Interview of a Student at Woodstock
Sports and Religion
This following interview was done on Sunday April 6th. The person who received the interview was a student at Woodstock High School, and it was carried out over the phone. I asked him a series of questions involving sports and religion to determine if sports and religion have a major role in his life, which one has a more important role, and how they were intertwined.
Q1) What sports do you play/ have played in the past?
A1) I play basketball right now, but in the past I have played baseball at the age of 4 and continued until I was 13. I also began playing football at the age of 9 until I was 14, and then I wrestled when I was twelve until 14.
Q2) Do you keep your religion as a top priority in your list of priorities?
A2) Yes, today in the way I conduct my life, I can proudly say I do try to keep my religion as a high priority, but I have not always been this way, before I had my religion as something I did on Sunday.
Q3) How do you keep your religion as a top priority in sports seasons?
A3) I am lucky in the fact that church, youth group, and my small group do not overlap with basketball so I can still participate in those things but while playing basketball I try to remember that the season is only a few months and what is really important is what I believe so I have to keep in mind what really matters in the long run.
Q4) Does your religion have an impact on how you play?
A4) Personally no it doesn't affect my play, but it does affect the way I speak to others while I play. Before it would not be uncommon for me to curse or get mad at someone over a foul or something, but now I feel like I am more controlled and not as easily angered.
Q5) Are there any qualities from sports that apply to your religion too?
A5) Yes, a quality from basketball that transfer over to my religion is in basketball I have to remember to be humble and not prideful. This is because in basketball when I begin to get prideful it brings along the anger I don’t like to have as well a likelihood to not share my faith with someone because I might think I am better than them. Being humble allows me to share what I believe as well as be more content with whatever happens in basketball or life.
Q6) Do you ever take time off for your religion to go to a practice or game?
A6) Luckily I don’t have to because my schedule just works out that way, but I know people on both sides that do and that don’t and this is an issue. I support those who will skip practice for church or whatever they have, but at the same time that takes a lot of courage so I can understand those who don't.
Q7) How has the relationship with sports and religion in your life changed since you didn’t have religion as a top priority?
A7) I would have to say before I did set sports as more of a priority than my religion. This has changed though. I now think that if I had a conflict I would in fact chose my religion over sports. Sports are temporary because I will eventually not be able to participate in them because of old age but religion is forever.
Q8) Have sports ever been and idol in your life?
A8) No putting sports as an idol in my life has never really been a problem. I have always had other things in my life that I feel are more important, but that doesn't mean that I never cared about sports because I did care about sports. I put a lot of time and effort into them.
The conclusion from this series of questions has shown that in this students case, when people get older they tend to lean towards more everlasting things like religion rather than temporary things like sports. Sports and religion seem to be intertwined in this case because there is a time when sports seem more important and times when religion seems more important. This may not be the case for all students and adults, but for many that I know, there can be a balance is sports and religion is someone’s life.