Kraft,+Gregory


 * Winter/Spring 2011 Mr. Dunne **

** A Pre-Game Warm-up **

What do sports mean to you as an athlete and as a fan?

Sports as an athlete for me is about having fun and enjoying what you do. I am a coxswain on the Thayer Rowing Team. I love coxing, but I also really appreciate the life skills it has taught me. Crew, in a nutshell, is the ultimate team sport. The entire crew must be completely in sync or else the boat will not move effectively. If one member of the team even sneezes, he can ruin a race or practice for everyone! The members of a crew must become close or they will fail. The coxswain steers the boat and gives commands pertaining to coaching, motivation, and running the workouts. It takes tremendous leadership skills to be a successful coxswain. I attribute a great deal of my leadership ability to the tough learning I had to do to become a good coxswain (being a tiny freshman yelling at huge seniors does not always work out well!).

I am far less of a sports fan than I am an athlete. To be honest, watching most sports bores me. I do enjoy watching the Olympics, however. The Olympics, to me, differ from American professional sports like the NFL or MLB. While the major American athletes seem to represent an extravagant, narcissistic lifestyle, Olympians represent just the opposite. Most of them are not becoming rich off of their accomplishments. While I do not want to conjecture that all NFL or MLB players fall into my negative stereotype, I believe many of them do. Olympians have gotten to where they are because they are the best in the world, and not necessarily in a sport that they chose to pursue because of its popularity and the wealth associated with that. Olympians train for the love of it. And, boy do they train hard! The Olympics represent the epitome of athletic excellence, while simultaneously representing a facet of culture that unites all humanity. Athletes of all colors, ethnicities, religions, and nationalities march with their flags during the Parade of Nations. The Olympics bring us together despite our differences, and show us what it can truly mean to be human.

What has been your with youth sports? Describe your best and worst experiences.

I did not have much lasting experience with sports in my youth. I did not stay in any town or other league very long. Two sports I did on the side were skiing (with my family) and karate. I still ski for fun; however, I was forced to leave karate because of personal reasons related to my sensei (teacher). I attended the Fessenden School, for grades 6-8. At Fessenden, students are required to do a sport all three seasons. I managed to do as little as possible athletically despite the requirements. I was a member of the intramural tennis team for most falls and springs, and I weightlifted most winters. However, my worst sports experience was wrestling the the winter of 6th grade. My dad essentially forced me to join the team, and I despised it. I hated every minute of practice, and I was not good at it at all. I went to as few tournaments as possible, and never rejoined after that year. It was a brutal experience: the workouts were grueling and the rewards were non-existant both in my enjoyment and in success (the two may have been linked). My best athletic experience has far and away been crew. I joined the intramural fall team my freshman year at my mother's urging. I found it to be alright, but I found when I had the chance that I really had a knack for coxing even though I was not a very talented rower. That spring, Coach Kim made me Second Boat Coxswain and my skills improved greatly. I had definitely found my niche in crew, and I really enjoyed it for all of the reasons mentioned above. The following spring I was promoted to First Boat Coxswain, a title I have held since. It has been a truly rewarding experience, among the best in high school and possibly even my entire life.

Do athletes make good role models? Identify one or two professional athletes to make your case.

Most athletes make poor role models. While I believe that many Olympians could be positive role models, most people choose major American athletes as their role models. In general, I am not sure if athletes are such good role models because they contribute very little to society in actuality (this course may prove me wrong on that point, but that is where I stand now). Athletes are celebrities, not good choices for role models to begin with. With wealth and fame come inevitable corruption and scandal. Two prime examples are Tiger Woods and Michael Vick. Tiger Woods is notable for having been thought of as a very positive influence and a great role model who ended up making some very poor choices in cheating on his wife. Michael Vick truly disgusts me. He is a murderer. I do not believe that the life of a dog is worth any less than that of a human. Therefore, what he did to those dogs was a despicable as if he were a serial killer. He is a highly skilled quarterback who was beloved by many fans. He was the role model of many. However, what he is teaching kids is that it is ok to build up one's wealth and then use it to torture animals. Now, he even has the nerve to want to have the courts allow him to own a dog again! His is the lowest form of egotism on the planet. These arrogant, self-entitled traits found in Woods and Vick are directly linked to their statuses as high paid athletes. While some athletes might be above such attitudes, many are too weak. That is not the kind of person I want to emulate, and I hope that my kids will feel the same way.

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)?

As I said, I do not watch sports that often. I find it boring. However, I do enjoy watching the Olympics and the occasional tennis match when it is on television. I have never read a sports book. Sports never took up that much a portion of my life until I joined the rowing team. Since then I have not only spent fall and spring seasons coxing at Thayer, but also at a private club called Community Rowing for the past two summers. I also spend quite a bit of off-time training for the crew season.

What sports-related issues would you be disappointed //not// to cover in this class? Why?

I would definitely love to cover something about crew, but it might be hard to come by. I would also like to learn about the Olympics' effect on international relations. I know that there have been quite a few international incidents related to the Olympics, particularly which country hosts it. I would love to cover some of the ways that the Olympics has united and divided the world at various times. As some examples, there are the Munich Olympics Massacre in 1972, the 1988 Seoul Olympics which North Korea and others boycotted, and the 1980 Moscow Olympics which the United States and other capitalist nations boycotted during the Cold War.