American Soccer vs World Football

Crane, Luke. "MLS: 10 Changes That Would Make It One of the Best Leagues in the World." Bleacher Report. N.p., 24 Jan. 2012. Web. 30 Mar. 2015

Foss, Mike. "Can MLS Compete with the Best Leagues in the World?" For The Win. N.p., 06 Aug. 2014. Web. 30 Mar. 2015.

Gaines, Cork. "Soccer Popularity Is On The Rise In The US, But English Football Is Benefiting More Than MLS." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 02 July 2014. Web. 30 Mar. 2015.

Kruschewsky, Gabriela. "Wake Up, America: Here's Why Soccer Is The World's Best Sport." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 14 May 2014. Web. 30 Mar. 2015.

Lindner, A. M. and Hawkins, D. N. (2012), GLOBALIZATION, CULTURE WARS, AND ATTITUDES TOWARD SOCCER IN AMERICA: An Empirical Assessment of How Soccer Explains the World. The Sociological Quarterly, 53: 68–91



McCormack, Ryan. "A Treatise: The State of American Youth Soccer." The Shin Guardian. N.p., 20 Sept. 2011. Web. 30 Mar. 2015.

Unit 2 Podcast: Traveler Podcast

Works Cited

Franklin, John. "Rethinking the National Parks for the 21st Century." National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior. Web. 30 Mar. 2015. <http://www.nps.gov/policy/report.htm>.

Litterst, Mike. "National Park Service Press Release." National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior, 10 Mar. 2014. Web. 30 Mar. 2015. <http://www.nps.gov/news/release.htm?id=1568>.

Ensor, Josie. "How America Fell in Love with British TV." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 19 July 2014. Web. 30 Mar. 2015. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10978139/How-America-fell-in-love-with-British-TV.html>.

Lane, Lea. "Yes, Travel Is Extraordinarily Good For You: Experts Show How And Why." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 16 Mar. 2015. Web. 30 Mar. 2015. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/lealane/2015/03/06/yes-travel-is-extraordinarily-good-for-you-experts-show-how-and-why/>.

"Twenty-five Reasons to Study Foreign Languages." Department of Foreign Languages & Literature, College of Liberal Arts. Auburn University. Web. 30 Mar. 2015. <http://cla.auburn.edu/forlang/resources/twenty-five-reasons/>.

"Why Should NC State Students Study Abroad." Study Abroad. NC State University. Web. 30 Mar. 2015. <http://studyabroad.ncsu.edu/for-students/why-study-abroad/>.

Living in the American Soccer Culture

Works Cited:

Ali, A; Visscher, C; Elferink-Gemser, MT; Huijgen, BCH
International Journal Of Sports Medicine,Vol. 34, Issue 8, pp. 720 - 726.
Journal Article

Bernstein, Joseph. "Dream Team: If America's Best Athletes Played Soccer We'd Win Every
World Cup." BuzzFeed. Web. 30 Mar. 2015. <http://www.buzzfeed.com/josephbernstein/dream-team-if-americas-best-athletes-played-soccer-wed-win-e#.kdqnA8vVpA>.

Eisenbrand, Jeffrey. "What If Best U.S. Athletes Played Soccer." ThePostGame. 19 June
2012. Web. 30 Mar. 2015. <http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/list/201206/what-if-best-american-athletes-played-soccer#1>.

Kane, Rowan. "Europe Is Starting to Take American Soccer Seriously (Seriously!)." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 2 July 2014. Web. 30 Mar. 2015. <http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/07/the-us-has-won-football-respect-in-europe-finally-world-cup-belgium/373852/>.

Popular Sports In America Comments. The Richest. Web. 30 Mar. 2015. <http://www.therichest.com/sports/most-popular-sports-in-america/>.

Quartstad, Brian. "What Is US Club Soccer?" Inside Soccer. IMSoccer. Web. 30 Mar. 2015. <http://www.insidemnsoccer.com/2009/04/23/what-is-us-club-soccer/>.

"Reuters Examines the World of Soccer Academies throughout Europe." Inside Agency For Our Customers Reuters Examines the World of Soccer Academies throughout Europe Comments. Reuters, 28 Mar. 2013. Web. 30 Mar. 2015. <http://insideagency.reuters.com/2013/03/for-our-customers-reuters-examines-the-world-of-soccer-academies-throughout-europe/>.

Silverman, David. "U.S. Youth Soccer vs. Soccer Fandom in the U.S." Soccer Politics The
Politics of Football. 6 Oct. 2013. Web. 30 Mar. 2015.
<https://sites.duke.edu/wcwp/2013/10/06/u-s-youth-soccer-vs-soccer-fandom-in-the-u-s/>.

