Interview of Dawnyelle Awa

Dawnyelle Awa is a student-athlete at Washington State University for the women’s basketball team. I had the pleasure of interviewing on April 21, 2016, just a couple of weeks before she is graduating. She has been on the WSU women’s basketball team for all four years of her undergraduate career and has started almost every single game in that span. She is majoring in Sport Management and hopes to find a career in coaching or athletic administration, either as a head basketball coach or athletic director. She is a very interesting people to get to know and has many fun and interesting experiences to tell. She is from Hawaii and has traveled the globe because of WSU women’s basketball, including places like Puerto Rico, Europe and across the United States.

My interview with her was great because we are already friends and it was more of an informal conversation, which was nice to have in the beautiful Pullman sunshine. Dawnyelle is very calm, nice, and intelligent person who is easy to have a conversation with and works very hard in school. She can come off as a shy person, but she is very happy making new friends and having fun. I learned many cool things about Dawnyelle that I did not know, including information about her travels to Europe and her favorite memories as a Washington State University basketball player. Based on what I have learned about her over the last semester, it seems to me that she will be very successful in her future career, wherever that may be.

Violence escalates in Greek Soccer

The Greek soccer federation stated on March 3, 2016, that competitive soccer could be suspended for the rest of the season due to increased fan violence at matches. The violence escalated during a match between PAOK Salonika and Olympiakos Piraeus, when a penalty kick was denied to PAOK. The fans erupted into a frenzy of violence and stormed the field to protest the game. Riot police were called out to stop the violence, but the match had to be abandoned because of unsafe conditions. According to the EPO statement, it would “not allow football to be involved in games and goals that go beyond the controversies on the pitch and be burdened with the problems of an entire society.”

Many Greek officials and experts claim that the increased violence at soccer matches is due to economic and political struggles of Greece in recent years, including European bailouts, high unemployment, and cutting of pensions. Greece has a history of fan violence, including a suspension of competitive soccer last season due to ongoing fan violence at matches. In addition, many clubs have withdrawn their teams from competitive matches and national tournaments due to the violence, with their concern being toward player safety. “The Athens derby last November involving Panathinaikos and Olympiakos was called off due to violent clashes between fans and police before kick-off.” Multiple games in Greece and at road games involving Greek teams have ended in violence, which has led to the consideration of cancelling the rest of the season for the second year in a row.

Leonel Messi

Leonel Messi is considered one of the best soccer players in human history and one of the most influential athletes in the world of sports. He began as young boy from Argentina, who was too short and small to play soccer. However, at the age of 13 he signed his first professional soccer contract with FC Barcelona on a napkin. He went through a lot of struggle to play professional soccer, including receiving injections of a form of Human Growth Hormone in his legs to make them grow faster. He played many years on the Barcelona youth squad, but soon got his chance to play on the Barcelona first squad in 2004 and play for the Argentina first team in 2005.

https://twitter.com/LM10Stats/status/699692655228358656

From 2004 to 2016, Messi has broken many records for both his club team, FC Barcelona, and his national team, Argentina. He currently holds records for most goals scored in La Liga (301), in a calendars year (91), a single season (73), and most in a Champions League Season (five). All of these records continue to grow because he is only 28 years old. His influence extends beyond his performance on the field, including charity work and community work around the world. His work with UNICEF, HIV prevention, hospitals in Argentina, and support of smaller football clubs in South America has defined him as soccer player and humanitarian. His story of humble beginnings has inspired many other players both young and small to work hard and show that your size does not define your talents.

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Outlook of SPMGT 379

My outlook of Sport Management 379 (Sport Media and Communication) at Washington State University is good and I am excited to learn about the how to use media in different ways in the sport industry. My expectations are to learn more about different types of media, like websites, social media, and other materials that relate to communication in the sport industry. Learning about social media is a large expectation because it is so relevant in today’s popular media, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Creating a simple website throughout the semester should be an interesting process because like most assignments in this class, I have never done something like that before. Media and communication in a business setting in somewhat new to me and I look forward to learning more about media.

The various projects of the course, including the video clips and the mock press conference, should be fun to create and relate well to the field of sport media and communication. The mock press conference that we will complete at the end of the semester seems very interesting to me because I have not done anything like it before in my academic career. The idea of creating a news release and giving a press conference about it is different, but practical to the sport media part of the industry. The expectation of the class, including logistics and rules, are reasonable and understandable to allow the course to run smoothly and effectively. SPMGT 379 does not seem boring or uninteresting and ordinary class days are interactive, which makes the material more interesting.

First Post

The first post on my website.