McManus

** 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 a positive way for me to release stress and just run around. I love sports because they're a great way to spend time with your family and friends, whether you're watching the games or playing in them. In my family there's all girls, so playing and watching sports has been a really great way to bond with my father. I sometimes even go golfing with him. He can get really intense and try to help or "coach" me, but even when it's annoying I love the fact that I'm able to spend time with my father through sports.

What has been your experience with youth sports? Describe your best and worst experiences. I have played sports my whole entire life. When I was younger I tried everything: swimming, dance, tennis, gymnastics, soccer, golf and basketball. When I got older (middle school) I narrowed down to just playing basketball, lacrosse and dancing. I played AAU basketball from 5th-8th grade and stopped dancing in 7th. It wasn't until 9th grade that I decided I wanted to focus more on lacrosse. When I came to Thayer, sophomore year I was lucky enough to get a great coach who helped develop my skills and love for the game of lacrosse even more. I also have coached youth sports, coaching for my club lacrosse team and for the Sharon youth teams. Coaching has been an eye opening experience, teaching me a lot about patience and learning how to communicate and be an authoritative figure. My worst sports experience would probably be swim team because I hated how many hours I was stuck in a pool. I also hated smelling like chlorine all the time and the meets were really long. Although I didn't like swimming it taught me how much I enjoy team sports. My best experience as an athlete would probably be my high school lacrosse career and that I get the chance to play at Notre Dame for college.

Do athletes make good role models? Identify one or two professional athletes to make your case. I think that this answer could either be yes or no. It really depends on who you choose to highlight and whether you just look at their professional career or personal lives as well. Athletes aren't superhero's, they make mistakes, but I think there is too much media surrounding them so whenever they make a mistake its shown on national news. To be a professional athlete you need a lot of determination, talent, and a special attitude to make it in the business. I think that the determination and work ethic some athletes have is unbelievable and should be seen as a positive force, making for a good role model. Some athletes have had to overcome really tough situations such as Lance Armstrong who has battled cancer and still continued to compete and preform as an athlete. Also, Bethany Hamilton persevered after she lost her arm in a shark attack. She stayed positive and worked really hard to get back to surfing and competing.

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 pay attention to the New England Patriots a lot. I've grown up going to games because my father has season tickets and it's something we always do as a family. I think I love learning about football because its one sport that I'll never play or try so when talking to my dad there's no pressure of trying to adapt my game in any way; I just watch and have fun. We also have season tickets to Red Sox games and I don't really like following the team, but I love going to the games because Fenway Park always makes it so much better. The last few years I started to pay more attention to Division 1 lacrosse because it is something I'm really interested in. My newest obsession is following the Notre Dame football team and although they didn't do well this season I'm hopeful for the years to come. Sports are a huge part of my life. I play 3 seasons in high school and I play on a club lacrosse team all year round. I'll be playing Division 1 lacrosse next year in college and I hope in the future I'll play for the US women's team. Every day after school I'm playing sports and on weekends I have games or am watching college or professional football games with family and friends. I don't read a lot about sports, but I'll check the newspaper occasionally, and I read sports illustrated and lacrosse magazine when I see them on the counter or in the piles of family mail.

What sports-related issues would you be disappointed //not// to cover in this class? Why? I'd really like to learn about court cases that go along with issues in college and professional sports. I think it's interesting how many rules there are and how the business side of sports works. I'm not really sure what I want to learn in class, I'm just excited to see what I learn from everything and see what interests me as we go along.