Carney 1

Austin Carney

Professor Pierson

September 27, 2017

Autoethnography: Pompano Beach High Baseball Community

In high school, I avidly played baseball. Our team was successful mostly due to the fact

we were a tight-knit group of guys and viewed one another as brothers. We hang out regularly on

and off the field. This community however is not limited to us players but expands to our

parents, coaches and volunteers. It takes more people other than the ones on the field to become

successful. At Pompano Beach High School our coach has grown a tremendous program in the

past 3 years despite many challenges. We are a magnet school. Thus, it is practically impossible

to have players transfer from other schools. Therefore, us boys, parents and coaches have been

together the past four years nearly every day. Believe it or not a lot of literacy takes place within

the baseball community. Gee claims that the focus of literacy studies should not be language, or

literacy, but social practices (pg. 276). Accordingly, our baseball community practices many

literacy activities from writing, different communications: play signs, gestures and speaking to

fundraisers and statistics. And even though we dont physically write on the baseball diamond

the baseball community itself has improved my literacy without doubt.

Literacy Sponsors

Within the community the main literacy sponsors are the parents and coaches. And not

just the parents who pay for the equipment and drive the kid to school every day and feed them;

but all the parents who are a part of the booster club helping fundraise and facilitate any event,
 Carney 2

game or need of the team. These parents would help orchestrate fundraising benefiting the team

to enable them to get new jerseys, equipment and be able travel.

The parents did a lot of work, but they purposefully didnt do it all. For example, every

year the players were required to sell at least one banner to a local business. This involved

emailing mangers and going door to solicit themselves and the team to raise money. This taught

the team formal literacy skills with speaking and writing. Doing fundraisers like these also taught

players to be grateful because they had to earn all the money which allowed them to travel

during spring break and have nice equipment. The parents had some monetary motivation, which

was to make it so there was no money out of their pockets, but not much. They mostly did it to

give the players everything needed to succeed, likewise the hours they put in could have been

worth much more money at their job. The coaches also had little monetary motivation. They did

get paid for coaching, which was not much when you consider all the time and labor they put

towards the team outside the 2-hour post-school practices and games. The coach enjoys being on

the baseball field and wishes he could still play and win games. Thats why he coaches the team

because he can live through the team, watching the players succeed and grow as human beings.

Its more than just baseball on the field theres life lessons to be learned. Likewise, the

players and coaches created a relationship that will last a long time. For example, he texted the

class of 2017 baseball graduates to check up on them the other day. A coach who didnt care or

had other motives wouldnt bother to do that. Yet, hes out on the field every day without

hesitation. Deborah Brandt defines the Sponsors as "usually richer, more knowledgeable, and

more entrenched than the sponsored" (pg. 73). The coaches are not richer in wealth but rich of

wisdom. And the whole team soaks up everything he says like a sponge. Hes impacted every

single player, teaching work ethic, morality and teamwork. This high school team made few
 Carney 3

mistakes; they were very successful. The teams success derives from him instilling confidence

in the players abilities.

Concluding to the communitys last literacy sponsors, the players amongst each other.

The team was very open with one another and great about teaching little tips and tricks. Players

also were not afraid to point out one's flaws. This accountability was the underlying reason the

kids sponsored one another, and it turned into many wins which brought the team to states. It

also took place with the upperclassman sponsoring underclassman. Average people are enabled

by more powerful sponsors says Brandt (pg. 81), which directly ties into the seniors teaching

freshman lessons to succeed. Showing them the ropes, such as giving them rides, is all a part of

the apprenticeship that will stick with them, reciprocating when theyre seniors.

Discourse

To even become a member of the team and be a part of this community one doesnt

necessarily have to play well but understand the game of baseball and be able to bond with the

rest of the team. In this Discourse, the test is to get through try-outs and make the team. It is

mostly clear who is going to make the team and whos not. Baseball is a spring sport therefore

try-outs are in the spring. However, the team still works out and plays scrimmages in the fall.

The Fall is not mandatory, but it is highly recommended. Newbies who show up in spring and

skip the Fall miss all the experiences and bonding opportunities with the new players and

coaches, which puts themselves at a strong disadvantage. Not to mention the new players who

show up in the Fall only have two days to prove themselves worthy of the team. Meanwhile all

the other players who participated in Fall had months to showcase their skills and more

importantly their hard work. Most of the players who show in the Spring without participating in

the Fall would be what Gee considers a pretender: an outsider with pretentions to be an insider
 Carney 4

(pg. 283). They normally come to the field and dont fit in while also under performing, which

means theyll get cut and not be a part of the team.

Once a player makes the team they become part of the community and those are their

brothers for the next four years. Being a part of the Discourse means they share ways of being in

this world which integrate words acts, values, beliefs, attitudes and social identities explained by

Gee (pg. 278). These friendships are like no other, lasting a lifetime. They can also trust one

another with just about anything. All the relationships are transparent, and everyone has like

goals when it comes to the game, ultimately winning.

The coaches would fuel this fire and push the players harder than they thought possible,

making them determined. Their coach also had the team convinced to believe in the baseball

gods and that karma was very real. The deal was that if one did what they were supposed to off

the field, good things would happen on the field. This impacted behavior in class and around

town, because if anything ever happened, such as a bad teacher email, the whole team would be

punished, most often with running. Giving attitude to the coaches would also result in

punishment. Therefore, the teams mannerisms consisted of: positive attitudes, politeness and

helpfulness.

