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Hoop Dreams-
The players in Hoop Dreams, William and Arthur, do not have equal access to basketball as other white players that they are surrounded by. They need the schools and other people to pay for things that they need in order to succeed. This causes the kids to have a lot of pressure on them because of all of the other people putting work into their lives for them.
This results in enormous amounts of pressure on them to deliver in the classroom and even more on the court. Throughout the documentary as well, the athletes dealt with social difficulties because of their race which adds to mental stress on a high school kid. Hoop Dreams is an amazing example depicting the problems race can arise within sports.

FNL-
Quote: "He responded without the slightest hesitation. 'A big ol' dumb n*****" (49).
Analysis:
Football is the way out of Odessa and onto a better life for many of the black football players in the town. The black athletes are only accepted in Odessa because they are good at football, and if they weren't they would most likely be discriminated against. The train tracks dividing the town into the white district and the colored district already says enough, but the quote above tells even more about the football atmosphere as well. The fact that the black athletes have to deal with discrimination within their own team is completely unfair and takes their mind off of the sport itself. It puts a lot of pressure on a kid to have to deliver on the field and have tough enough skin to deal with racist marks off of the field as well. This examples exaggerates the problems of discrimination against race in sports. Many black athletes in white dominated sports are seen as "special" when they succeed, when in fact they are just like everybody else. Having to be put on the high pedestal representing other black athletes when you are that young only exhibits more spotlight on a person that they are usually unprepared for.

Outside Source (King Richard Movie) -
A similarity between King Richard and FNL and Hoop Dreams is the kids having to deal with the spotlight of being a successful black athlete. Richard Williams, Venus and Serenas father, holds back his girls from the public tennis eyes for as long as he can because he knows that once they popular they will have to deal with racist remarks and fame for being different. The father knew how much pressure and stress it would put on his girls, so he felt the need to delay it.
In connection to Hoop Dreams, Venus and Serena also dealt with lack of resources in order to excel in their sport. They did not have enough money to be a part of a country club, and instead practice every day on their local court. They grew up in Compton, California, a predominately black town filled with gang members south of Los Angeles. Richard struggles providing training opportunities for Venus and Serena, as he fights off gang members making threatening remarks to his girls. Once the girls get noticed by more elite coaches, the girls have to deal with constant racist remarks towards them from other young players. All of the coaches seem extremely surprised they made it this far considering they are black.
They experience Venus and Serena endured throughout their tennis career is unlike any other white player. This is why race can effect athletes in setting them back both mentally and physically (access to better courts) in sports.

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Too Much or Not Enough? Analysis of how serious high school sports should be taken. 

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Too Much or Not Enough? Analysis of how serious high school sports should be taken. 

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FNL:
In chapter 7 of FNL, the english department of Permian High School is finally given a computer meanwhile the football program has already had one and is receiving another one soon. This shows how Permian High School takes athletics, specifically football, much more serious than any academic accomplishments. This creates a toxic community for the athletes in the school as they think that they are better than everybody else. But, at the same time the athletes are constantly under a spotlight where they are expected to win every game in front of thousands of people. This is an example where a high school takes sports too seriously because the "win" is treated more importantly than the good of the athletes and the other students educations. The mental health of the players is also at sacrifice because they treat football as their only focus in life, forgetting to develop other things going for them in their lives.

Hoop Dreams:
Example: "It became more of a job than a sport to play"
Analysis:
This quote from Hoop Dreams when Arthur was talking about St. Josephs is very powerful as it shows taking a sport too seriously can cause the athlete to lose the love for the sport from the constant intense training and pressure. The athlete exclaimed how basketball became unenjoyable because it was just too much for him at St. Josephs. It is also important to recognize how this serious path did not even lead the athletes to their ultimate goal of making the NBA. This shows how many athletes take their sport too seriously in high school and sacrifice too many things in their life which ultimately results in failure.

