Henken

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

What do sports mean to you as an athlete and as a fan? Sports are definitely a passion for me. Although I am not much of an athlete, I follow all of the major sports with great interest. I have been playing sports all my life from soccer as a small child, to football in middle school and basketball and baseball for a couple years of high school. And although I was not particularly skilled in any of these I always played hard. I am someone who would still feel down about a loss a couple days after the game, even if there was nothing I could do about it. And when team I support lose, I feel the same way.

What has been your experience with youth sports? Describe your best and worst experiences. Most of my best or worst experiences were because of a coach. Playing JV Basketball with Mr. Cedrone was one of the better experiences I had, even though I got almost no playing time. Not only did he coach in a fun way, but he taught how to play the right way. He preached treating both the referees and the other team with respect, no matter how much we disagreed with their actions. And his high level of coaching showed with a winning season. Sadly, two of my worst experiences happened at Thayer as well. In eight grade basketball I had a coach who was completely disrespectful towards me and other players. Although it was on of my better seasons as a player, playing under that coach made it awful. Luckily he has been fired since then, but I will never forget some of the things that coach said to me. Freshman year, my baseball coach was clearly inexperienced and did not know how to coach a baseball team. Often times, if I was late for practice because of a club or if I was seeing a teacher, he would not let me warm up my arm which caused pain when I threw, the long-term effects of which I still feel when I throw.

Do athletes make good role models? Identify one or two professional athletes to make your case. I think athletes can be both good or bad role models. Any baseball player caught taking steroids over the past decade would be a bad role model. As they are people who took the easy way to greatness instead of working hard and trying to improve naturally. As for good role models I look at someone like Tom Brady, who came out of nowhere as sixth round draft pick to win three Super Bowls, and later came back from an awful knee injury and put up a couple of his best seasons ever. I also look at Lionel Messi, who despite being the best soccer player in the world, stays out of the headlines and plays with a love of the game.

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)? I avidly follow all of the local Boston teams. It would be impossible for me calculate how much time following them takes up in my life. Whether its the latest tweets from a sports writer about a team or a column in a magazine, I am almost always reading about sports. And I try to watch as much as I can, although it is hard with a busy schedule. I am lucky that my family has access to tickets for many of my favorite teams, so I also attend a lot of sporting events. Lately my love of sports has spread to a new one, soccer. I have found the same passion I have for my favorite Boston teams in the US National Soccer team.

What sports-related issues would you be disappointed //not// to cover in this class? Why? I definitely think we should cover the the link between race relations and sports. From the early integration attempts in sports such as in baseball to the stereotypes and issues African-American athletes deal with today. I would also definitely like to cover the link between war and sports, how sports have rallied America at its lowest times. As someone interested in American history and sports, the ways the two combine are very interesting to me and I hope we can cover the two examples I gave.