Other than communication between one another, an approach towards literacy is the rules

of the game and the fact that players can interpret them and fallow them correctly. Besides the

universal rules of the game, the coach has implemented other rules to keep players in line and on

task, on and off the field. These rules taught the team to stay focused which translated to the

classroom. As a result, their writing would improve. The coach also taught the players to be a

student of the game. This is defined by paying close attention to each detail every time on would

watch any form of baseball, no matter if it was live or TV. On the diamond, common literacy
 Carney 5

activities were: reading line-up cards, scoreboards, stats and signs from your coaches. Although

most of our critical literacy activities took place off the field essentially: group chats, emails and

fundraisers.

Rhetorical Situation

The more essential literacy activities are the ones that players learned from the most.

Group chats, emails and fundraisers all entail different discourses (language or communication),

audiences and Rhetors (who generates it), definitions by Grant-Davie (pg.484). Group chats

mainly serve as internal communication amongst the team. Here they are very informal and write

short hand. In this case the audience and rhetors would be players and/or coaches. Emails are

broad but all very formal. There two types of emails that happen in this community. The first is

type is communication between the parents and coaches where parents are constantly getting

updates on the team. The other is from players to coaches at the college level, which is a very

important part of the recruiting process. Here its important to be very formal and sound

professional, especially in the case where one is communicating with very high academic

schools. This taught players how to properly compose an email and how to professionally

communicate with possible future literacy sponsors.

Lastly, our most important literacy activity was fundraising. This is what helped the kids

be a little bit more persuasive in their writing when necessary. The participated in many

fundraising activities from car washes, to poker tournaments and dinner on the diamonds (a meal

on the baseball field where parents and sponsors would support the team with donations). The

text for these events included flyers and emails that would be mass dispersed throughout the

school, friends, family, ultimately anyone. Those people were considered our audience, anyone

willing to sponsor was valid and any donation was accepted. The exigence was to produce funds
 Carney 6

that would enable us to travel and have new equipment and jerseys when necessary. Exigence is

a problem that can be addressed and solved through rhetorical discourse (Grant-Davie pg. 485).

The team annually received minimal funding from the school because theyre a public school,

being one of many constraints. Other constraints consist of a lack of following, prior to this

season, because it is a rather small school with a rather small reputation, which can make it hard

to find support. Materials and time can also be a constraint on how well fundraising events are

run. Also, the donations are constraints, no one knows how generous someone is feeling on a

particular day. And lastly, the rhetors of our fundraisers would be the players, coaches, booster

club and school.

Personal Writing Process

My personal writing process starts with a good understanding of the prompt/topic and

concrete planning that gives me a strong base to start. When I plan I like to jot down all my

ideas, especially when Im writing a typically long paper that possibly is constructed over a few

days, I will forget them. Especially if I formulate well thought sentences I will write them down

word for word, which also helps as a memory refresher when I come back to it later on. Once I

sit down and begin my paper I prefer to do as much as possible while my juices are flowing

because this is when I honestly get the best work out of myself. However, there are constraints so

thats frequently not the case. I only take breaks if necessary but when I do I like to come to a

stopping point so I dont forget where I left off, most often for lengthy assignments. I prefer to

write my paper chronologically to help flow with transitions and from sentence to sentence. I

find it difficult to just drop chunks of information in-between a piece I previously created to be

side by side, it ruins the fluidity. I prefer to stay concentrated which happens best when I am

alone without music or anything else to distract my train or thought. However, a little white noise
 Carney 7

in the background can sometimes be soothing (low volume music or TV mostly). I like to reread

my writing once Im done with a section to make sure it is error free and I feel like it helps me

flow into the next paragraph as well. I had a couple of close friends in high school who used to

review my papers who I felt were better writers than myself. However, I still may have them

read it over now that Im in college but Im going to go to the writing center first for my major

corrections. Once Im done with a paper I like to finish them early and reread a day or so later (if

time permits) because I often catch different mistakes or flaws. However, I normally dont have

this much extra time because I either procrastinate or am not given that large of a window to

complete the assignment. Which brings me to my first are of improvement: dont procrastinate,

do the assignment early, relieving stress on myself equates to better work. Also, I would love to

increase my vocabulary to broaden my variation of diction.

Influence of Community on Writing

The baseball community has influenced my writing tremendously. It has mostly

indirectly impacted my writing by instilling a determined hard-working mindset. This has given

me a solid foundation to grow as a writer, steadily improving. The community has directly

influenced my writing through fundraisers and emails. Literacy with our fundraisers taught me to

write persuasively and how to create signs, flyers and emails. The advertising taught me how to

make things stand out in poster and flyers. Most impactful literacy activity was writing

professional emails to college coaches. This was most challenging for me, especially while

communicating back and forth. However, my coach really helped by giving pointers and

suggestions on what to add in the emails. I would often times revise them like essays and send it

to him to proof read before I sent it, even though they were only about a paragraph long. Once I

got the hang of the professional format and concept I became more confident.
 Carney 8

Citations

Gee, James Paul. Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics. Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics, vol.

3, Beford/St. Martin's, 2017.

Brandt, Deborah. Sponsor's of Literacy. Writing About Writing, vol. 3, Bedford/St. Martin's,

2017, pp. 6899.

Grant-Davie, Keith. Rhetorical Situations and Their Constituents. Writing About Writing, vol.

3, Bedford/St. Martin's, 2017, pp. 484511