Moussavi-Aghdam,+Ava


 * Winter/Spring 2011 Mr. Dunne **

** A Pre-Game Warm-up **

What do sports mean to you as an athlete and as a fan? Sports are a means of entertainment, joy, and escape. Sports can get people passionate about their team and wining. They are a display of talent and dedication. Competitiveness is the key to sports (however I really don't like when it becomes really aggressive) and winning is always the ultimate goal. To me sports are an outlet.Sports are important to my family, especially to my cousins, and a lot of my interest stems from their enthusiasm. I love watching games with my aunts, uncles, and cousins and games (especially soccer) definitely bring my family together.

What has been your with youth sports? Describe your best and worst experiences. I played soccer and swam as a youth. I think they are important in general with kids growing up to help them learn the importance of being on a team. My worst experience was when during the last event at a swim meet (a relay) was going to decide the winner of an extremely close meet. One of our relays lapped the other team’s front relay and before the race ended we were celebrating because it was obvious we were going to win the meet. But then the 3rd swimmer in our relay jumped in the pool in celebration before the 4th person finished. The relay got disqualified and we lost the meet. My best experience was being able to swim in a meet in more than a year because of fighting with injuries and swimming my personal best.

Do athletes make good role models? Identify one or two professional athletes to make your case. Sometimes athletes make good role models. I think that on the field they show a great amount strength, and perseverance. However, every person isn’t perfect when scrutinized. Whether it is drug use, family issues, or personality differences, many athletes aren’t perfect. For example Tiger Woods shows an amazing amount of skill and dedication but it turned out that he is a horrible person.

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 soccer, baseball (red sox), swimming, and the Celtics. I have always paid more attention to New England based teams because I get sucked into the hype. I get really competitive before events but the result whether its a win or a loss is not that important to me afterward because I always think how the other teams/fans feel. Sports are more of a background for me. I watch it when its ton but I don’t schedule my life around it unless it’s a big event. I have always enjoyed watching sports more than playing them. Most of the time when I watch games or sportcenter it is with my cousins or uncles who give me plenty of commentary to understand the good and bad moves and why.

What sports-related issues would you be disappointed //not// to cover in this class? Why? I would be disappointed if we don’t cover the lesser sports or teams that are not in the news that often. There are athletes at lesser levels that still accomplish amazing things. Also I would like to cover how the US missed the soccer craze but the rest of the world is crazy about it. I also think that professional w omen's teams are important even though people think that they are never as good as men's.