3.1. Sports at colleges

3.1.1. College and sport

Youth is synonymous with energy -- mental and physical. Organized and informal sports provide teens with an opportunity to expend some of that energy and, more importantly, to learn the value of fair play, to achieve goals, and to just have fun.

In 2003, 58 percent of boys and 51 percent of girls in high school played on a sports team. The most popular sports for boys are American football, basketball, track and field, baseball, and soccer (international football). For girls, the most popular are basketball, track and field, volleyball, softball, and soccer. As a result of a U.S. law that encourages women to take part in athletics, girls' participation in high school athletics has increased by 800 percent over the past 30 years. Other organized high school sports often include gymnastics, wrestling, swimming, tennis, and golf. Away from school, teenagers participate year-round in community-sponsored sports leagues. In addition, particularly in the summer, they engage in informal "pick up" games of one sport or another in the streets and parks of their neighborhoods.

In 2001, a higher percentage of high school seniors reported participating in athletic teams (39 percent) and music/performing arts activities (25 percent) than academic clubs (15 percent), student council/government (11 percent), and newspaper/yearbook (10 percent). Females were more likely to participate in newspaper/yearbook, music/performing arts, academic clubs, student council or government, and other school clubs or activities than males. Males, however, were more likely to participate in athletics.

Sports also play an important role in the everyday social scene at American colleges and universities. University sports programs are offered at the intercollegiate (organized competition) and the intramural (club-like, less competitive) levels. Many universities offer sports scholarships at the intercollegiate level to students who are both academically qualified and skilled in a particular sport. Athletic scholarships are awarded for everything from archery to wrestling, with an eye on gender equality to achieve a balance between men's and women's scholarships.

Playing for a college team on scholarship is one way students help pay for the cost of earning an undergraduate degree. About $1 billion in athletic scholarships are awarded through the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) each year. Over 126,000 student-athletes receive either a partial or a full athletic scholarship. These scholarships are awarded and administered directly by each academic institution, not the NCAA. Award amounts vary from a few thousand dollars to nearly $30,000 for one academic year and do not necessarily cover the full cost of tuition and living expenses. Scholarships are offered on a percentage basis, and universities have strict limits on the total amount they can award each year [18, www.usa.usembassy.de/sports-youth.htm].

3.1.2. Sport and money

Intercollegiate sports and money have always been a hotly debated topic. Rules prevent any college athlete from accepting money. Whenever some basketball player is found to have accepted “a gift”, the sports pages are full of the scandal. As a result, some college teams whose members have violated the rules are forbidden to take part in competitions. Several universities like the highly respected University of Chicago do not take part in any intercollegiate sports whatsoever. Many other restrict sports to those played among their own students, so-called intramural sports and activities.

Those who defend college sports point out that there are no separate institutions or “universities” for sports in the U.S. as there are in other countries. They also note that many sports programs pay their own way, that is, what they earn from tickets and so on for football or basketball or baseball games often supports less popular sports and intramural games at the university. At some universities, a large portion of the income from sports, say from TV rights, goes back to the university and is used also for academic purposes. Generally, however, sports and academics are separated from one another. You cannot judge whether a university is excellent or poor from whether its teams win or lose.

In the United States, however, there are attitudes towards the mixing of commercialism, money, and sports, or professionals and amateurs which often differ from those of other nations. The U.S. was, for example, one of only 13 countries to vote in 1989 against allowing professional basketball players to compete in the Olympics. Similarly, American professionals in football, baseball, and basketball are not allowed to wear jerseys and uniforms with advertising, brand names, etc. on them. The National Football League does not allow any team to be owned by a corporation or company.

Most Americans think that government should be kept separate from sports, both amateur and professional. They are especially concerned when their tax money is involved. The citizens of Denver, Colorado, for example, decided that they did not want the 1976 Winter Olympics there, no matter what the city government and businessmen thought. They voted “no” and the Olympics had to be held elsewhere. The residents of Los Angeles, on the other hand, voted to allow the (Summer) Olympics in 1984 to be held in their city, but they declared that not one dollar of city funds could be spent on them. Because the federal government doesn't give any money either, all of the support had to come from private sources. As it turned out, the L.A. Olympics actually made a profit, some $100 million, which was distributed to national organizations in the U.S. and abroad [10, p.196-197].