"Soccer in the United States." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 30 Mar. 2015. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soccer_in_the_United_States#College_soccer>.

"10 Most Popular Sports In America." TheRichest The Worlds Most Entertaining Site 10 Most

A Podcast About FRC

The guitar music in the beginning is from http://www.freesound.org/people/kvgarlic/sounds/209334/.

Work Cited:

Buckhaults, Caitlin. "Increasing Computer Science Participation in the FIRST Robotics Competition with Robot Simulation." ACM Digital Library. ACM, 1 Jan. 2009. Web. 15 Mar. 2015. <http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1566472>.

Genn, Adina. "Long Island Regional FIRST Robotics Competition Helps Students Experience the Value of Science." ProQuest. Long Island Business News, 27 Feb. 2004. Web. 15 Mar. 2015. <http://search.proquest.com/docview/223613622?pq-origsite=summon>.

Mancini, Rosmaria. "LI Regional FIRST Robotics Competition Is about Learning, Not Winning." ProQuest. Long Island Business News, 27 Feb. 2004. Web. 15 Mar. 2015. <http://search.proquest.com/docview/223622133?pq-origsite=summon>.

Wankat, Phillip. "Survey of K-12 Engineering-oriented Student Competitions." International Journal of Engineering Education. International Journal of Engineering Education, 1 Jan. 2007. Web. 15 Mar. 2015. <http://www.ijee.ie/latestissues/Vol23-1/11_ijee1885.pdf>.

Wilczynski, Vincent, and Woodie Flowers. "FIRST Robotics Competition: University Curriculum Applications of Mobile Robots." International Journal of Engineering Education. International Journal of Engineering Education, 1 Jan. 2006. Web. 15 Mar. 2015. <http://www.ijee.ie/articles/Vol22-4/10_ijee1797.pdf>.

Unit 2: Youth Hockey Autoethnographic Podcast

Work Cited

Simmons, Steve. "Attention Coaches, Parents: Minor Hockey Is for the Children." Toronto Sun. N.p., 16 Sept. 2013. Web. 5 Mar. 2015.

Gillmor, Don. "Is Minor Hockey worth It?" Thestar.com. Toronto Star, 11 Jan. 2013. Web. 05 Mar. 2015.

Campbell, Ken. "The Real Scandal in Hockey." Macleans.ca. Maclean's, 20 Jan. 2013. Web. 05 Mar. 2015.

Burge, Kathleen. "Faced with Burnout, Youth Hockey Eases up." Boston.com. The Boston Globe, 25 Feb. 2010. Web. 24 Mar. 2015.

Work in Progress Post: Travel Podcast

Hey its Himanshu and I am working on an autoethnographic podcast on travelers. In this except from my interview I talk about my experience traveling through the National parks. The National parks were a huge part of my travels within the US and therefore i chose this section for this post. I expect this to be talked much about in the final product.

Brandon:

 “…. Back to the national park idea what were your favorite National parks and why do you like going to them”

Me:

”Yeah so about national parks. I was in the BSA so i kinda already had a love of nature from the many camping trips and stuff i did as a kid. In kinda started as a family thing as everyone in my family loves nature and we used to go on many family hikes in the local parks. That pushed us all towards visiting these national parks. One of my favorites which i visited really early on was yellowstone national park. It was Awesome to see how well preserved nature is there. You can like actually watch wolves hunt other animals and stuff like that and one time he saw a bear with her cubs and probably got too close to her but we were with a bunch of other tourists so we were fine but, yeah common silly tourist mistakes. Other places we went to were well. When we went to Nevada i got to go to the Grand Canyon National Park which was probably the most disappointing of the parks i have been too. For some reason it didn’t really stand up to the other ones i had seen so it didn’t impress me so much. the hikes there were also pretty dull because once you start going into the canyon all you see are red rocks and there is no shade from the sun at all.. But near the grand canyon was a park called Zion which was really awesome. Its pretty much like the grand canyon but smaller and much more pretty. You get to go straight through the canyon and there some cool water hikes you can take there. Another one, well yosemite was really nice park and also really pretty. Than there was olympic national park which is probably another one of my favorites. It was a real surprise since i never really heard much about that park till i was in seattle but the park was really incredible to go through . The mountains were awesome and the beaches were really cool. there were like sea anemones on the beach and stuff and it was a really rocky beach unlike any beach i had seen before. In North Carolina itself i personally like the outer banks state park just because i really like seeing the light houses and stuff and i kinda want to sail in one of those old sail boats. But um yeah those are probably my favorite national parks.”

