Communications Degree

   Education is the process of learning and gathering information. Education can be divided into two main types. One is called formal learning, which is through an institution such as a school. The other is often a self-learned life experience.  Generally, education is important for learning basic life skills, as well as learning advanced skills that can make a person more attractive in the job market. The fact is, what is exercised grows stronger, what is ignored stays dormant. The classroom exercises the collection of skills and academics leaving all other natural skills behind.

       This year I decided to change my current academic path and chose communication as my major. This semester I’m currently taking two different communication courses. One of which is sports communication and this course was the prime source for making a declaring a new major. Attending college and paying to be enrolled in certain courses basically means I’m paying to further my success and brighten my future. With the astonishing amount of money students pay to further their education, there is no reason not to give it your all. If you happen to fail a course or withdraw from it, you must then pay to take the course again, ultimately costing you more money and time exerted.

      With a communications degree, there is a large variety of career professions that you may work in. While working to receive your degree the courses in your major likely include journalism, broadcasting, public relations, advertising and speech communications. The experience gained in writing and speaking make communication graduates valuable to virtually any company.

          A degree in communications is one of the most well rounded degrees a graduate can earn. Many communication programs are set up with 1/3 of classes within your major and 2/3 in liberal arts. Students learn a little about history, art, political science, computer science, and biology in order to expand their perspectives and educational background. Students often use those credits to add a couple of minors to that communications degree.

Participation Levels in NCAA

       Participation levels in NCAA sports were at an all time high in 2006-2007 for both male and female student-athletes. There are more then 400,000 student-athletes participating in sports for which the NCAA conducts championships, which includes student-athletes competing on more than 18,000 teams. In just 26 years from 1981-2007, the overall women's participation in collegiate athletics went from 64,390 to 172,634, while the men had grown from 167,055 to 230,259. The number of NCAA student-athletes and the teams on which they compete continue to climb. For the ninth consecutive year, data from the NCAA Sports Sponsorship has shown a dramatic increase in athletic opportunities   where the NCAA sponsors championships.

            Of the sports-participation total, 57 percent are male student-athletes. While there are typically more males in the NCAA student-athlete population, there tends to be more women’s teams than men’s. The number of women’s championship sports teams in fact has increased annually for the past 29 years. While the number of men’s teams has decreased in three of the last 10 years, it has increased steadily since 2003-04. The 2010-11 totals are an all-time high.

            Basketball is the most frequently sponsored women’s sport, followed by volleyball, cross country, soccer, softball, tennis, and track and field. Basketball also leads the way in men’s sport sponsorship, followed by cross country, baseball, golf, soccer, tennis, track and field, and football.

            I figured men’s football and women’s softball would be the highest sponsored sports throughout the NCAA, but with basketball leading the way it comes as no surprise. I never realized that women’s basketball has grown so much in the past 25 years at the collegiate level. I wonder what it will look like in the next 10 years for both women’s and men’s NCAA sports-participation and sponsorship.

Collegiate Coaching Strategy

            As a football coach, it is more important to help provide positive guidance and life lessons that are beneficial to my players in the long run. It’s always great to be successful athletically, but it also has to be done academically, characteristically, and behaviorally.

At the collegiate level in sports, not every athlete gets to play in every game. Some of the players just sit on the sidelines for a lot of the time. It is my job to identify which players to put on the game field, as well as having the other players, who don’t play as much, put in the same effort and team support. For many colleges, their sports teams will provide a junior varsity team and a varsity team. The Junior Varsity, or JV, is mainly for the incoming freshmen and 3^rd or 4^th string athletes. It is a way to let each athlete be able to compete and play more equally.

            In college, football is strictly a man’s sport. The ages of the athletes usually varies from ages 17-24. Thus, seeing the age of these competitors, it is the coach’s job to strategize accordingly; meaning that most of his athletes are still young adolescents and may need some reconstruction and guidance in other aspects of life. The players are mature enough to accept criticism, but young enough to help rebuild character if needed.

            Before each practice, in the mornings, the players are required to attend morning meetings. These meetings are established to promote each player to run on a schedule. It helps the athletes attend classes and not sleep in too long. There are set restrictions and requirements that the players are given in order to stay a part of the team. Some of which are for each athlete to maintain at least a 2.0 GPA, miss no more then 5 classes a semester, and to sit in the front of each class. These rules and regulations are put in place to help the athletes succeed academically and collegially.

Later in the day, after classes are over, the players will meet in the locker room and we will have team discussion. We will go over the daily and weekly practice outlines.  Here is a daily college football schedule.

Football Practice
Drill	Time	Comments
Morning meeting	6:00-7:00 am	Don’t be late
Chalkboard Talk	3:00-3:15 pm	Pre-practice info
Specialties	3:20-3:45 pm	Game assignments
Team Warm-Up	3:50-4:15 pm	Stretches
Defensive skill work	4:20-4:45 pm	Tackling drills
Individual specialties	4:50-5:10 pm	Speed drills
Team Offense	5:10-5:30 pm	Spread Offense
Team Defense	5:35-6:00 pm	4-4 Defense
Film & Discussion	6:00-6:30 pm	Opponent game film

The drills we do are to help improve our athletes’ performance. We do a variety of speed, strength, and mental toughness drills to improve the athletes’ wellbeing. The three-cone drill is one of our best drills to work on speed and agility. The cones are set up in the shape of an “L”, with cones at the corner and at each end, 5 yards apart (see diagram). The player starts by getting down in a three-point stance next to Cone 1. He runs to Cone 2, bends down and touches a line with his right hand. Then he turns and runs back to Cone 1, bends down and touches that line with his right hand. Then he runs back to Cone 2 and around the outside of it, weaves inside Cone 3, then around the outside of Cones 3 and 2 before finishing at Cone 1.The purpose of this is to test agility, speed, quickness, flexibility, change of direction, and body control.

            As coaches, we try hard to do a great job at helping our athletes succeed on and off of the field.  About 82% of student athletes in 2011, at the collegiate levels, graduated college. The way some coaches organize and structure their programs are very beneficial to the athletes and mostly the college it self. It gives the athletes some sense of freedom, unity, and discipline all formed together.