3.1.3. Women's Collegiate Sport

The past two decades have witnessed a large growth in women's sports in American universities and colleges. This is a natural process related to increased participation of women in all areas of labor and public life. Women play virtually all sports that men do with the exception of American football and baseball. (Softball is a popular' women's sport. In the US, field hockey is a sport that is played primarily by women.) The growth of women's sport has also been enhanced by the erosion of old-fashioned misconceptions about women's ability to play physically demanding sports. The old notion sometimes expressed that women were 'the weaker sex" appears increasingly absurd in light of evidence that at the outer limits of endurance women may well last longer than men.

One of the spurs to the increase in women's collegiate sport is the presence of federal legislation, informally called Title IX. For the most part, however, athletic departments around the country try to maintain a balance of opportunities for men and women [2, p.292].

3.1.4. Intramural and club sports

In addition to intercollegiate athletics colleges and universities have large programs for intramural sports. Among men touch or flag football is very popular. Intramural teams often represent various student organizations, such as men's fraternities, women's sororities15 or dormitories. There are also teams on which faculty members play. Although intramural competitions are theoretically recreational in nature, they are usually very spirited and are taken very seriously by participants.

Club sports involve teams that are informal and have no official or varsity status but nevertheless take part in intercollegiate competition with teams from other institutions. Club teams sometimes serve spoils that are little known or practiced in certain regions, such as hockey in Florida. Some clubs strive to become varsity sports, whereas others, such as many men's and women's rugby clubs, prefer to retain the greater informality possible with club status. It should be pointed out here that varsity athletic teams are usually very tightly managed by their coaches and require as many as two to four hours of practice per day. Students who want a less demanding schedule may therefore gravitate to intramural or club teams [2, p.293].

3.2. Animals in sport

Fishing and hunting are extremely popular in all parts of the country and have been since the days when they were necessary activities among the early settlers. As a consequence, they have never been thought of as upper-class sports in the U.S. And it is easy to forget how much of the country is open land, how much of it is still wild and filled with wildlife. New Jersey, for example, has enough wild deer so that the hunting season there is used to keep the herds smaller. Wild turkeys have also returned to the East and Midwest in great numbers. In the states of the Midwest, of course, there is much more wild game, and hunting there is even more popular.

Hunting licenses are issued by the individual states, and hunting is strictly controlled. Some hunters don't actually hunt, of course. They use it as a good excuse to get outdoors in the autumn or to take a few days or longer away from the job and family. Indoor poker games are rumored to be a favorite activity of many hunters who head for cabins in the woods.

There are many more fishermen (around 50 million in 1990) than hunters (17 millions), and many more lakes and rivers than bears. Minnesota advertises itself on its license plates as the `land of 10.000 lakes.” This, of course, is not quite true: there are more. Michigan not only has a long coastline from the Great Lakes, it also has what official descriptions simply call, without counting, “thousands of lakes.”[1, p.142]

3.3. Unusual sports

There are several sports and sports activities in the U.S., all having their strong supporters, which many people think are a bit strange or at least unusual. For example, Americans will race just about anything that has wheels. Not just cars, but also “funny cars” with aircraft and jet engines, large trucks with special motors, tractors, pickup trucks with gigantic tires, and even motorcycles with automobile engines. Truck racing, it seems, has made it big in Europe. In 1990, The European paper wrote that in only six years since it found its way across the Atlantic, truck racing was attracting “crowds to rival those of the Formula One grand prix motor racing circus.” Other sports are popular because they don't involve motors. The first “people-powered” aircraft to cross the English Channel was pedaled by an American. And the first hot-air balloon to make it across the Atlantic had a crew from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

There are also several sports in the U.S. which were once thought of as being “different”, but have now gained international popularity. Among these, for instance, is skate-boarding. Another example is wind-surfing which very quickly spreads in popularity from the beaches of California and Hawaii. Hang-gliding became really popular after those same people in California started jumping off cliffs above the ocean. Those who like more than wind and luck attached a small lawnmower engine to a hang-glider and soon “ultra-light-weight” planes were buzzing around [1, p.143].

