McGinty,+Michael


 * Winter/Spring 2011 Mr. Dunne **

** A Pre-Game Warm-up **

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

Sports have always been a huge part of my life. When I play, I feel as though nothing else matters but the game at hand and all of the stress in my life seems to melt away. I love the feeling of competition and just having a great battle with my opponent, no matter what the outcome is. Even though the only sport I play now is tennis, I've always had fun playing other sports like basketball and soccer. I like to just get out there and have fun playing whatever sport I can. As a fan it took me a while to find teams to follow. My family moved around a lot and I never could get wrapped up in those towns' sports teams. Now that I have lived in Boston for about eight years I have become a huge Boston sports fan. I felt the unity of the Boston fans and it is great to be a part of it.

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

The two main sports I have played during my youth are tennis and soccer. I think I started playing soccer around age six, where the only strategy was for everyone to run at the ball and kick it anywhere. Soon after I started playing soccer, I took some tennis lessons and began to love that sport as well. My worst experience occured during my eighth grade travel soccer season. We were getting ready for the playoffs which we had a really good shot at winning. During one of the practices my leg got caught underneath me and a severely strained my acl and mcl. Having to watch my team try to compete without me in the goal was very difficult, especially because of how bad I wanted to be out there. My favorite sports moment happened one year before that injury. In the playoffs for our division we were a two seed about to face the number one seed. Our team played phenomenally and we were tied 1 to 1 at the end of regulation. We go to overtime where no goals are scored which means only one thing: penalty kick shootout. I gather myself behind the net to prepare myself to stop as many point blank shots as I can. Our team kicked first and scored. Now, up one nothing, I stepped into the net to make a stop. My opponent shoots and I guess the right direction, diving and in a full streach I knock the ball wide of the post. The next two rounds were much easier with one ball going over the crossbar and the next one not placed very well. I did my job and helped my team advance to the next round of the playoffs.

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

Athletes do not always make the best role models. Some of the best players who seem like genuine people, but turn out to have flaws that make them poor role models. One of the most recent examples of this was Tiger Woods. He was, and still may be, the most dominant golfer of all time, and we all believed that he was a person to look up to. We have learned in the past year that he was unfaithful in his marriage and that he is not the person we percieved him to be. Another group of athletes you could put in the poor role model category are steroid users in baseball. The whole sport was tainted by all of the steroid users, and some of the biggest stars were involved in the cheating. These players did not make good role models.

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)?

I pay attention to all of the mainstream sports (football, baseball, basketball, and hockey) as well as tennis. I watch every patriots game every week, and if there is a Bruins or Celtics game on I'll watch those too. The only sport I have trouble watching is baseball, due to the pace of the game. As for tennis I watch the cmost during the grand slam tournaments. I even spent about seven hours last summer watching the Isner-Mahut marathon match from Wimbledon. I wolud say that sports take up a good chunk of my life. If I don't have to do homework or I'm not doing stuff with my family I like to watch whatever game happens to be on.

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

With all of the problems with head injuries in the NFL and other sports, I would be disappointed if we didn't talk about concussions and how they affect athletes' lives. As someone who has suffered two concussions in high school, I think this is a big issue that doesn't get as much publicity as it should. The NFL and the media has just recently begun to adress the problems that come with multiple concussions. As something that can cause a lot of suffering later in life, people need to pay attention to head injuries.