How College Athletics Are Hurting Girls' Sports

How College Athletics Are Hurting Girls' Sports
Author: Rick Eckstein
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2017-03-09
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1442266295

More girls are playing sports than ever before—which, on the surface, is great for girls because sports offer positive and empowering fun for young women. In reality, though, few young athletes report “fun” as a reason they play sports. The rates of concussions and repetitive use injuries are on the rise, and kids are encouraged to specialize in a single sport at earlier and earlier ages, spending much of their free time throughout the year dedicated to the pursuit of a single sport at the expense of friends, other activities, and sometimes, health. Alarmed by the stories he heard from young athletes in his classes, sports scholar Rick Eckstein set out to investigate youth sports—why young people are playing them, how they have changed over time, and their impact on kids and families. Through three years of extensive research, including surveys, interviews, and more, Eckstein discovered that college athletics are having an alarming impact on youth sports, particularly for girls. How College Athletics Are Hurting Girls' Sports looks closely at college sports and how they shape the athletic—and personal—landscape for girls and young women. Filled with powerful interview excerpts from women athletes of all ages, as well as coaches, league officials, and others, the book chronicles how college and youth sports have become more commercialized, to the detriment of participants. The book looks at a range of sports, with case studies including soccer, field hockey, ice hockey, figure skating, and Ultimate Frisbee. The author celebrates sports’ potential to have a positive impact on a girl’s life, but he recommends changes in how college and youth athletics are structured to improve the experience of young athletes and to give them their childhood back.

How College Athletics Are Hurting Girls' Sports

How College Athletics Are Hurting Girls' Sports
Author: Rick Eckstein
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2023-02-08
Genre:
ISBN: 1538177587

Featuring a new preface by the author, this book looks closely at college sports and how they shape the athletic and personal landscape for girls and young women. Filled with interviews from female athletes of all ages, this book chronicles how college and youth sports have become more corporate, to the detriment of participants.

Just Universities

Just Universities
Author: Gerald J Beyer
Publisher: Fordham University Press
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2021-02-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0823289982

“Brings to the new field of university ethics the case of the Catholic Colleges and Universities. . . . [A] compelling plea to make mission drive the model.” —James F. Keenan, S.J., author of University Ethics: How Colleges Can Build and Benefit from a Culture of Ethics Gerald J. Beyer’s Just Universities discusses ways that U.S. Catholic institutions of higher education have embodied or failed to embody Catholic social teaching in their campus policies and practices. Beyer argues that the corporatization of the university has infected U.S. higher education with hyper-individualistic models and practices that hinder the ability of Catholic institutions to create an environment imbued with bedrock values and principles of Catholic Social Teaching such as respect for human rights, solidarity, and justice. Beyer problematizes corporatized higher education and shows how it has adversely affected efforts at Catholic schools to promote worker justice on campus; equitable admissions; financial aid; retention policies; diversity and inclusion policies that treat people of color, women, and LGBTQ persons as full community members; just investment; and stewardship of resources and the environment. “[C]ompelling...inspirational in its call to action.---Adrianna Kezar, Wilbur Kieffer Endowed Professor and Dean's Professor of Leadership, University of Southern California, Director of the Pullias Center (pullias.usc.edu), and Director of the Delphi Project “A remarkable analysis. . . . Higher education should be most grateful for Beyer’s contribution.” —James A. Donahue, President of St. Mary’s College of California [A] pioneering, much-needed book. . . . essential reading for anyone interested in university ethics and religious higher education.” ―Anglican Theological Review “Sure to become a seminal text for future research and discussions on this topic. . . . Highly Recommended.” —Choice

Stand Up and Shout Out

Stand Up and Shout Out
Author: Joan Steidinger
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2020-03-11
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1538125986

