Mr.+Dunne

** A Pre-Game Warm-up **
 * Winter/Spring 2012 Mr. Dunne **

What do sports mean to you as an athlete and as a fan?

I almost feel like I've always loved sports, but there must have been a real trigger in 4th or 5th grade. 1975 is when I collected a full set of Topps baseball cards for the first time. It's probably the year I sent letters, with cards to be autographed, to some of my favorite baseball players (Carlton Fisk, Rod Carew, Nolan Ryan, among others). Just around then I started playing hockey, my hands-down favorite sport at least until I discovered lacrosse. And that's also about the time I went to my first professional games: a Bruins game in Pittsburgh (where I got a Bobby Orr autograph!) and a Twins-Red Sox doubleheader at Fenway in the summer of 1975. A transplanted New Englander living in Ohio, I loved the Red Sox and the Bruins as a kid. Away from home I held onto my Ohio roots by agonizing each season with the Browns and the Indians and sometimes the Cavs. Sports have always been a way to spend time with friends, playing or watching or talking. They've been a big part of family connections, playing with my brother, watching and talking with my mother, enjoying with my wife and my children. Annual "Baseball Tour" trips each of the past six years have taken my family and me to various regions of the country and have accomplished more than I'd hoped: they let us enjoy baseball, explore the country, bond, and build memories. To a great extent, that's really what sports mean to me.

What has been your experience with youth sports? Describe your best and worst experiences.

I've been a participant, a parent, and a coach. Most of the time, really, my experiences have been good. I've had struggles, I've had disappointments, I've had storybook successes after dealing with setbacks. There's an over-the-top aspect to youth sports too often. I think we spend way too much time catering to "elite" athletes and their parents instead of creating enjoyable, competitive, low-stakes and low-cost opportunities for as many kids as possible. We rank kids way too early, and we drive kids away from too many sports at too young an age. Really, my favorite times in youth sports were probably pick-up games of baseball in my extended neighborhood, games that could last for hours and hours. Football in the fall, soccer or tennis with my cousins--pretty much the same. Worst experiences? As a coach dealing with pushy parents. There haven't been many, but when it happens, it takes a lot of the fun out of the game and limits the learning experience of the kids involved.

Do athletes make good role models? Identify one or two professional athletes to make your case.

Some athletes make good role models; some are entitled, selfish, nasty people. I grew up reading books about Jackie Robinson, Lou Gehrig, Roy Campanella, and others who definitely fit into the "good role models" category. Hank Aaron, Bob Feller, Satchel Paige, and countless others belong there too. It feels harder today to identify heroes and have faith that they are more than just great athletes. Tiger Woods sort of made a mess of things that way, and free agency has meant that hometown heroes are most often impermanent. I like the Drew Brees article, for example, but a lot of it seems an issue of convenience. The coach, Sean Payton, seems to be the real magic behind the Saints. He had the faith to see what others didn't, to put together a winning program from next to nothing, and to create a game plan that could win a Super Bowl. If he can continue that tradition and stay loyal to the people who got him there, that would be something.

What sports/teams do you pay attention to the most? How much time do sports occupy in your life? How do you spend that time (attending, watching, reading, talking, participating)?

Sports are taking up less of my life these days, I think. I still really love going to games, Bruins and Patriots especially. I'll watch those on TV, too, if I have the chance. I'm watching less baseball (it's hard when the Indians don't have much of anything going); the Red Sox aren't so interesting when they're so much like the Yankees. Most of my participation these days is as a coach, which I really do enjoy. Hockey season as coach of my daughters U12 team is long, but the kids are great, the parents are great, we work hard and are improving noticeably. I've loved coaching lacrosse at Thayer, too. Kids have been responsive, driven, passionate, and fun. I wish I had the time and opportunity to play more, but my world is pretty full as it is.I grab my exercise as I can, but scheduling it based on games would be a challenge.

What sports-related issues would you be disappointed //not// to cover in this class? Why?

Race and gender are front-burner issues that would be hard to ignore. The under-the-radar topic is money and sports and especially how money influences EVERYTHING, from the professional sports on down, from the competitiveness of certain leagues to the availability of athletic options at college. Looking at how money came to be such an influential part of sports is pretty fascinating, and has all sorts of unexpected implications.