Review Of Backboards: College Athletics And Role Engulfment By Peter Adler

The book, Backboards & Blackboards: College Athletics and Role Engulfment, By Patricia A. and Peter Adler examines a university basketball program to see how playing college athletics impacts players. It is believed that once introduced to college level athletics, players discover a very different experience than anticipated, once they become part of the team and environment found within the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association). The Adler’s studied college basketball for several years, “Illuminating the processes that operate within the “black Box” of college athletics, showing how and why the transformations and outcomes occur” (page 26). Before the study completed by the Alder’s the only look into college athletics was done through Academic research and journalists. As we read, the academic research was limited to

Every freshman in college has to adjust to being away from home, learning the college system and making new friends. However, for a college athlete it’s more than just learning to become a college student. As we read, for a college athlete, they are facing daily routines that include hours of practice and games that take a toll on the players emotionally and physically. Athletes have overwhelming demands on their time and talent that cause them isolation from the typical college social scene. It was discovered that being a college athlete meant that they had to relinquish some part of themselves, that personal independence that they had taken as a given of their social self (page 183). In high school these athletes were typically the most popular, yet in college their social life was found to be less important to their athletic role, causing yet another role