Brandon Rice
14128081
Sports Socialization

My Charts Activities Prior to High School | Level of Intensity | Age Range | Goals of Participation | Tumbling | Sport | 5-9 | State Champion | Tae Kwon Do | Recreation | 4-12 | Become a black belt | Soccer | Play | 5-7 | Have fun with friends | Baseball | Recreation | 6-13 | Play in the city league with my friends | Football | Sport | 9-16 | Score as many touchdowns as I can | Wrestling | Sport | 7-present | Place in the state tournament | Motocross | Sport | 5-present | State Champion |

Activities in High School | Level of Intensity | Age Range | Goals of Participation | Football | Sport | 9-16 | Be a team player | Motocross | Recreation | 5-present | Have fun but don’t get hurt | Wrestling | Sport | 7-present | All State, State Champion, All-American, National Champion |

Activities in College | Level of Intensity | Age Range | Goals of Participation | Wrestling | Sport | 7-present | Win the starting spot, Conference Champion, All-American | Motocross | Recreation | 5-present | Have fun but don’t get hurt |

I have been involved in activities, more specifically sports, from a young age. My parents never forced me to do anything I didn’t want to do. It was always my decision to participate in the activities that I chose to become involved with. My parents supported everything I have ever been involved with on two conditions: I don’t quit, and I always give one hundred percent. I chose to play the sports I did either because my friends were playing them or simply because I was drawn to them. Also there was influence from my parents more specifically my father. I truly believe that my involvement in sports from such a young age has shaped me into the person that I am today. The first organized activity that I joined was Tae Kwon Do. I was four years old, and I was mainly influenced by a popular 90s movie called The Three Ninjas. I quickly came to learn that martial arts are much different to how they are portrayed in the movies. Tae Kwon Do required a lot of discipline and commitment. I was able to attend classes four times a week because my parents were committed to fulfilling my needs as a young pupil of the instructor. A black-belt instructor whom was an accomplished tournament fighter ran the classes. There were two co-ed classes taught each evening, one for kids and one for adults. The classes were extremely structured and taught me discipline and respect among a plethora of other things. During the last half hour of each class we would suit up, which consisted of putting on protective padding and headgear, and we would spar our classmates. Sparring is essentially a controlled fight where at any point your opponent can submit to you and quit the fight. It is controlled and scored by the instructors of the class. I enjoyed this part of class especially because it came very naturally to me. I utilized the skills taught in class, and I enjoyed being able to effectively put them to use. Although there were never any awards given after sparring I always enjoyed the praise I would receive from the instructor after having a good day. I believe that this is the time where I developed my competitiveness and my will to be the best. Either family or friends introduced me to the other sports that I participated in. On my fourth birthday my parents gave me a dirt bike. I was given the dirt bike because I had made a deal with my parents that if I could ride my bicycle without the training wheels than I would be able to ride a dirt bike. Most parents wouldn’t want their children riding dirt bikes but my father has been riding since he had been five years old, and my mom had an ATV of her own. I grew up around dirt bikes, and I wanted to be just like my dad. I raced competitively from age 5 up until high school and won 3 state championships in that duration. During this time my parents sacrificed a lot for my racing. My dad was my riding coach. He had a good balance of involvement in my racing career and never pushed me to compete. I competed because I wanted to prove that I was the best. I’m very grateful that my parents were so supportive of me making my own decisions, and that we as a family had the resources to do so. Motocross is a dangerous sport, but as far as rules go there are not a lot. One unwritten rule is that you don’t cheat. Whether it is taking out another riding or modifying your bike to be faster, the community of racers prides itself on fairness. Motocross was where I had my first experience with “getting known.” I won my first state championship when I was ten years old. All of the sudden people were paying attention to me on the track. I became a person of interest. People I didn’t know were coming up to me and asking for riding advice because of my skills on my dirt bike. I began wrestling when I was seven years old. My father wrestled in high school, and he was an advocate for the life lessons that it taught. I remember him taking me to my first practice. He told me that if I didn’t like it then I didn’t have to go back. I ended up loving it. I was close to my father, and it was another way for us to bond and spend time together. My favorite thing about wrestling is that the outcome depending on you. Whether you win or lose depends entirely on you. You control the outcome. My parents started taking me to tournaments in my first year. Youth tournaments were organized in brackets of either four man round robin brackets or eight man brackets. Mat officials were on the mat to award points for scoring as well as for penalties. Wrestling parents can be crazy. When I went to tournaments I often saw parents who would yell and scream at their child when they lost. Luckily my parents were not like that, and instead they encourage me to give it my best. My dad always told me that you couldn’t feel bad about yourself as long as you know you did everything you could to win. Sometimes your opponent is better, and that gives you the motivation to move forward and keep improving. My dad was my coach throughout grade school and junior high. The other sports I played in my childhood were football, baseball, and soccer. I chose to join these sports to be around my friends. Throughout this time winning was important to the team am I, but it was not our number one priority. A lot of the teams that I was on over the years were coached my teammate’s fathers. Sometimes this was bothersome to me because the coaches would play their sons in positions that they were not necessarily the best choice. I remember specifically in junior high football the coach’s son played quarterback, and he was absolutely terrible. Our team had a handful of kids that could have done a better job. Regardless of how it was decided who played what position these team sports taught me a lot. Most importantly I learned the meaning of sportsmanship on the field. The coaches I had always made sure that we demonstrated good sportsmanship. When I made the transition to high school athletics a lot changed for me. I decided to stop racing motocross competitively because I was getting hurt too often. At this point in my life I was 14 years old with fifteen broken bones and twelve operations under my belt. If I wanted to continue playing other sports I needed by body to hold up. These issues were also affecting my family. I didn’t want to put them through any more pain either. I still chose to participate in motocross, but now it is from a recreational aspect. I would still go out to the track or ride the trails, but I gave up racing so that I could focus on other