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Reflective essays on leadership in sports
Argue the different leadership styles in sports
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In a little town called Odessa, Texas, football is the center of the universe. In a town full of old fashioned texan depression and discrimination, there is one thing that brings them all together: Permian High School Friday night football. In Buzz Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights; Odessa Texas is transformed on Friday nights to a football paradise. Permian’s star full back James Miles is hit with the reality of no longer being the star, when more advanced athletes transfer to Permian for the 1988 season. Don Billingsly, who was the starting tailback, struggled for a short period of time in practice, resulting in another player named Chris Comer taking his spot. After his spot was taken, Billingsly went at Comer with racial slurs and pressure, trying to get him to quit the team. Gary Gains, the legendary coach of Permian, showed his leadership qualities and faith in his players when his quarterback Mike Winchell was lacking confidence in his abilities to lead the program to victory. With all eyes on Gains during the 1988 season, the pressure to bring the Panthers to a state championship was at …show more content…
He spends months with the Permian Panthers, going to their games and practices, having conversations with the team and coaches with the intention of figuring out the social environment. Sitting in on team meetings, Bissinger realizes that there is one goal in mind: win a state championship. Not only does he look at the team, but he also studies the town of Odessa itself; including the discrimination, racism, violence, and the oil company. Throughout the whole season, the team battles through adversity, including the tragedy of losing their best player to a life changing injury. With the pressure of the whole town weighing on a bunch of high school athletes, the weight of a win over the rest of the state is at an all time
In the book Friday Night Lights by author H.G Bissinger, there are various themes circulating around, However, the theme of racism overwhelms the majority and provides sufficient insight into the social hierarchy and social structure of the town of Odessa, Texas. The book overlooks a group of high school students dedicated to playing football and their struggle with identity, culture, and race. Race not only affects social problems within the book but also psychological, economic and political. Friday Night Lights compares the tensions between the black and white players and the community as a whole, who idolize the game, proving that a single high school football team can shape an entire town. Bissinger uses the racism
In Friday Night Lights, Bissinger follows Permian’s high school football team. He is able to gain an understanding of the towns social components, and in the novel he analyzes the incompetence of the adults when making decision for their children, the bitter racism and unhealthy emphasis on the success of the football team. The author often compares Permian to a variety of schools and highlights the disproportionate emphasis on football and touches upon the vanity of the entire events. All in all, Bissinger is able to effectively show the reader the real Odessa.
A message that really explains the movie in a sentence is every human is not perfect and each human has their own personal struggles that they will try to overcome. Boobie Miles thought he was perfect and he actually put a curse on himself and got injured right at the beginning.The primary theme in the film is the Underdogs don’t always win. We thought because they were underdogs they were going to win but they ended up losing. They still did put up a great fight. Some other themes are the impact of adults’ hopes and goals lived vicariously through their children. The most important theme of the novel involves the impact of adults’ hopes and goals lived vicariously through their children. The people of Odessa place an unmistaken spell on the shoulders of their sons to be champions every year so that the adults can take the triumph as their own. The result is that their children can never leave their triumphs and defeats of that short time behind. It follows them no matter what they make of their lives, and it is unfair that they must do so. The last important theme is that of misplaced priorities. The people of Odessa wouldn’t accept the fact that their obsession with football was impacting on the educational success of their children. Their need to have a winning season affected class time, homework, tests, and even whether school
The family soon realizes that the housing development where they are to attend is not perfect due to mistakes in the county's civil engineering department. There are also problems at the school, and when several of the portable buildings used for classrooms fall into a sinkhole, Paul has the change to transfer to another school - Tangerine Middle School. He manages to avoid telling them that he is legally blind and is accepted as a member of the soccer team. Meanwhile, Paul's father is wrapped up in what Paul calls the Erik Fisher Football Dream. Everything revolves around Erik's football schedule
Is High School football a sport, or is it more than that to some people? Recent newspaper headlines include such items as coaches abusing student athletes; fathers of athletes murdering coaches, and mother’s disabilitating cheerleading candidates to assure their daughters make the cheerleading team. In Odessa, Texas high school football is a major contributor to the society of a small town in Texas society. Every Friday night, 50,000 people fill the stadium to see high school students put their lives on the line to win a football game. H. G. Bissinger writes a novel called Friday Night Lights, about a year in 1988 where High School players prepare and play on the High School team, and what an impact they have on a small city in Texas.
