Introduction by Ollie Goss

Hello! My name is Ollie Goss and I am a Junior here at Bowling Green. I am a Sports Management major and have been determined to have a career in sports ever since I was little. I am from the small town of Rossford, OH, which is a direct suburb of Toledo. In fact, the new casino that was just built is only fifty yards from the city limits. In high school, I played about every sport that we had. I played basketball for four years, tennis for four years, and golfed for three, but my friends and I always played sports for fun. The highest level of competitive sports I achieved were Varsity in all three, but I did not continue on to play collegiately. In college I play intramural soccer and basketball and have a lot of fun doing so. I am not completely removed from high school sports as I am the Rossford girls varsity assistant tennis coach, as well as, a basketball coach for Rossford. This year is my first coaching girls tennis and I really have enjoyed it so far. I have been coaching basketball since I was in eighth grade, at every level up to varsity. Although I like coaching tennis, I love coaching basketball more because I have been doing it for so long and have experienced both triumph and defeat.

My favorite female athlete is the great American tennis player Serena Williams. I chose her because I love watching her play tennis in such an exciting and entertaining manner. She is so powerful in everything she does and basically dominates players off the court. My tennis game is very similar to Serena's because I have a decent, fast serve and a hard forehand. I also like watching Serena play because she positively motivates herself after critical points that she wins. She yells, "Come on!" often during her matches and gives herself a spark of energy that keeps her steamrolling opponents. My favorite accomplishment of Serena's is winning this years Olympics at Wimbledon in such a dominating fashion. She absolutely crushed Maria Sharapova and represented her country emphatically.

Although I told the class my favorite male athlete was Kobe Bryant, after deeper thought, my actual favorite male athlete is former Chelsea football club striker Didier Drogba. Didier is from the Ivory Coast and led Chelsea, a soccer team in the English Premier League, to a number of titles, including last year's Champions League title. I like Drogba so much because the first ever English Premier League game I watched was a Chelsea game and he had a very entertaining hat trick. He is entertaining to watch because wherever he's at on the pitch, he can score from. My favorite Drogba moment was during last year's Champions League final in which he made the game winning penalty kick to beat Bayern Munich in Germany and win their first Champions League. Although he doesn't play for Chelsea anymore, Drogba is still my favorite athlete.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKG-u9xg7NE&feature=related

My expectations in this class are to learn more about the portrayal of gender in sports and about how controversial issues were dealt with. So far, I have absolutely loved the class and enjoy that there was no book that we had to purchase. I feel that the articles that we have been reading are more entertaining then textbooks and are easier to read. I'm excited to learn more in this class for the rest of the semester.