Known as one of the top all-American woman basketball players in the league, Candace Nicole Parker definitely set the competition bar at a high standard. Born into a wonderful family on April 19, 1986, Candace begins her inspiring journey towards her career from the get-go (Palmer). Not only did she make a name for herself in the realms of sports, but Candace possesses special qualities including charm, ambition, and passion for every action she takes. Growing up with a family that centers their world on basketball, Candace began playing and understanding the game at an early stage in her life. She currently continues to inspire women all around the globe by her hard work, determination, and ambition she expresses on and off the court.
Candace grew up in Naperville, Illinois. Her family had quiet an impact on her early career in sports. She is the youngest of Sara and Larry Parker’s three children. Her father played at the University of Iowa in the 1970’s, but now currently employed as an insurance businessman and her mother works for the front office of Chicago Sky (Palmer). She has two older brothers named Marcus, a doctor, and Anthony, who currently plays professionally for the Cleveland Cavaliers (“Candace Parker Role Model”). Experiencing all the talent her father and brother brought to the table, Candace faced second-thoughts about perusing basketball in fear of not meeting the high standard set by her father and brother, and ended up switching gears to soccer for a period of time. As soon as Candace hit the eighth grade, her family encouraged her to start a career in basketball. Her father spent countless hours coaching, challenging, and critiquing her, even making her run home from wherever they practiced if he thought s...
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...the roster one month after giving birth, it took a while before she got back to her old self. Considering only six WNBA players, including Candace, have a child, Candace appealed as a major role model to women of independence and high standards (Thomas).
Candace Parker remains a beautiful, charming, and passionate woman who reflects her personality through her outstanding ability to play basketball. She has faced trials and adversities, but overcame them with triumph and victory. She holds countless achievements throughout her entire career starting at a very young age. Candace provides the ideal example of how raw talent cannot outdo hard work. Every single award, trophy, honor, and praise came through her blood, sweat, and tears. She continues to inspire women all around the world by staying humble in her efforts and making history in the realm of basketball.
The athlete I chose is Natasha Watley. She is a professional softball player and the first African-American female to play on the USA softball team in the Olympics. She’s a former collegiate 4-time First Team All-American who played for the UCLA Bruins, the USA Softball Women’s National Team, and for the USSSA Pride. She helped the Bruins will multiple championships and also holds numerous records and one of the few players to bat at least .400 with 300 hits, 200 runs, and 100 stolen bases. She’s also the career hits leader in the National Pro Fast pitch. She won the gold medal in the 2004 summer Olympics and a silver in the Beijing Olympics. She was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in 2014.
Gabby Douglas was the first African-American female gymnast in Olympic history to become the individual All-Around champion. In the 2012 Olympic Games, she won gold in the team competition and the individual competition. She is a gymnastics phenom. From the beginning of her career to where she is today, she has been a true trooper through everything. Gabrielle Douglas is an inspiration to me and many others because she overcame being homeless,moved in with a new family, and won Olympic gold in gymnastics.
Your dreams of being someone may not turn out the way you think they will. The documentary Hoop Dreams is a story about two boys from the ghetto that want to play in the NBA. Arthur ¨Man”Agee goes to Marshalls and William Gates goes to St. Joseph’s which are both situated in Illinois, where their dreams of becoming a pro basketball player vanished. Both of the boys face obstacles that are outside of themselves. Arthur´s family struggled with money, education, and pressure from others hurts him. Also, William struggled with balancing his family with basketball, the pressure from others, and education.
Her birth name is Pat Sue Head. She was born in June of 1952 in Clarksville, Tennessee. She was the second to youngest in the family of seven. Pat was 5 foot 9 in the third grade, talk about a giant! Pat was raised in a strict environment. Her father Richard Head expected the best of his kids. He expected them to be hard workers and to do work around the farm. Every morning Pat had to wake up at five in the morning to go work on the farm before school. Her father never told his kids that he loved them; he never hugged them her father believed in tough love. At Pats sixteenth birthday party she had to work on the farm and missed her entire party. Pats father supported her wanting to pursue her dream in playing basketball. Richard Head built a basketball court on top of the hayloft, and strung lights so Pat and her siblings could play at night. When Pat reached high school her father moved the whole family across the county line six miles to Henrietta, so that she could play basketball, because the school she’d been assigned to in Clarksville didn’t have a team for girls. Basketball in Pats day was slowly growing. Pat Summitt took her basketball talents to play college ball at UT Martian.