Today, women have greater opportunities to participate in sport than ever before, particularly due to the passage of Title IX in 1972. Yet, despite all this growth, women still struggle to hold leadership positions, become coaches of both girls and boys teams, receive equal pay, and get even adequate coverage in the media. In Stand Up and Shout Out: Women's Fight for Equality in Sports, Joan Steidinger explores the three crucial areas in sport that remain huge concerns for women: leadership, money, and media. Steidinger looks at the number of ways in which women experience vast inequalities by examining topics such as the politics of sport, sexual assault, the #MeToo movement, pay equity, women in coaching positions, and the experiences of women of color and LGBTQ athletes. Interviews with leading authorities in the field and prominent female athletes are interwoven throughout to add both expert and personal perspectives to the conversation. Stand Up and Shout Out does more than justinform readers about these important issues; its purpose is to create enlightened discussions around the unequal treatment of women and present readers with “action steps” so we can all become active contributors toward improving this situation. This is an ideal time to fight for women’s equality in sport, as it draws attention to the growing need for advocacy for girls and women around the world in all areas of life.

The Athlete's Covenant

The Athlete's Covenant
Author: Suzanne Stefanowski Hudd
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 219
Release: 2019-12-09
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1498583997

Using everyday sporting experiences as a foundation, Suzanne Stefanowski Hudd lays out a set of informal rules that athletic team members learn to uphold. Prescribed within the “athlete’s covenant,” these guidelines support the transformation of the player’s individual commitment to hard work into a set of collective, role-related obligations that are applicable across time and sport. Hudd’s analysis highlights sportsmanship as it is practiced daily, flowing naturally from the mimicry and synchrony that players routinely use to perfect their talents. Working to turn star players into team players, the covenant encourages athletes to set their sights on goals that surpass what their individual talents alone can provide. Hudd theorizes our waning commitment to these important collectivistic properties of sport has contributed to the belief that sportsmanship is a thing of the past.

The Rebounders

The Rebounders
Author: Amanda Ottaway
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2018-03-01
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1496205871

Unlike the stories of most visible Division I college athletes, Amanda Ottaway's story has more in common with those of the 80 percent of college athletes who are never seen on TV. The Rebounders follows the college career of an average NCAA Division I women's basketball player in the twenty-first century, beginning with the recruiting process when Ottaway is an eager, naive teenager and ending when she's a more contemplative twentysomething alumna. Ottaway's story, along with the journeys of her dynamic Wildcat teammates at Davidson College in North Carolina, covers in engaging detail the life of a mid-major athlete: recruitment, the preseason, body image and eating disorders, schoolwork, family relationships, practice, love life, team travel, game day, injuries, drug and alcohol use, coaching changes, and what comes after the very last game. In addition to the everyday issues of being a student athlete, The Rebounders also covers the objectification of female athletes, race, sexuality, and self-expression. Most college athletes, famous or not, play hard, get hurt, fail, and triumph together in a profound love of their sport and one another, and then their careers end and they figure out how to move on. From concussions and minor injuries to classrooms, parties, and relationships, Ottaway understands the experience of a Division I women's basketball player firsthand. The Rebounders is, at its core, a feminist coming-of-age story, an exploration of what it means to be a young woman who loves a sport and is on a course of self-discovery through that medium.

Sporting Gender

Sporting Gender
Author: Joanna Harper
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2019-12-03
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1538112973

The Tokyo Olympic Games are likely to feature the first transgender athlete, a topic that will be highly contentious during the competition. But transgender and intersex athletes such as Laurel Hubbard, Tifanny Abreu, and Caster Semenya didn’t just turn up overnight. Both intersex and transgender athletes have been newsworthy stories for decades. In Sporting Gender: The History, Science, and Stories of Transgender and Intersex Athletes, Joanna Harper provides an in-depth examination of why gender diverse athletes are so controversial. She not only delves into the history of these athletes and their personal stories, but also explains in a highly accessible manner the science behind their gender diversity and why the science is important for regulatory committees—and the general public—to consider when evaluating sports performance. Sporting Gender gives the reader a perspective that is both broad in scope and yet detailed enough to grasp the nuances that are central in understanding the controversies over intersex and transgender athletes. Featuring personal investigations from the author, who has had first-person access to some of the most significant recent developments in this complex arena, this book provides fascinating insight into sex, gender, and sports.

Learning to Win

Learning to Win
Author: Pamela Grundy
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
Total Pages: 396
Release: 2001
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 9780807849347

Explores the significance of athletics in North Carolina's colleges and universities, and examines how sports in the state have reflected social and economic shifts and issues, including women's competition and racial integration.