The town of Odessa in Friday Night Lights also contained racial segregation issues, especially when Permian High was an all white school before black players could attend. Especially, Don Billingsley’s family that abhor to the idea of putting black players into the football team. Don, in particular, felt a lot of resentment towards Boobie Miles and Chris Comer because they “stole” his position on the football field and he felt that they were receiving better treatments from the coaches.
Friday Night Lights is a film directed by Peter Berge, which is based on a book written by H.G. Bissinger. Based on a true story of the Permian Panthers throughout their 1988 football season as they make a run towards the state championship. Focusing on some of the football players, the film showed the different challenges each endured throughout their lives. Every player has his own life, but the center of it is football At that time, Odessa, Texas was suffering from racism and many economic challenges, such as racism, segregation, and poverty. Poverty and segregation among student athletes are common still today, the purpose of this paper show that even though most face those challenges they can still overcome them. Football is the only thing that brings the town
The citizens in the small town of Odessa, Texas live for high school football. Most of their attention and resources are poured into this extracurricular activity, resulting in numerous drawbacks. To discover more about this phenomenon, H. G. Bissinger incorporates himself into the Odessa lifestyle and comes to the conclusion that focusing this much energy on football greatly affects the students academically, physically, and mentally. In a town so captivated by sports, this news could invoke disbelief and outrage, but Bissinger prevents this by using strategies to lessen the blow of his argument. Bissinger sympathizes with the citizens of Odessa and presents himself as a qualified and unbiased author as well as employs devices such as tone
Bissinger serves as the narrator who expresses his first-hand experiences with the Permian Panthers during the 1988 football season. As an outsider new to the town and legacy of Permian football, Bissinger's goal is mainly to understand the events and the emotions brought about by a painful season. Bissinger's careful attention the organizational structure of the book shows his attention to detail and his dedication. The author begins with explaining his motivation for moving to Odessa, Texas and follows by placing the reader at the conclusion of a complicated season that ended with a devastating loss to Permian's arch rival, Midland Lee. The story then uses flashback, a literary technique which takes the reader back in time and shows material that happened prior to the present event, providing the reader with insight into a character's motivation.
The Permian High School Panthers were supported by the entire Odessa community including a non-listening booster club whose social exchange theory truly only benefited one side, keeping Coach Gaines in constant turmoil, not only with the town and boosters but with his team as well. While overusing Boobie in the first game, where Permian had a large lead on the opposing team Boobie gets hurt. With a torn ACL and out for the season, Coach Gaines and the entire community’s self-fulfilling prophecy that the team cannot win without Boobie, starts to unfold. In the second game, Winchell struggles with mixed emotions and conflict preventing him from holding his team together ultimately leading to a loss. Coach
Almost everyone in the United States loves college football on Saturdays especially down in the south. There are many rivalries that have transpired and some bigger than others. One of the rivalries is the “World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party” that features S.E.C East powerhouses, the Florida Gators and Georgia Bulldogs. This rivalry started back in the early 1900’s that wasn’t moved to Jacksonville, Florida until 1933, and the nickname for the series was not coined until the early 1950’s. Both of these teams are very different from each other, and always have been since they have started playing each other. Florida and Georgia differ in various ways including coaching, playing styles, and player types that make them perfect rivals in college football.
There is no innocence in any sport especially when it comes to football in Odessa. As thousands of fans gather to Odessa’s pride and glory- the Permian football team-, many of the players feel the heat. Football and all other sports for the matter are majorly competitive and quite physical. For instance, while used-to-be-all-star famous player “Boobie” Miles was playing a scrimmage game, his pride and cockiness got in the way. He wanted more; therefore, he got more… Boobie ended up horribly hurting his knee (56). Sports are dangerous and when one’s ego gets in the way, bad things will happen. Moreover, there is nothing innocent about “playing with a broken ankle… playing with broken hands… receiving a shot of Novocaine… or popping pain killers and getting shots of Valium” (44). According, to Bissinger playing for Permian meant suffering in the beginning to the end in order to win. When fans look out at the field, they do not even know a quarter of the amount of hard work and stress those boys have gone through and needed to go through. Fans and Spectators see a mere “illusion” of what is being performed out on the
Football has brought a much needed life to Odessa, the Permian Panthers have put Odessa on the
I have the freedom to game in America. My favorite game is Midnight Club. First, I raced Trevor in my favorite race “Welcome to Hollywood”. I like Trevor because he is a guy with shades. In America, I have gaming choices and the freedom to participate in gaming interests.
Madden, John. Heroes of Football The Story of America’s Game. New York: Dutton Children’s Books, 2006. Print.