Former scholastic athletes perceptions of sport-based personal development: A 50 year retrospective case study

Abstract

This investigation was designed to explore sport-related personal development of former high school athletes and to understand the perceived influence of their high school sport experience on their lives over five decades. A retrospective case study design was employed with nine former male varsity athletes from the same small town high school representing a variety of sports in the 1968–1969 scholastic sport season. Findings revealed that scholastic sport experience was perceived to contribute to (1) learning the value of “me” (e.g., developed individual achievement skills like hard work, time management, self-regulation) and (2) learning the value of “we” (e.g., group/team understanding and interpersonal skill development such as understanding roles and teamwork). While some unique personal development characteristics were felt to be learned through sport, the majority were perceived to be established by the athletes’ families and reinforced and further developed via sport participation. Lay Summary: Sport-related personal development of former high school athletes was studied via interviews for the purpose of understanding the perceived influence of the high school sport experience on former participants across their lives. Respondents reported that they (1) learned the value of “me” (e.g., time management, self-regulation) and (2) learning the value of “we” (e.g., group/team understanding, teamwork) via their sport experience with 8 of the 9 respondents indicating that these transferred to their adult lives. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE Coaches must make efforts to become aware of the psychosocial attributes their athletes bring to the sport context. Former athletes clearly remember specific sport experiences and coaching actions that they believe are tied to psychosocial development over five decades after they happened emphasizing the importance of coaches being aware of their attitudes and behaviors toward their athletes.