Improbable Dreams: A Qualitative Case Study Of Elite High School Football Players

This thesis is a qualitative case study of an elite high school football program in the American Southeast. I conducted twelve interviews with former players from Lake Kolofa High School to better understand how young men are socialized into pursuing elite levels of sport. Using the society spectacle framework, this thesis extends current debates about primary sources of encouragement for participation to include the collective spectacle of sport. Here, the sporting spectacle acts as a major contributing factor in how young men come to view their chances of achieving upward social mobility through football. Other primary findings focus on the benefits and detriments of participation. Most notably, attention is given to how football serves as a racial safe space for athletes and how sport participation can provide a respite from the stresses of home life. However, similar to big-time college football, there are numerous challenges within elite levels of high school participation, including the time and physical demands that interfere with the school-sport balance. This thesis also considers how these men may participate in the reproduction of their social class through their pursuit of a professional sporting career.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A. in Sociology

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Sociology and Anthropology

Year dc:date.available

2014

Author dc:creator

• Webb, Noah Stephen

Contributors dc:contributor

• Jeffrey Jackson
• James M. Thomas
• Charles K. Ross

• African American
• Elite Participation
• Interscholastic Sport
• Sociology Of Sport
• Spectacle
• Sociology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/848

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:egrove.olemiss.edu:etd-1847