledged sport in 1871. In 19th century soccer (here forth referred to properly as football) players were allowed to pick up the ball and free kick it, which in Rugby is referred to as a dropkick. As time passed many variations of football and rugby traveled across the European/Asian region until they distinguished themselves as different sports and established specific rules that correspond to each. This sport is very clearly a terrific example of a cause and effect situation, from the reasons behind its origin to everyday games it is the perfect real world example. To this day Rugby continues to attract many viewers due to its fast pace, various options for scoring, and violence, and due to this, it is one of the most enjoyable games to watch.