Research Questions

How did cheer start to get so competitive? Has it always been like that? Who was the founder of Varisty sport and why did he start it? Was cheer leading always "not a sport"? Did cheer leading only us to be for just girls? Why are the rules for stunting getting less strict if it's making it less safe? What is the salary of a judge at worlds?

Billion Dollar Ball 1 of 3

Billion Dollar Ball by Gil Gaul examines the economics and culture about the NCAA, discussing how in the last decade sports programs have overtaken universities, where sports are more important than education. He describes in depth the extraordinary financial model that supports college football and the effect it has had not only on other athletic programs but on academic ones as well. What are the consequences when college football coaches are the highest paid public employees in over half the states in an economically troubled country, or when football players at some schools receive ten times the amount of scholarship awards that academically gifted students do? Gil Gaul will be attending my school May 5th. Some questions I'd like to ask him are: 

What made you get intrigued into this topic?

Was it difficult to get all the facts?

Did you play a college sport?

How do positive reviews make you feel?

How do negative reviews make you feel?

What is your motive of what you want people to get after reading the book?

Would you change anything about the book now if you could?

How long did it take you to write it?

Did you think it was going to get as noticed as it did?

Sole Man

Recently my class watched a movie called Sole Man. Its based on how John Paul Vaccaro, also known as Sonny rose from humble Pennsylvania roots to become the most valuable marketing asset in the $13 billion athletic shoe industry. He signed Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, and launched Nike's "Air Jordan" empire in the 1980s. Sonny brought the sneaker industry and basketball together. The basketball-sneaker business has grown into a $3 billion industry. Not only did he do that but helped Ed O'Bannon and his lawsuit against the NCAA, which they ended up winning. "It became a running joke among our production team that Sonny is the real-life "Forrest Gump" of basketball." The producer stated that in one of his articles. After watching the film I was a little shocked I've never seen Sonny's name come up on any social media.

North Carolina Tar Heels beat Syracuse Orange and Villanova Wildcats beat Oklahoma Sooners for the final four this Saturday. North Carolina Tar Heels will play Villanova Wildcats tonight. There are many people saying UNC and Syracuse have been cheating. "The shock that goes hand-in-hand with the UNC story is attached to the length of time and the number of people affected, not the fact that star athletes were being given grades they didn't earn. These types of stories are nothing new, especially when it comes to college basketball. In the past two decades, Florida State, Minnesota, Georgia and Purdue have all seen their hoops programs hit with significant penalties after findings of academic misconduct." Says Mike Rutherford. Should these teams be playing at stadiums like the ones that they are is there is going to controversy over the way they play. They'll be playing at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas. Tickets are being sold for a little over 10,000 on some websites. Also, other basketball teams have had this type of controversy as well and could not participate because of it but other teams don't end up getting mistreated.  Is it fair that teams have allegations going on about them yet they still get the experience to play at places like this?

Mission Statement

If I was in charge of a youth cheer leading team my goal would be to make sure every child is having fun. The last thing I would want to do is ruin the sport for them. I have seen that happen and it's even happened to me before when the coach ruins it all for the athlete. With the whole losing and winning, I would not scream and act crazy if they lost. Competitions for youth cheer leading can tend to have a lot of tears to begin with, so I would not want to make them worse. The fundamental of the the team would be for the girls to learn how to "catch" one an other. In cheer leading the big central importance is for no one to hit the ground, so by a coach saying "catch" each other the girls could also use that in other ways. Like making sure you have each others backs.
For my rules with coaches I would have to find coaches that have the same mindset as me. Also no one wants a creepy coach for youth sports so I would have them fill out paper work and have to have an interview with them. As for the kids, it would have to be an all girls team. Boys can cheer but I think it would be to much to handle because in cheer leading, the bigger the team is, the better. If I ended up having a big group of girls that's already enough to handle. I would also have to set a certain list of requirements for tumbling, flying, and previous experience in cheer leading for the girls. And as for the parents, the louder the parents cheer with us the better. Usually in other sports parents get in trouble for being too loud, but not in cheer. At competitions if parents cheer with the team the judges enjoy that. Just obviously no negative comments.

Female Journalism

Erin Andrews has a $55 million in her civil lawsuit over the secret recording and release of a video showing her naked in her hotel room. Michael David Barrett is the stalker who used a hacksaw to create a peephole into Andrew's room and recorded the video and photos in 2008. West End Hotel Partners, which owns and operates that Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt University, was found to be 49 percent at fault and asked to pay out more than $26 million.
"Sports media as we know has not always existed. Modern-day sports journalism evolved with American social trends and profit-hungry business people that changed the shape of news in general." (Malone) Around the 1850s upper class people viewed sports as a vulgar hobby. Obviously that has evolved. Baseball was the first sport to rise around 1885.
Female journalist are not treated how they should be. In class yesterday we would type in a female sports journalists name on google and the second or third search would be things like "hot" "body" "legs" It was very strange and isn't right. If I knew someone was searching up my legs or body I would feel very uncomfortable.
Sports journalist make a huge help in finding our news about sports, but for the future of them I think female sports journalist will decrease. Seeing the way they get treated by athletes and even just regular people, like Erin Andrews, its not right and they should not have to deal with it.

Curt Shilling and Yuri Wright

Today, March 7th CHS had a presentation. The presenter mentioned Curt Shilling and Yuri Wright. Curt Shilling's daughter, Gabby Shilling, began receiving vulgar attacks on Twitter. The things that were said were very unnecessary and uncalled for. So as any good father would do, he reported the men. Curt says, "Not one of these gutless clowns would even think of saying a word of ANY of this in person." in his post on this situation, https://38pitches.wordpress.com/2015/03/01/the-world-we-live-in-man-has-it-changed/ As for Yuri Wright he had full ride to Michigan Sate University for football and ruined by tweeting stupid remarks. Just a stupid mistake like that can ruin someones life, as it did to him.