Turn on ESPN, and there are many female sports reporters, and many reports on female athletes. Flip through Sports Illustrated, and female athletes are dotted throughout the magazine. Female athletes star in the commercials. Female athletes are on the cover of newspapers. Millions of books have been sold about hundreds of female athletes. However, this has not always been the case. The number of females playing sports nowadays compared to even twenty years ago is staggering, and the number just keeps rising. All the women athletes of today have people and events from past generations that inspired them, like Babe Didrikson Zaharias, the All-American Professional Girls Baseball League, Billie Jean King, and the 1999 United States Women’s World
Robinson, Mark D. Ph. D. “Every Black Kid Should Strive to Be a Professional Athlete”.
As Miller and Wilson revealed, athleticism is not always analogous with success. Willy regarded Biff highly because he observed Biff’s presence and athleticism, and he believed these qualities would result in immediate success. Today many parents associate sports with success and therefore pressure their children to excel in sports. In today’s society it is very rare that fears of discrimination would cause children to not pursue a lucrative career in sports. Both Miller and Wilson knew the impact of sports on family dynamics, and how sports have evolved from a leisure time activity to a full-time commitment. Clearly, many of the qualitative aspects of sports--competition, teamwork and physical dexterity can contribute to being a success in almost any career.
The Williams Sisters: double trouble on the tennis court, Gabby Douglas: 2 times Olympic Gold Medalist, and Lolo Jones: a fierce Olympic competitor in hurdles and now bobsledding are all present day athletes that have captivated headlines with their accomplishments through sports. The Civil Rights Movement altered everyday life for all African Americans and soon other minorities in America. The movement also changed the world of sports for African American legends to come as well. Previous accomplishments of African Americans in sports propelled Althea Gibson to make her mark in history. Althea would change the world of sports, impact future athletes to come, and leave her mark in history. Her athletic greatness would not only be bestowed on the tennis court, but golfy would receive its fair share of Althea’s greatness as well. None of her accomplishments would have been made possible without the Civil Rights Movement that allowed African Americans to enter the world of sports.
Kobe grew up around basketball since his father was a professional NBA player. Every time his father “Jellybean Joe” had a game, Kobe would attend and tried not to miss a game. Instantly, Kobe would challenge himself by studying his father’s moves, and imitate the moves he had studied. Kobe’s grandparents encouraged his dreams about playing basketball and would mail him NBA games and Kobe would study the tapes as well (“JockBio: Kobe Bryant Biography”). During his high school year, Kobe joined his school’s basketball team and led his team to the championship. Because of his authentic skills and keeping up with his grades, he was able to come out of high school and prepare for the NBA Draft.
Diana is an excellent illustration of the many struggles of women to find a place for themselves in sports. On an individual level, defying societal stereotypes is extremely difficult. The buriers that the first person must overcome are often extreme. However once the first person breaks down those buriers, it becomes increasingly easier for others to follow in their footsteps. Diana's struggle demonstrates both how far women have come and how far women still have to go.
The OU men’s basketball team is a monochronic, masculine, collectivistic, and individualistic co-culture. They come together as a team, but each player has their own identity attached to this co-culture in their own way. One of the teammates, Bob, was kind enough to provide answers to a few questions that will bring a little more understanding to how the players view themselves within their co-culture. All of the members of this co-culture are college students at the University of Oklahoma and range from freshmen to seniors. It is a masculine co-culture because it is a men’s team.
All of the films that we watched provided different perspectives on how the image of women is situated in our culture. From the first movie, Dare to Compete, which highlighted the development of women's participation in sports, to Love and Basketball, which fully accepts women's participation in sports, we examined a range of views and opinions on the proper role of women in sports.
Full-Court Quest is not only the story of ten remarkable American Indian girls who would go on to win the 1904 women’s basketball World Championship, but also profiles the development of basketball, the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, and the impact of off-reservation boarding school education efforts by the U.S. government. Even though this book shows many different aspects of the ways of Native American living, the main feature the Fort Shaw basketball girls were trying to present to their peers was that basketball wasn’t just a game to play for fun. Basketball was a competitive game that they believed was a huge part of their lives and wanted the public to be a part of it as well; may it be playing the game with them or on the sidelines watching and supporting them.
Shoni and Jude Schimmel are considered one of the most inspiring Native American athletes to play Division I basketball because they have sent a message to youth across the nation that if they can many obstacles, including discrimination for playing college basketball as Native Americans, then they can motivate their selves to face any obstacle that comes their way.
Over the past decade or so, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in the number of women dominating in their respective sports. As well as, seeing women dominate in their professional sports, we’ve seen women become more prominent in broadcasting, and reporting on sports as well. An occupation that once was male dominated, is not so much anymore. These strong female figures, such as Ronda Rousey, Venus and Serena Williams, Maya Moore and Erin Andrews are making waves and names for themselves in sports history with their notable athleticism, feministic views, and sports knowledge. These great women are making a statement that sports are not just for men, but also for both men and women, and sports previously where only men participated are starting to see women enter that field. Even in a male