Coaches have a special role: ‘It’s bigger than football’
Aug. 1, until the middle of November. January until May. And three weeks off in July. Any die-hard football fan knows why I left out December.
School sports programs focus on safety as participation in football dips
Spurred in part by fears about contact sports and concussions, state and national youth sports programs are pushing new strategies to protect student-athletes from injury. Those strategies include encourage athletes to participate in more than one sport and putting new rules in place to reduce contact between students and better respond to athletes who suffer concussions. Officials from the Michigan High School Athletic Association are among those advocating for students to play multiple sports. Advocates say that can reduce the chance of repetitive injuries. According to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, 45 percent of all athletes specialize in just one sport.
Police, university face new challenges from potential safety threats
Just after the Las Vegas active shooter case, the East Lansing and Michigan State University police departments received letters making general threats against MSU sporting events. Event security has become one of the most crucial aspects school officials and both police departments are paying massive attention to.
Colleges battle reputation with academic programs for student-athletes
In October, after an eight-month investigation, the NCAA announced it would not punish the University of North Carolina for allowing some of its student-athletes to take fake classes. The case is among the most recent academic scandals in NCAA sports, adding fuel to the debate over whether colleges which part of being a student-athlete is betting emphasized: academics or sports.
Gender inequality in sports broadcasting improved, but work remains
In recent years, the issue of gender inequality in sports broadcasting calls people’s attention more than ever. The important roles in media, not limited to sports, are strongly dominated by men. Women are underrepresented and do not often receive the same amount of respect and recognition as men in the same positions.
MSU men’s hoops joins national conversation
At Michigan State men’s basketball media day in early October, head coach Tom Izzo recognized the public debate raging in the country. “There are problems in society,” Izzo said. “The issues involving race equality (are) important to me for a lot of reasons: One, my own household. Two, my own team here.”
That statement came two months after the violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, and with growing racial tensions across the country. At the time, the members of Izzo’s team did not know what they were going to do.
Q&A: WKAR’s Al Martin on ‘sticking to sports’
Athletes and the sports media have gotten criticism for not “sticking to sports,” instead letting social issues and discussion creep into the sports media. Al Martin, host of WKAR Radio’s Current Sports since April 2013, joined Spartan Newsroom reporter Zachary Swiecicki to talk about the issue. Very cool moment here as @MatthewAbdullah @RoJeSoFly and @MichaelLynnIII receive a Skype call from @Kaepernick7 for deciding to stand with Kaep and take a knee during the national anthem before football games at @lansingcatholic this season. Mad respect. pic.twitter.com/khp1z38TCx
— Al Martin (@AlMartinWKAR) December 3, 2017
Martin has used social media, like Twitter, as well as his hourlong radio show to give his opinion on everything in and around the world of sports.
Sports
Female athletes battle body image portrayals in media
Michigan State University track and field athlete Denise Spann focuses a lot of time and energy on her body. That’s because she’s focused on trying to perform her best on the track, said Spann, a junior from Coconut Creek, Florida. Muscle structure and body weight can play a significant role in how an athlete performs.
But, Spann said, media portrayals of female athletes seem too focused almost entirely on how women look and not on how athletic they are. “Most of the time they just want to see a beautiful girl play a sport, because there’s a stigma in certain sports that you can’t be beautiful and be one of the best,” Spann said. “I think that the focus should be on the skill, because female athletes do work so hard to be good at their craft, only for it be overshadowed by the way they look, or how their body looks.”
Increased anxiety
Michigan State kinesiology professor Dan Gould studies sports psychology for all age levels of athletes and said having insecurities about your body can lead to increased anxiety and worry.
High school trainers focus on proper injury care
Marci Abraham, an athletic trainer at East Lansing High School, said coaching and training staffs have put a greater focus in the last two years on recognizing and reporting possible concussions and head injuries in high school sports. But concussions aren’t the only injuries trainers and coaches see. She said a majority of the injuries she’s seen have been ankle sprain/strains, thigh (quad, hamstring, and groin) strains, shin splints and back pain. Those injuries are common in all sports, Abraham said. She said athletic training staff try to injuries in many different ways. “We try to combat these and all injuries by encouraging all our athletes to take their warmup session at the beginning of practice seriously and focused, not to goof off during it,” she said.
Why are female athletes paid less than male athletes?
Of the 100 athletes on the 2017 Forbes list of the world’s highest paid athletes, only one is a woman.