High School Athletes coming out of the closet

We didn't quite get to this is class due to the Internet being down but in 1999 Corey Johnson a High School linebacker and guard declared his homosexuality to the public and his teammates. What was very unusual about his story is that he did not see any ridicule or harassment from his teammates or anyone in his high school. When I read this I was in shock because like I said in class I could not imagine someone on my hockey team coming out to us of being homosexual. I feel if someone were to come out in a high school it would be very hard on them mentally. I say this because not only would they get harassment from people from their own high school but from their opponents and the opposing fans. By receiving harassment from these people I feel as if it would break them down and they would quite the sport, but that is what is the best part of Corey Johnson, he was still respected as an athlete from his teammates and school. Corey Johnson was strong because after looking up his story online he got a lot of harassment from an opposing player. Johnson said the opponent said "Faggot, we're going to kill you, you fucking homo." (excuse the language) But to me this takes a lot of guts to go out and and take this from a opponent and still have a level head to play. Overall, I feel as if the story of Corey Johnson is an amazing story how he can be so strong after he came out and still live the life he has been living.

Girl gone wild....in a soccer game

What is going too far in a sport especially soccer? Well, I'm sure most of you have seen this video of this NCAA women's soccer game but if you haven't just watch this real quick. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k52QWFeP7OY.

Ok, so now after watching that here are my opinions on what I feel about this girl Elizabeth Lambert. First of all, I understand that this is a tournament game and competition is at an all time high, but the actions taken by her are for one unsportsmanlike and for two these actions should never be done by a girl. Yes, it is amazing to see the passion this girl has for her sport but pulling a girl down to the ground by here hair....THAT'S ABSURD! I feel as if this girl should be suspended from playing NCAA soccer for her actions taken place in this game. Even watching that video you can see that former gold medalist Julie Foudy makes comments on her far out playing style. Someone might ask me "well what is too far?" Well personally I feel like the slide tackling she made was not too bad because you will see that in mostly any competitive soccer match but I felt like the hair pulling, the punch in the face, and the kicking the ball into the opponents face were taking it too far.

In class Blog group discussion

During class my blog group consisting of Erik Mathis, Mike Slonoff, Stephanie Gebers, C.J Watson, and myself were discussing such things as the coverage of women's sport specifically the Final four of college basketball on television.

We first discussed that women's basketball games are still not getting the right amount of coverage on sports as they should be getting. We noticed that tournament games and regular season games of the women's NCAA final four are usually only showed on ESPN, rather than a top network such as ABC, or NBC and looking at the other spectrum more men's games are broad casted over those bigger networks. We also pointed out that men's games have so much more pregame, halftime, and post game talk than women's.

Although we did all agree upon together that the Men's final four, is more popular than the women's final four, they should still have the same television rights as each other. If networks other than ESPN showed more women's coverage we felt as if this would help the popularity of women's basketball, this could cause a snowball effect which could possibly lead into filling the stands at women's games, and having those pre and post game shows that Men's basketball has.

Breaking the color barrier in hockey

Most of you have heard of Jackie Robinson, and Althea Gibson the athletes who broke the color barrier in their respective sports of baseball and tennis, but a lot of you may have not heard of Willie O'Ree. Willie O'Ree was the first African American man to play the game of hockey. He played for the Boston Bruins in 1960 as a winger for 43 games scoring four goals and had ten assists. It was awesome that he was still able to play hockey because he was 95% blind in his right eye due to getting hit in the face with a puck. Normally, this would end a players career but this did not stop him from playing in the NHL. He also had experienced racism while playing and he stated "Fans would yell, 'Go back to the South' and 'How come you're not picking cotton?' Things like that. It didn't bother me. I just wanted to be a hockey player, and if they couldn't accept that fact, that was their problem, not mine."

Although hockey is not a pre-dominantly African American sport Willie O'Ree has opened the doors for many other African Americans to play hockey. He has inspired many of the African Americans that want to play in the NHL. As of the mid 2000's there has been 17 African American hockey players in the NHL. One of the most famous is Jerome Iginla who has played on the Canadian Olympic team as well as set scoring records. I feel that Willie O'Ree has been an amazing inspiration to the game of hockey and will be remembered by hockey fans just like how Jackie Robinson is remembered in the game of baseball.

Here is a link of a video I found on youtube of Willie O'Ree and his inspiration of him he has had on the game and playershttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNhmbybWIPE

Back on the grind

In class on November 10th, we talked about the young talented women's golfer Michelle Wie. Wie has been in the golf news ever since she was first spotted when she was young playing golf in Hawaii. Her hype was being built up so much she was expected to be the Tiger Woods of the LPGA. My sister, a young golfer looked up to her and had the chance to watch her at the Owens Corning Classic in Toledo. She was also interviewed many times and she repeatedly said how she wanted to play with the men in the PGA. Although she is 17th ranked on the money list all her hype was turned to dust after going through this big spotlight she couldn't back up all her hype.

Well, it might be a little to early to say this but the spark may have just been reignited for Michelle Wie. She recently just went 13 under par to win her first professional tournament. This win could help her get back on track and help her start winning more tournaments to get her back into the scene. I personally am happy for her that she finally won a tournament but it has been ten years since her first professional tournament in the LPGA. Though I will say even if she starts winning more tournaments in the LPGA, I will always feel that women should play in their respective sports and men in theirs. The reason I say this is because for men it is like a double edged sword. If a male plays in a women's sport they are expected to win, but if they lose then they are most likely to be taunted and ridiculed because they lost to a woman.

Overall, I do feel as if this win will help Michelle Wie get back on the scene in the LPGA and possibly jump start her career, but I will still back up that she will never be able to play at the level of the men in the PGA.