Tennessee Mishandling Assault

A complaint filed late February stating former Tennessee football player Drae Bowles assisted a woman who said she had been raped by two other players and later he was attacked by teammates and told by coach Butch Jones he had "betrayed the team." I think this should definitely have an impact on the coach. Him trying to hide the situation is only going to cause more problems. One being, the victim has now filed a lawsuit to Tennessee stating they violated Title IX regulations and created a "hostile sexual environment" through a policy of indifference toward assaults by athletes. That suit now includes eight unidentified women as plaintiffs. Clearly more athletes are going to think this isn't a big deal and are going to keep doing it. Especially football players, if their coach is defending them.

The Hunting Ground

In class we recently watched the movie called The Hunting Ground. It's about sexual assault on college campus's. As I watched, it gave me a different look toward colleges. The way they react to the victims of sexual assault is crazy. It's as if the schools try and blame it on person who has been raped. In the movie a UNC's administrator said to a victim, "Rape is like a football game. If you look back on the game, what would you do differently?" The thing that surprised me most was they were all big and most of them were ivy league schools. For example, UNC, Occidental, Swarthmore, Harvard, Amherst College, Notre Dame, University of Tulsa and more. Another thing that shocked me was the way the movie talked about fraternities and athletes, especially Sigma Alpha Epsilon, which in the movie they said they are known as being called sexual assault expected. I think Andrea Pino and Annie Clark are going to end up doing helpful things with their Title IX complaint.
Moira Macdonald from The Seattle Times wrote a review titled "Hunting Ground' tackles harrowing topic of campus rape". Her review was very well said, explaining how the film was "important but devastating." She also agrees that colleges are "turning a blind eye to reports of sexual assault by athletes, in order to protect the team’s winning record" which after watching the movie I hope anyone would. Macdonald says, "But, within the ire and the pain, there’s hope." and  I agree with her.
Thomas Lee has a different opinion. He wrote an article called "Review: 'The Hunting Ground’ squanders its powerful story." He says the movie is "Worthy stuff, but again, way too much." I'd have to disagree. I thought it could have had more because I wanted to keep watching. He also says "He devotes precious minutes at the start of the movie to an overly long sequence of students reacting with joy to college acceptance offers." He thought that wasted time, but I thought it was a great way to open up because it shows how excited people really are to get accepted to college and than everything can just get crushed so fast.

Sexual Assault in Cheerleading

In Kill Devil Hills,  North Carolina a cheerleading coach was arrested for alleged sexual assault in minors. Russell Scherer, 39, was arrested for five counts taking indecent liberties with children and one count of statutory sexual offense by an adult. The six counts are for crimes against three different minors, but detectives believe that there could be more children involved. Detectives are taking this seriously because Scherer has been in contact with so many children. As I was researching it kept saying stuff like "Investigators are now asking parents and guardians of children taught by 39-year-old Russell Sherer to speak with them about their interactions with him." Also in every article I saw it listed the places that he worked at. People also said that he was a very well-rounded person so the community was shocked about his arrest.

Sexual Assault in Atheletes

Now-a-days it's becoming more known of athletes being accused of sexual assault. Peyton Manning is a big case, especially after winning the Superbowl. Jamie Naughright, University of Tennessee's athletic trainer, has been a victim of many incidents. She eventually left the University of Tennessee after settling a sexual harassment lawsuit with the school in 1997. The lawsuit was settled for $300,000. In 1996 she complaint listed 27 examples of harassment and and discrimination but that number grew to 33. Those complaints cover her time that she was there, from 1994-1996. After reading about what Naughright had to say I do not think women should have this position. Some of the comments the men made were clearly uncomfortable. Women should work with women. It would decrease the chance of being a victim of sexual harassment.

NFL Halftime Show

During this years NFL Superbowl, Beyonce, Bruno Mars, and Coldplay performed at halftime. Coldplay came out singing Viva La Vida along with Paradise, Adventure of a Lifetime, and also ended the show with Fix You. Bruno Mars came out singing Uptown Funk and Beyonce performed her new single called Formation. Beyonce's performace caught the most attention.
Beyonce's new single Formation was released one day after what would have been Trayvon Martin’s 21st birthday and one day before what would have been Sandra Bland’s 29th birthday. The song has many people talking about the political views of it and whether is should have or should not have been performed at the Superbowl. People are offended for different reasons like, the fact that it was performed during the halftime show with millions of people watching, the reputation it gave the law enforcement, and the whole "Black Panther" theme she had planned. As I watched the Superbowl I was not paying attention to her lyrics, I was paying more attention to her dancing and the dancers. I think there was to much going on to see what she was really trying to do and I had no idea that's what her intentions were. It probably was not that best decision to perform it at the Superbowl, but I give her a lot of credit for not caring what other people were going to think.

Cheerleaders "Superbowl"

A cheerleader would consider their competitions as their "Superbowl". Once it comes down to the last two teams they do not get four different 15 minute quarters to show the judges what they got. Their team has about two and a half minutes to either make it or break it and one little mistake can ruin it all. The refs in football sort of remind me of the judges in cheer leading. They have to make sure no rules were broken and see what team has done better. Another thing that the football Superbowl and cheerleaders competition have in common is the way they are put into teams, by age and difficulty level. The difficulty levels go from 1-6, 6 being the hardest. Although there are cheerleaders at the Superbowl, those are the NFL cheer leaders and they are non-competitive. The biggest competition that competitive cheerleaders would call their "Superbowl" would be the UCA Nationals. They are split up into three divisions by age and difficulty. UCA stands for Universal Cheer Associations, it's the biggest competition in the nation. Its held in Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida and is televised on ESPN.