Aaron Crouse - Introduction

My name is Aaron Crouse and I am a junior from Livonia, MI.  I am a sport management major with a minor in general business.  I plan on pursuing a master’s degree in athletic administration with the hopes of one day becoming a high school athletic director.  In high school I played hockey for four years along with baseball for two years.  I am currently planning on playing in a men’s hockey league in Findlay and am considering trying out for the club team at BG.  I also help coach the high school hockey team at Livonia Stevenson along with working several youth camps and acting as a private goalie instructor for several teams and young athletes around my hometown area.  While I have given up playing baseball, I still serve as an umpire for youth and high school leagues during the summer.

The female athlete that I would be most interested in seeing compete in her sport is Alex Morgan.  I personally believe that she has become the face of women’s soccer in the United States.  For a sport that generally does not receive much recognition, her performance in the Olympics has seemingly put women’s soccer on the map.  There can be a great argument made that women’s soccer is actually more popular than the men’s game in the U.S., which is quite remarkable given the shortcomings of other women’s leagues such as the WNBA.  The NBC Sports Network reported that the USA vs. Japan women’s soccer gold medal game was the most watch event in the channel’s history (4.35 million viewers), which is an accomplishment considering the network also shows the NHL Stanley Cup Finals, along with NCAA Football and NCAA Basketball for the Mountain West Conference (NBC, 13 August 2012).  While it may be easy for many fans to focus more on her looks than performance, there is no doubt that Alex Morgan has become a great ambassador for women’s soccer.

The male athlete that I would most want to see compete would be Peyton Manning.  The way he prepares and studies the game of football is remarkable.  I think any fan would be hard pressed to find an athlete that puts as much intensity and dedication as Manning does into achieving perfection on the practice field and in the film room.  Watching him run an offense or navigate his way through a two-minute drill is like looking at an NFL art form. On top of all this, Peyton Manning remains one of the greatest off the field figures in the NFL.  During a time where it seems as if every day someone is being arrested, suspended, or demanding a new contract it is reassuring to see guys like Manning standing for what is right in football.  I personally love his commercials, work on SNL, and interviews.  For an NFL superstar and no doubt first ballot hall of famer, Peyton Manning is very down to Earth and respectful of his fans.  I wish him the best of luck this year in Denver and hope to see him in a live game before he calls it quits.

Overall, I feel the workload and topics that are going to be discussed are very fair.  I would like to focus on gender relations and equality in intercollegiate and interscholastic athletics since those are topics I will come across as an athletic director.  I really like the idea of having a class weekly blog in order to discuss articles and topics related to the class so I was disappointed in seeing that the majority of the class plans on submitting journals instead.  After reviewing the class schedule of topics and sitting in on a few lectures, I am definitely ready to see even more of what sport and gender has in store this semester.