Interview With Marc Roche
Q: What have you noticed about gender and participation in athletics? What gender plays sports more often or are they equal? Why do you think it's like that?
A: I think that males naturally want to play sports more, it's almost a little bit more in their nature to be competitive, girls can be competitive too, just it seems on tryout day boys tend to show up more even if the sports are the same such as basketball.
Q: Do you think people with high self esteem can have low self esteem in a sporting environment?
A: Depends on the sport and how supportive the team is, if you aren't as good at sports you could lack confidence in it but not in everyday life. It can also work vise versa.
Q: Do you think males or females with low self-esteems are more likely to participate in athletics? Why?
A: I think females are more likely to participate in sports if they have low self esteems. Boys walk into it intimidated by the other male players and the competitiveness. Girls may be drawing self esteem from being in a group at all.
Q:Do some males or females feel a need to play sports to feel popular or feel like they are supposed to because of culture
A: Both genders play to be popular. Boys play to be popular, it is prevalent in both though. There is more pressure on boys, peer influence, parents can have a double standard and want their boys to play sports. Small schools try to get you to play as many sports as they can because they don't have as much competition, but large schools are more competitive and have more one sport athletes.
Q: What have you noticed about race and participation in athletics? Do certain races feel more comfortable participation. Why?
A: Schools with high diversity have less of a problem, but it schools shifted towards one race more than others in population will see the same shift in their athletic population.
Q:How do you think sports coaches and teams should help make minorities feel involved
A: Minorities playing sports can help their self-esteem once you get involved. Things like race should be forgotten about in sports. In the true concept of a team, race doesn't become an issue and it becomes a family atmosphere.
Q: What have you noticed about economic status and who participates in sports most? Why do you think it's like that?
A: In particular sports money is essential to playing the sport. Tennis, golf, and lacrosse are a few among others. Higher socio-economic status correlates with success, in Oregon we see schools with a lot of money, such as Lake Oswego, Jesuit, Sunset, parents have money to send kids to camps and extra things to help make them better. Higher socio-economic status influences opportunity.
Q:How is the participation in athletics of people of both genders difference than when you were a kid? Why?
A: There has been a huge effort to get it more equal, woman sports have taken off such as Title 9, which forces schools to give people of different genders equal opportunities, which helps make it more acceptable for females to participate.
Q:How is the participation in athletics of people of different races different than when you were a kid? Why?
A:I don't feel like race has changed much in who participates. Some sports have to do with interest, it can blend with socioeconomic status. Hard to get new people in.
Q: How is the participation of people of different economic status different than when you were a kid? Why?
A: I feel like their is more opportunities that cost a lot of money making it harder for people with socio-economic status but there are more fundraisers and scholarships, but people with higher economic status have more opportunities
A: I think that males naturally want to play sports more, it's almost a little bit more in their nature to be competitive, girls can be competitive too, just it seems on tryout day boys tend to show up more even if the sports are the same such as basketball.
Q: Do you think people with high self esteem can have low self esteem in a sporting environment?
A: Depends on the sport and how supportive the team is, if you aren't as good at sports you could lack confidence in it but not in everyday life. It can also work vise versa.
Q: Do you think males or females with low self-esteems are more likely to participate in athletics? Why?
A: I think females are more likely to participate in sports if they have low self esteems. Boys walk into it intimidated by the other male players and the competitiveness. Girls may be drawing self esteem from being in a group at all.
Q:Do some males or females feel a need to play sports to feel popular or feel like they are supposed to because of culture
A: Both genders play to be popular. Boys play to be popular, it is prevalent in both though. There is more pressure on boys, peer influence, parents can have a double standard and want their boys to play sports. Small schools try to get you to play as many sports as they can because they don't have as much competition, but large schools are more competitive and have more one sport athletes.
Q: What have you noticed about race and participation in athletics? Do certain races feel more comfortable participation. Why?
A: Schools with high diversity have less of a problem, but it schools shifted towards one race more than others in population will see the same shift in their athletic population.
Q:How do you think sports coaches and teams should help make minorities feel involved
A: Minorities playing sports can help their self-esteem once you get involved. Things like race should be forgotten about in sports. In the true concept of a team, race doesn't become an issue and it becomes a family atmosphere.
Q: What have you noticed about economic status and who participates in sports most? Why do you think it's like that?
A: In particular sports money is essential to playing the sport. Tennis, golf, and lacrosse are a few among others. Higher socio-economic status correlates with success, in Oregon we see schools with a lot of money, such as Lake Oswego, Jesuit, Sunset, parents have money to send kids to camps and extra things to help make them better. Higher socio-economic status influences opportunity.
Q:How is the participation in athletics of people of both genders difference than when you were a kid? Why?
A: There has been a huge effort to get it more equal, woman sports have taken off such as Title 9, which forces schools to give people of different genders equal opportunities, which helps make it more acceptable for females to participate.
Q:How is the participation in athletics of people of different races different than when you were a kid? Why?
A:I don't feel like race has changed much in who participates. Some sports have to do with interest, it can blend with socioeconomic status. Hard to get new people in.
Q: How is the participation of people of different economic status different than when you were a kid? Why?
A: I feel like their is more opportunities that cost a lot of money making it harder for people with socio-economic status but there are more fundraisers and scholarships, but people with higher economic status have more opportunities
Conclusions
Me and my old coach talked about some social factors that exist in the world of high school athletics, looking into the reasons people play sports and what self=esteem and popularity have to do with it. We also talked about how gender race and socio-economic status plays a role in participation in athletics at an early age. Out of the three we concluded that socio-economic status is probably one of the biggest things that hurts students chances at getting into sports. We also concluded that race probably has a correlation with socioeconomic status. He also told me that a lot has changed since he was a child and that there have been many measures to help get people who are unfortunate into the athletic family. When he was a child a lot of these things weren't in effect and he thinks that there has been a lot of progress. There is still more needing to be done and their is still a very high level of acceptance and as Roche likes to call it a family attitude that has to be kept. He feels like the group you have in your athletic program should be very tight but they need to be open to new individuals and accepting of all of the other teammates differences and quirks. You can learn a lot from all different types of people and in sports one of the best things you can do is learn about other walks of life and learn about yourself.