Work in Progress 2

In my interview I recount there being two parts that really stick out to me and how soccer has influenced my. First off I talked about how cost affected my soccer lifestyle from school soccer to club soccer. The second excerpt focused more on my personal gain from having played so much soccer and being on so many teams.


So the original question I was asked was did cost ever have an affect on you playing soccer? To me this was a question that I was a little unsure about. Yes soccer got to be expensive sometimes whether it was my mom providing the team meal or having to pay for a hotel room because our game was too far away but it never really seemed to interfere which was what the question was asking. For my club team my parents had to pay around $1500 to just play about 10 games and maybe a couple of tournaments and that doesn't even begin to include all the extras like gas, jerseys and hotel rooms. For school the story was a little different because the school covers travel expenses (for the team at least), jerseys and equipment but each parent has to volunteer to provide a team meal which can be very expensive with 21 players and 2-3 coaches. Overall I don’t think that cost had any change to my experience playing soccer thanks to my parents support and them always providing me with the best. The other question in my interview that really stood out to me was where Matt asked me about how soccer affected my life as a whole. Its hard to think of any specific moment where I learned any of the countless lessons over my soccer career. A big one is teamwork as cliche as it sounds. The community that I encountered with my teammates has helped my in so many ways today and it makes me a more open individual overall. A lot of my social skills have been attributed to the fact I was exposed to so many people in so many different situations and had to quickly become friends with them. Even more than friends because we would have to play games sometimes only a few days after meeting one another. The next most valuable trait that I learned or developed was that of leadership. My sophomore year and senior year I was captain of my school team and that brings on so much responsibility. I had to make sure everyone got to practice, get the equipment and water, lead practice and game warm ups and then be a leader on the field during games. I’ve take my skills and have been able to implement them in my jobs and in my school life. Both of my employers have noted about how I handle myself with in high regard and keep my responsibilities in check. This skill has also helped me earn my eagle scout award which is a huge life achievement. So this is a synopsis of the most important parts of my interview.

Work In Progress

Hello FutureWolfTech readers, this is my work in progress post for the Unit 2 project. I was interviewed by Bryce about playing hockey and how much different it is being from the north. This is a small excerpt from the recording that was made. I talked a little about how I first got into playing, and how there is a different hockey culture in the north as opposed to the south.

Bryce: Did you have close friends or family that helped influence your decision to play? If so, why?

Me: Like I said before, my mom asked me to try it out and I’m sure my parents discussed it with each other at the time, but my mom was the one who brought me to the learn-to-skates and the house league games. House leagues games are basically just small organized games put on by the rink as opposed to an outside group. Thats where pretty much every kid starts, and a lot of kids that I knew and played with all through high school played in the same house league as me, some even on the same team. It's pretty crazy that, even after all that time, we're all still great friends. But I actually dont really know why she asked me to play, my guess is she had some friends from work or something that had kids that played, and she thought it sounded cool. Neither of my parents really watched hockey or anything on TV before I started playing, so it really came out of the blue.



Bryce: How much bigger of a deal is hockey in the north than down south?

Me: Its a much bigger deal. It is very different up north. Here in North Carolina, there is only one youth team that I’ve ever heard of; the Junior Hurricanes. Up north, pretty much every town had a youth team and a rink. The youth hockey programs were much better funded, had a lot more participation, more age groups, etc. A lot of the youth teams are very competitive as well. They have kids as young as 8 years old traveling around the country to compete on a national level. The competition was much better growing up than what I have seen and heard about here in North Carolina. Also, nearly every medium to big high school in the state has their own team. I played for my high school, and there was 3 divisions consisting of about 24-26 teams each throughout the state. My high school is division 2. It was a very big commitment; we practiced 6 days a week on non-game days. We were bussed to every practice from our school, so from 2:30 to 6:30 every day we bonded as a team and played together on the ice. The hockey culture is definitely stronger up north than here. The youth hockey is much better supported. More people watch on TV as well as go to games. The arenas in Boston and New York are sold out almost every game, with tickets in the thousands. I haven't seen that with the Hurricanes.

Work In Progress: Autoethnography

Over the next few days I would like to dissect an interesting topic: “What makes a soccer fanatic?”. I plan to look at many angles including views from the cultural and interpersonal levels of fellow soccer players and enthusiasts. Moreover, “What does choosing soccer have to say about you?”

Here is an excerpt from a recent interview between me and Himanshu, focusing on why I identify myself with this historic group.

Himanshu: Why Soccer?

Brandon: Soccer is more of a lifestyle than a sport. I have been playing soccer since I was six years old, and I learned to kick my first ball when I was four. Arguably, I didn’t learn to kick it correctly until I was much older (audience laughs) . My older brother has played it his whole life along with my younger brother, father, and cousins. My entire family has been watching soccer, professional soccer to be particular, since I could remember. It’s basically something that I grew into that I learned to love and appreciate more over the years.

