Interview Blog

For my interview I chose Brayan a senior on the Nova baseball team. During my interview I asked general questions about baseball and focused on his specific views on time management. I learned that he is has a double major, Buisness and sports managment. He chose this because he loves being involved with sports and would like to always have some interaction with athletics. He is working hard to finish his classes this semester with plans to graduate at the end of this school year. He walked me through a typical day during his season. I have already thought of more questions I could ask him in another interview and I am in contact with him about these questions.

Fourth Observation....

For my fourth observation I conducted a survey of a few randomly selected student athletes. The survey consisted of the following questions: Do you enjoy playing sports at Nova? Do you think going to school and playing sports is too difficult to handle? Has playing sports helped or hurt your grades? In the future do you plan to be involved with playing sports competitively?
The answers varied among the athletes. The majority of the male athletes seemed to be less stressed when talking about their grades and the future, whereas the majority of the females appeared to be a little more stressed. This could be that men generally don’t show their emotions as much as women. Everyone said they enjoy playing sports at Nova, but many said if it wasn’t for the scholarship money they would not be playing. Everyone has had some trouble with maintaining their grades during the season, but a few of the athletes mentioned they receive tutoring to help them. The answers for the last question varied among the respondents, some said they would like to continue professionally while others went as far as not playing after college. There was also a midpoint where most athletes were agreeing they would play but not competitively and they may even be interested in coaching in the future.

Third observation...

For my third observation I met with David W, one of the soccer players for Nova. We met in the University Center during his lunch break on Thursday, to talk about his life as a soccer player. Dave is an international student from Sweden who came here to play soccer and receive a college education. He trains year round to remain healthy and in shape because he is planning to play professional soccer after he leaves the United States after graduation. Dave has played on Nova’s soccer team for four years and is one of their best players. Towards the end of this season Dave injured his ankle and had to make a choice between surgeries to allow him to play again or trying to let it heal on its own, which would be better in the long run. He is so dedicated to soccer that he chose the surgery which will allow him to return to playing sooner. During his recovery he spent extra time on his school work. He chose to make the best of his injury by picking up another class to fill in his spare time. To me this is the definition of a hard working student athlete with goals in mind and his dreams at heart. Dave plans to remain in the U.S until July when his visa expires and he will return to Sweden to fulfill his goals of becoming a professional soccer player. Dave said he choose to come to Nova to receive a college education to always have something to fall back on if he does get injured and cannot continue to play soccer for the rest of his career. This is a smart decision because he already saw how easy it is to get injured and how much work it takes to recover.
I would like to wish David the best of luck for the rest of his time here at Nova and in the future.