Final Observation...

For my final observation I interviewed a tennis player on Friday April 16th, she would prefer to remain anonymous. I chose to interview her because I would like to find out more about what takes place as a tennis player since that is my sport of choice. I began by asking some basic questions which led to some in depth concepts.

I asked her when she began playing tennis and if she liked playing tennis in college. She responded by saying she began playing tennis when she was seven years old and could not imagine her life without tennis. She said her schedule would be empty without tennis and she would not know how to fill her time. I asked her if she thought playing a sport and going to school was too much work and she quickly responded, no way! I said, wow you seem to have everything figured out and she said it took her a while but she finally got it down, she just has to do her school work the second she gets time or it will never get done. By procrastinating the work it only makes it harder to complete it. She said she doesn’t want to let down the girls on the team that are also working hard to achieve team goals by not holding up her end of the work. I told her this was some of the best advice I had heard and thanked her for her time. She had to rush off to the gym to get her daily workout in before her last class.

Her sincere motivation and dedication to the team and herself is truly inspiring. I would like to take some of her inspiration and put it towards my goal to become a tennis player next season.

Seventh Observation....

For my seventh observation I decided to find out information about joining a team as a walk on. A walk on is when someone comes to the school and later decides to try out for a sport. I asked Dave, a soccer player I previously interviewed about how he joined the team. Dave played soccer in Sweden and was chosen by a recruiting scout at a tournament in London. He kept in contact with Nova’s coaches and they told him to come try out once he gets his grades higher. Dave went to a school in Orlando for a year and improved his scores. He transferred to Nova and was accepted right away. Dave told me his friend came to the school and decided to try out for the team as a walk on. He had to provide letters of recommendation and a video of his previous career. Once the coaches reviewed his tapes they decided to have him come to a practice with the team to see how they played together and get a close up of his skills. After they observed his practice with the team they made the decision to have him join the team. They worked on all the contracts with the school within a week and his friend was practicing with the team.
It may vary from each sport depending upon the coach. However this seems like a reasonable way to admit someone onto a team.