Tasiopoulos,+Christopher


 * Winter/Spring 2011 Mr. Dunne **

** A Pre-Game Warm-up **

What do sports mean to you as an athlete and as a fan? Sports mean very much to me both as an athlete and as a fan. As in athlete sports have always been important to me, especially ice hockey. They provide an outlet to relieve stress as well as an outlet to truly have fun and enjoy myself. Also, they are having a part in me getting into college so to use sports to get into a great school makes them even more important to me. As a fan I've been a loyal Boston sports fan since I can remember. Super Bowl, World Series, and NBA championships stick with me the most, as well as some big Bruins wins. What has been your with youth sports? Describe your best and worst experiences. I played a lot of sports growing up. I played hockey, soccer, baseball, and lacrosse. My most serious sport was and is hockey where I played AAA hockey which is the highest level since I was 8 years old and it has taken me all over North America as well as Europe (great travel experience that I never would have had without hockey). One of my best experiences was playing in the pee-wee world championships in Quebec City when I was 12. There were over 5,000 people at our playoff games and the games were also televised up there and that was very unique as a twelve year old. One of my worst experiences would be when I was 14 our hockey team was undoubtedly the best in the state and we went 15-0 in the regular season and 3-0 in the round robin portion of the playoffs, but we fell in the state championship to a team that we beat 7-2 earlier that season and they earned the bid to Nationals while we stayed home. A loss like that especially when expectations were so high was very tough to swallow.

Do athletes make good role models? Identify one or two professional athletes to make your case. Athletes can be good and bad role models. Athletes like Drew Brees and Sidney Crosby are good role models because they are heavily involved in the community and you can tell that they truly love what they do. Also, they don't get into off the field or ice trouble and they avoid drama. A couple of bad sports role models are Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco. Athletes like them are all about their image and very self centered, also they are arrogant and cocky and these people aaren't good role models for kids. 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 most attention to the Boston Bruins with the New England Patriots coming in second. Sports occupy probably 30-35 hours of my week. This time is spent participating, watching, and talking about sports.

What sports-related issues would you be disappointed //not// to cover in this class? Why? I would be disappointed if we didn't discuss ncaa recruiting violations and maybe have some class debates about that subject because it is happening now and people have varying opinions on it. I would also like to cover how sports affect a country or a group of people like how the 1980 Miracle on ice lifted America in a time where things didn't look too good.