3.4. Camps

US Sports Camps (USSC), headquartered in San Rafael, California (just north of San Francisco), is America's Largest Sports Camp Network and the licensed operator of The NIKE Sports Camps. It was started in 1975 with the same mission that defines it today: to shape a lifelong enjoyment of athletics through high quality sports education and skill enhancement.

By associating with the country's best coaches to direct our camps and by providing them with valuable administrative and marketing support, USSC has become the largest and most successful sports camp operator in America. During the summer of 2007 more than 52,000 campers attended US Sports Camps at 400 locations nationwide.

US Sports Camps include youth and adult programs in the following sport categories: NIKE tennis, NIKE golf, NIKE volleyball, NIKE lacrosse, NIKE  basketball, NIKE softball, NIKE running, NIKE field hockey, NIKE swim, NIKE soccer, NIKE baseball, Nike water polo, NIKE multi-sport, as well as the NBC Basketball Camps, Vogelsinger Soccer Academy, Contact Football Camps, Snow Valley Basketball Camps, International Hockey Schools, McCracken Basketball Camps, Peak Performance Swim Camps, and Professional Sports Camps.

From this chapter it should be concluded that over the past quarter century recreational sport has become an incrisingly large part of American life.The Americans like to spare their lasure time doing sports and that's why they are ready to spend great sums of money to keep fit and be in good form or just to have a fun and joy.Each person chooses sport that suits him best: it can be a traditional kind of sport such as basketball or just something that even can shock the public, for example wrestling. Nowadays in the USA there are a lot of different programs in schools and colleges that allow students to get involved into public life. When there are summer holidays in The United States, students are offered a variety of sports camps where they are able to develop their physical abilities and just make a number of friends.Some kinds of recreation such as fishing or hunting don't need much money and many American men are always ready to spend their spare time doing that. Moreover the natute of the USA has resourses for that.

CONCLUSION

Now I think we have found the ansver to the question why so many sports are popular in the Uneted States. One reason may be that the variety and size of America and the different climates found in it have provided Americans with a large choice of (summer and winter) sports. In addition, public sports facilities have always been available in great number for participants, even in sports such as golf, tennis, or skating. The fact that the average high school, too, offers its students a great variety of sports, often including rowing, tennis, wrestling, and golf, may have contributed to the wide and varied interest and participation of Americans in sports. This, in turn, may explain why Americans have traditionally done well internationally in many of these sports.

Another reason might be that Americans like competitions, by teams or as individuals, of any type. It's the challenge, some say. Some people point out that American schools and colleges follow the tradition of all English-speaking societies in using sports activities as a way of teaching “social values.” Among these are teamwork, sportsmanship (when they win, American players are expected to say, “well, we were just lucky”), and persistence (not quitting “when the going gets rough”). As a result, being intelligent and being good in sports are seen as things that can go together and, as an ideal, should. While there are colleges where sports seem to be dominant, there are many others which have excellent academic reputations and are also good in sports.

Others simply conclude that Americans simply like sports activities and always have. They like to play a friendly play of softball at family picnics, and “touch football” (not tackling!) games can get started on beaches and in parks whenever a few young people come together. “Shooting baskets” with friends is a favorite way to pass the time, either in a friend's driveway (the basket is over the garage door) or on some city or neighborhood court. And on a beautiful autumn afternoon- the sun shining in a clear blue sky, the maple trees turning scarlet and the oaks a golden yellow- it is fun to go with friends to a football game. And go they do.

So large numbers of Americans watch and participate in sports activities, which are a deeply ingrained part of American life. Americans use sports to express interest in health and fitness and to occupy their leisure time. Sports also allow Americans to connect and identify with mass culture. Americans pour billions of dollars into sports and their related enterprises, affecting the economy, family habits, school life, and clothing styles. Americans of all classes, races, sexes, and ages participate in sports activities--from toddlers in infant swimming groups and teenagers participating in school athletics to middle-aged adults bowling or golfing and older persons practicing t'ai chi.

I think all necessary topics have been discussed in my course paper and that means that this kind of work is fulfilled.

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16. www.usa.usembassy.de/sports_women.htm

17. www.usa.usembassy.de/sports-youth.htm

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