The one thing that all Black males want to be is GREAT at what they do. If they are really good, they will receive a collegiate scholarship and move to the next level. However, Today’s young Black males moving quicker than ever. Instead of finishing college to attain a degree, a great number of them are exiting college after one or two years in order to be drafted for professional teams. In consideration of their passion for the sport, by the time these individuals reach college, they have already spent a considerable amount of time developing their skills for the sport. As such, they have then made up their minds to go straight into the professional levels of their career. However, most have never been introduced to the administrative aspects of that sport. Over time of working in any sports professional rim, they are taught plays, but players are never showed how these plays are created from the coaches level. Most of the time, players are told to run the play regardless of how the player feels about the play. Running plays are not just the greatest factor of sports, but also knowing how to manage a team or even manage adversities is critically important.4 With running plays, the Black male athlete feels like he is part of something that is very powerful, which empowers him because he is part of a unity - very similar to that of a family.
Family
The one thing that is very important to every player is his family support, this is the voice of his future. The blind faith of Black youth and their families in sports is a vehicle of self-realization and social-economic advancement. Not stressing the importance of staying in school has detrimental effects on one’s future pursuits beyond the playing of sports. The result is a single-minded pursuit of sports fame and fortune that has spawned an institutionalized triple tragedy in Black society. Friend and LeUnes (1989) discuss this deficit model of discrimination for Black athletes: (1) a long-standing, widely held, racist, and ill-informed presumption of innate, race-linked black athletic superiority and intellectual deficiency; (2) media propaganda portraying sports as a broadly accessible route to black social and economic mobility; and (3) a lack of comparably visible, high-prestige black role models beyond the sports arena.2
Distractions
Black male athletes are under so much pressure to get fame that they forget the main reason for going to school.3 Over time, the consideration of being a “student athlete” is diminished to simply striving to be an “athlete.” Though it seems that colleges and universities have pushed this rule of being enrolled for a year or two before being drafted into a professional arena, it seems to make little impact on the retention of Black males in college. It should be considered that while in college, Black male student athletes are faced with numerous challenges that involve family-related or financially related matters; both matters could also be pushing them to go “pro” before they complete their academic degree. Black males are not wanting to go into sport administration because of the foundation of their education compared to their athletic abilities.1 Also the function of meaningful interactions with diverse peers, supportive relationships with university faculty and staff, and frequent and educationally purposeful engagement in campus activities and student organizations bring a great deal of distractions as well.5
Administration is not my thing today!
So is being a Black male in sports administration not entertaining enough? The reason why Black males are not getting these positions is because if they do not have chances to network with schools and colleges that want to hire Black males in sports administration. Consequently, there is considerable biases in decision making with regards to employment opportunities after a career in playing sports.2 However, Black males today don’t have the support to finish their college degrees, which limits their opportunities of a career. The outcome of the networking for opportunities would be great if a Black man would be educated, but that dream will never come if he is not educated, mentored and coached the right way.
1Braddock, J. H., Royster, D. A., Winfield, L. F., & Hawkins, R. (1991). Bouncing back: Sports and academic resilience among African-American males. Education and Urban Society, 24(1), 113-131.
2Edwards, H. (2000). Crisis of Black athletes on the eve of the 21st century. Society, 37(3), 9-13.
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3Entine, J. (2008). Taboo: Why black athletes dominate sports and why we're afraid to talk about it. PublicAffairs. Retrieved from:
4Friend, J., & LeUnes, A. (1989). Overcoming discrimination in sport management: A systematic approach to affirmative action. Journal of Sport Management, 3(2), 151-157. Retrieved from:
5Strayhorn, T. L. (2014). What role does grit play in the academic success of Black male collegians at predominantly White institutions?. Journal of African American Studies, 18(1), 1-10.
Your passion for promoting young black men will make a powerful impact on their lives and ability to succeed in the athletic administration arena. Keep mentoring these individuals. Keep sharing your thoughts...you are making a difference!!!!
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