Beyond the Dumb Jock: The Multifaceted Lives of Adolescent Athletes in Young Adult Fiction

• In Event: 43.063 - Crossing the Chalk Line: Perspectives on Sports Culture and K–12 Education

Abstract

The public, media, and fans continually scrutinize athletes. Adolescents bear similar scrutiny, and like athletes are also viewed as egotistical, adrenaline-driven, and immature (Lesko, 2012). When considered together, these stereotypical characterizations give rise to a monolithic, negative “adolescent-athlete” construct: the dumb jock. However, such a portrayal is categorically unfair, as adolescents and athletes are as complex and diverse as any kind of person. To illustrate, we present several sports-related young adult (YA) literary texts featuring alternative portraits of the adolescent-athlete that offer more nuanced depictions for readers’ consideration.

This analysis draws upon scholarship in critical youth studies that aims to trouble notions of being versus becoming. It is common for adults to worry over the lives of young people and questions of their becoming. This adult risks devaluing the lives and experiences of youth. Furthermore, contemporary educational practices have set aside previous forms of individualized and narrative understandings of youth for standardized and statistically informed understandings. This has led to adolescence being understood as a “simplified form of preparation for becoming,” with those who do not meet adult-set standards treated as “incapable of becoming adults” (Tilleczek, 2014, p. 20). This picture is complicated by athletic participation, which plays a central role in the lives of many adolescents. Scholarship suggests that immersion in sports culture stands to foster a range of literacy practices among adolescents (Mahiri, 1998). Therefore, rather than dismiss students’ interests in sports as extraneous to literacy learning and of little relevance in K-12 classrooms, scholars have advocated for teachers tapping students’ funds of athletically informed knowledge (cf., Moll et al., 1992).

To explore ways of re-conceptualizing young athletes, we examine five YA stories: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Alexie, 2007), “Montana Wild” (Crutcher, 2009), Ball Don’t Lie (de la Peña, 2005), Smashed (Luedeke, 2012), and The Running Dream (Van Draanen, 2011). In brief, we find that the adolescent-athletes in these stories lead multifaceted lives, including engaging in altruistic endeavors such as advocating for social issues and supporting friends enduring disabilities. Additionally, these characters demonstrate artistic and academic talents beyond athletics. We also find that these adolescent-athletes struggle with tensions between being and becoming. In Alexi’s novel, for example, Junior lives within a tension of living in the moment on the court and moving across school and society spaces toward a future self. This tension is highlighted by his math teacher in the reservation school, who demands that he change schools because he worries that Junior will not fulfill his potential on the reservation. With this and other character explorations, we show how young athletes can defy the pejorative “athlete” label and come to inhabit its many possibilities.

From this analysis, we argue that examining depictions of adolescent-athletes in sports-themed YA literature can help educators to expand their conceptualizations of adolescent-athletes and more richly appreciate the role of athletics in the lives of their students.

Authors

• Mark A. Lewis, James Madison University

• Luke Rodesiler, Purdue University Fort Wayne