Outside Source (King Richard):
In contrast to Hoop Dreams, the work the Williams family put into tennis ended up being extremely worth it in the long run as they ended up being the best tennis players in the world. The sacrifices in their younger years mainly were in the social aspects of their lives as the girls did not have many friends besides their own sisters and coaches. The example of Venus and Serena is one that where taking their sport seriously was successful. This story is extremely rare and historic which is inspiring, but the rarity of it is also a reality. Most young athletes that take their sports this seriously in high school do not succeed like the Williams sisters and these players were depicted in the movie as well. Most of them became washed up and even one of them found herself in crime after tennis was taken out of her life because she hadn't developed anything else in her early life when she was taking tennis so seriously.

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Hoop Dreams:
In Hoop Dreams, William's his knee injury keeps him out of basketball before any doctors could properly fix his knee. This makes him have to sit out and he never returns to be the same kind of player he was when he was a sophomore in High School. This is an example of an athlete being smart about their body and stopping their playing. This is very uncommon with most athletes as they tend to push through injuries in order to play. This pushing through injuries has become very popular in High School sports and it can be detrimental to many young athlete's bodies.

FNL:
Quote: “But for Boobie, the risks were enormous, it might rekindle the interest of recruiters, who had gone on to whore after other tricks. But by playing there was always the risk of further damage to his knee.” (181)

Analysis:
The stigma around injuries in serious sports causes many athletes to think that when you get an injury your career is over. That if you are injured then you are "washed up" and can "never return". This can easily get into many athletes heads and it ruins their mental health when becoming injured. This is shown through Boobie Miles in FNL. When his knee becomes injured, him and his coach contemplate pushing through the injury just to play because he thinks that if he can't play then he is worth nothing as a person (which is somewhat true considering the toxicity in Odessa). This messes with Boobie's head and he eventually walks away from the team. This example shows how the culture around injuries in high school sports needs to change in order to help the athletes come back and continue their careers.

Outside Source (Dr. Bray):
Quote:  Pushing through injuries "leads to "guard-tending," which is when the athlete begins to favor the injured limb or area. Guard-tending is more harmful than helpful, as it leads to smaller injuries, with other parts of the body becoming more stressed in order to accommodate the original injury."
Analysis:
According to this Doctor, the guard-tending that many athletes do causes even more injuries throughout their bodies. This is an example to show how bad it is to push through injuries and why young athletes should take even small injuries more seriously. I think that there is a culture in sports where if you don't push through an injury than you are seen as weak or not serious about your sport. But I think the culture needs to shift to how caring for your injury shows that you really do care about your performance in your sport.

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My Outlook On the Issues and How They Apply to My Life

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My Outlook On the Issues and How They Apply to My Life

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As a serious athlete, I have either encountered or experienced every one of these issues. Of course, as a white girl from Weston, I have not experienced any racial discrimination, but I have definitely encountered it as diving is a white dominated sport. Seeing a black diver is sadly a rarity. Many successful divers are either white or asian, so seeing a diver that is any race other than those is uncommon. Many successful divers tend to pay a lot of money and go away to camps to train every day. These divers are homeschooled and their parents pay way too much money for them to do their sport. These budgets are just too much for many families, and the ones that can usually afford it are white rich families.

I also have trained with the diver in the image above, Kristen Hayden. She is a role model to all young black female athletes that aspire to be divers!

In regards to the mindset of High School sports, I think that my case is a special case. I only started High School diving for the social aspect, but once I got emersed into the enviorment, I decided I needed to be the best high school diver from Weston. I took diving the most serious I have ever taken in order to reach my goals of breaking Mikayla Thompon's records. The social aspect of the high school diving made me stay in love with the sport, but I sacrificed many things in my life to make sure that I did what I needed to do in order to break the records. I relate to that grit and drive that the athletes from Hoop Dreams have, but I never pushed myself to the point where it was injuring my body like Boobie Miles wanted to in Friday Night Lights.

In comparison to Boobie Miles, I have always thought about my body first when diving. If I ever am injured I make sure that I am completely healthy before diving again. This is mainly because when I dive, any pain is extremely distracting and I cannot perform at my best. I sat out DCLs and sectionals for my injured ankle, and this was one of the hardest decisions because it was my senior diving season.