Himanshu: Well why did you choose Soccer over other sports, like Football?

Brandon: Well this answer is pretty complicated. In short, I never really got caught up into American Football. It was always there, I guess, but that was it. I was never caught up into the atmosphere for many different reasons. Overall I think that where I grew up, which was a small Armenian town called Glendale, American football was not present. As I grew older my family moved a lot, so I lived with my grandparents who were Armenian and Russian immigrants. Both of which had a strong passion for soccer which developed through the culture they lived in. In middle school I remember other soccer players talking about how football players only have to run for 5-10 seconds then they get to rest, and have a water break. I guess this was another reason I didn’t ever get into football. It never made sense to me and the overall intensity of football seemed to be lacking, in my opinion.

Himanshu: American or European clubs and why?

Brandon: No doubt, European. American football, or American soccer is what I meant, I guess has been growing in popularity especially in the past few years. The intensity is still lacking when compared to European style football but the familiarity of American soccer among Americans is quickly growing. People used to not even really care about American soccer because it wasn’t even a real thing yet. This past world cup has been substantial for American soccer fans because the mens team made it to the quarter finals. I believe that the National team has a lot to do with the fan base in that country. Like the countries where soccer is incredibly popular, like Brazil and Germany, tend to do better as a national team and have a larger fan base.

Himanshu: Now do you have a role model?

If I had to choose a role model, it would be my cousin Raul. His whole life he has pushed me into playing soccer, and he bought me my first Barcelona jersey when I was eight. He chose a slightly different path than me, playing as a midfielder at Wake Forest currently. He would always come over to my house and want to pass the ball, or call me to come to a pickup game, and stuff like that. Overall he brought me into the culture of soccer and has been largely influential to me my whole life. I believe that soccer is a family centered sport, that focused on one team and also brings in many aspects that other sports cannot. A soccer team is not only the 11 on the field, but the ones in the stand also, or as my high school coach used to tell everyone.

An FRC Interview with a Past Member

Recently I had a couple of my classmates interview me about FRC. Honestly I’m surprised having to listen to my own voice didn't bring me to a very sour mood, and I’m hoping I don’t have to do this again (I really don’t like my voice), though I’m well aware I will need to. However, this isn't about my opinion on my voice, this is about the interview I had to do. This interview was on my participation in FIRST’s robotics competition. I’m sorry if it’s a bit difficult to read; I tried, though perhaps it would have been a better idea not to, to keep the breaks and pauses and other speech nuances in the transcript.

Could you explain to us, what is FRC?

Um… FRC is a robotics competition… Mainly uh…. the main participants are high-schoolers. There’s a mentor group as well because, you know, power tools. You don’t let kids work with those on their own. Um… Each year uh… actually I think it’s like the first Saturday of… Saturday or Sunday of each year. uh... FIRST uh... announces what their er what their competition is going to be for the year. Then all the teams have six weeks to build the robot, get it functional; all of that. And then, over the next few months I think, I don’t know the dates too well, there’s uh… competitions yeah, there’s uh… competitions, the group I was part of, robodogs, FIRST team four thirty five [435] , we tended to go to two competitions a year. If you uh… If you basically win the competitions, you uh… what is it, if you win the competitions you be, err… you get the chance to go to nationals which is basically the finals for uh of the stuff, which has something like four hundred teams. That’s a lot. Umm…. but yeah we build robots that do things like throw frisbees.

Alright, well, so what sparked your interest in FRC?

Um… Personally, I, well I am an engineer for one, but uh… I enjoyed the programing aspect of it, and people kept on telling me I was supposed to err uh I should join it and when I joined there were people saying I should have joined years before, so yeah.

Ok cool, um… why did you choose to be a member uh… I guess that’s kind of redundant

Yeah… kind of

Ok, um… so, when did you say you joined FRC?

Uh… it was my pshh… Junior year… of high school, and, what is it I think they have you join in the uh… fall end of stuff…

Alright, so, what kind of cool things did you do in FRC?

We built robots. Robots that threw frisbees. Uh… mostly just building robots. There are people who model and stuff but, mostly just building robots.

And what was your greatest achievement?

Um… well our first… or the first year I was part of it our robot made it to nationals. The second year we did pretty well um.... what was it in Virginia we came in second place overall… and I was the one who drove the robot that year so I’m kind of happy about that.

And uh… how these events impacted your life so far?

Um… reinforce the idea that it’d be a good idea to go into a job in computer programing. Otherwise I’m not really good at seeing other stuff too well but yeah.