Ever since I was little, I loved being in the water. My Dad used to joke that I could swim before I could walk, and with my severe pigeon toed feet and stalky legs his joke was not far from the truth. When I was 9 I had three years of competitive swimming under my belt, and would go on to win my first Junior Olympic gold in the 100-yard butterfly. For my accomplishment I got a swim cap and a sweater. When Demetrius Walker was 9, he was dunking basketballs, signing autographs, and as an eighth grader big name shoe companies wanted Demetrius in their gear. I swam club for years and years, practicing and traveling. From a young age we were constantly ranked and evaluated based on our performance and potential as swimmers, but never to the extent as Demetrius. Whereas my swim club individualized us as athletes, I feel as if Demetrius was viewed as an asset and laborer. It was never about how can this kid improve, or what can he bring to the team, but more so how much money can he make me, and how many wins can we get with him on the team. Perhaps the biggest difference is Demetrius has 150 or so fans come to his games. I had my parents. While Demetrius was focused on basketball, I was able to explore other sports -- I played ice hockey for sometime, dabbled with water polo and even played a few seasons of volleyball and basketball.
In high school, I stopped competitive swimming and quit ice hockey and focused all of my attention on water polo. For me, my transition to a high school water polo player was incredible. I had an extremely strong bond with my coaches, who criticized, motivated, cared and improved both my play in the pool and my character outside of it. At the point of sounded extremely conceded, I was the best player in the pool (and have the stats to prove it), but was never compared to other athletes or had enormous amounts of pressure placed upon my shoulders like Demetrius had. With expectations to be the next Tyson Chandler, Demetrius struggled to live up to these expectations, especially as players started to grow as tall, if not taller than he was. While there is always pressure to perform well, even in high school, a lot of it has to do with how the coaches handle and distribute that pressure amongst the players. From a young age Demetrius was said to be great, and everything he did that was less than so was seen as a disappointment. While I lead the league with most number of goals scored in the season, I had the nickname " Dink" a Native American term for an unwanted baby buffalo. While there was pressure on me to perform, faults and mistakes were seen as just that. Demetrius faults and mistakes were demoralizing.
While many of favorite memories thus far involved high school sport, there are many cases like Demetrius' that are often over looked. While sports teaches you discipline, leadership, and perseverance, among a plethora of other positive characteristics and attributes, it can teach you to hate opponents for no legitimate reason, it can teach you to cheat, it can lower ones self esteem and normalizes deviant practices. Above all, the dark side in cases about Demetrius is that they do not know how to not be the star. With such high expectations set at such a young age, it is almost impossible for them to not fall short of these unrealistic expectations.
Resources:
Dohrmann, G. (2010). The Education of Demetrius Walker. Sports Illustrated, 113(11), 62-75.
Nikki how do you think your polo journey would have changed if your coach had been crazy like his? Once being a D1 athlete how do you think that would have harmed or helped you?
ReplyDelete-babes.
Do you think you would be able to take the pressure of the media at such a young age like Demitrius did?
ReplyDelete-Ikko
Great job comparing your experience to Demetrius'. I agree with you that coaches play a huge role in the development of these crazy expectations and thus the problems that follow. Adults should focus on supporting athletes rather than trying to make money off of them.
ReplyDelete~Brittainy