sports instead. High school football was not a great experience for me. I had been looking forward to playing for my high school since I had been a little kid. I grew up going to the games, and aspired to be a great football player. I was not a big player, but I made up for it with tenacity, intelligence, and heart. High school football is where I had my first encounter with flipping. I am referring to the movement of players directed by the coaches. I played on both sides of the ball. On offense the coaches had me play running back, and on defense I played at the defensive back position. I thought I should have been a slot receiver on offense and a linebacker on defense. I played well and had success, but week in and week out I would try to get my coaches to play me at other positions. I had little influence on them. I noticed that some of my teammates were getting to play where they wanted to play. Some of them were lucky. Others had wealthy parents who were important boosters for the football program. Ultimately the players who had either family or business connections with the football program were the ones who were treated the best. After two years of high school football I tore my meniscus in my left knee and needed surgery after the season was over. I decided not to return for my junior year of football. My decision was made based on the way I was treated by the coaches. It wasn’t that I didn’t love football anymore; it was that in my mind it was not worth it to continue playing. I was not priority to my coaches. I just felt like another body on the field. I wasn’t going to play for a group of coaches who didn’t make me feel like a valuable member of the team. The best thing that I took away from leaving the football team was that I could not focus all of my time and energy into wrestling.
It was in high school that I found my true passion that is wrestling. I mentioned earlier that my father was my wrestling coach in grade school and junior high. My dad was a great coach and motivator but he never wrestled past high school. I needed someone who could take me to the next level. My high school coach, Coach Medlin, showed me that wrestling is more than just a sport it’s a lifestyle. I came into high school as an above average wrestler for my age. I had some years of experience but had never participated in any major or national tournaments like other top tier high school wrestlers had done. Under Coach Medlin’s tutelage I managed to hone my natural skills and develop my own effective style. I made it my mission to become the hardest worker on the team as a freshman on the varsity. My hard work paid off, and at the end of the season I was the only person on my team to qualify for the Illinois state tournament. Illinois is arguably the toughest high school wrestling state in the nation. If you are an elite wrestler there is no off-season, you wrestle year round. Coach Medlin trained me in the summer in the Olympic styles of freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling. Throughout my first year working with Coach Medlin I development a special bond with him. He was both my coach, and well as a friend I could come to in a time of need. I was a captain on the wrestling team my last three years of high school. Coach Medlin expected more out of me than he did from others on the team. If I knew of teammates who were getting in trouble or doing the wrong things, he expected me to be a leader and speak to them about it. If we were away for a tournament and anyone did something they weren’t supposed to it was on me. He respected me, and he valued my input. I not only counted on him to make decisions in my best interest, he also counted on me to help him make decisions in the best interests of the team. Throughout high school I chose to continue wrestling because I was reaching my goals, I was having success, and I felt like I was becoming a better person because of it. This ultimately led to my decision to continue wrestling in college. I love wrestling and everything it stands for. Wrestling recently proved itself to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and was reinstated for the next two Olympic cycles. Wrestling has always been around, but it has come a long way over the years. People of all races and ethnicities wrestle. I have wrestled people from many different cultural backgrounds, not just black or white. There is now women’s wrestling in the Olympics. Although there is not equal participation compared to men’s wrestling it is a step in the right direction. The men compete in two Olympic Styles, freestyle and Greco-Roman, while the women compete in only freestyle. Steps are being made toward equality between the genders because this year the were two additional weight classes added to women’s wrestling making it equal to the six weight classes that men have.
I am a student-athlete wrestler for the University of Missouri Tigers. I take great pride in saying that. My experience in sports has made me into the young man that I am today. Like I said earlier I was never pushed into any activities or sports. I was always ultimately the master of my fate. Having said that I feel like my involvement in sports was inevitable. Both of my parents were multiple sport athletes. I have a history of wrestlers in my family. I have been a major influence on my two younger brothers and their involvement in wrestling. Playing sports is something that my family does together. Whether it’s battling it out on the motocross trails or playing a game of two-hand touch football my family has always found joy in playing and watching sports together. On top of being exposed to sports in my family life, I was also exposed in my school and community. I grew up wanting to represent my town and to make the community proud. I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to do that. I have been going to and watching sporting events for as long as I can remember. I have always admired an athlete. That is why I started participating in athletics the first chance I got. I never really consider a sport to be recreational because I am so competitive. Even if I am competing for recreation or fun in my mind it is still a competition. I want to win. I want to be the best. I was very fortunate to have parents that would go above and beyond for my involvement in athletics. I was also fortunate to come from a family where I could pursue any athletic endeavor I wanted without money being a huge issue. As a child I had a killer instinct. I wanted to win at all costs. My parents liked my intensity, but they also had to keep my in line. They taught me how to behave in an athletic atmosphere. They taught me how not to be a sore loser. They taught me how to treat my fellow competitors with respect. My parents were always very open and let me play with whomever as long as it wasn’t dangerous for me. I had a handful of athletic role models that influenced me as a child. A couple main ones that come to mind are Travis Pastrana and Michael Jordan. I first saw Travis Pastrana when he won the 1999 X Games in Freestyle Motocross in San Francisco. I remember being amazed by the tricks that he was doing. He made them look so easy. I’ll never forget when he jumped his dirt bike into the San Francisco Bay after he won. I admired the fact that Travis was fearless. He wasn’t afraid to push the boundaries of the sport. I remember watching Michael Jordan play basketball on television when I was young. Although I am not a basketball player I cannot help but notice MJ’s dedication and will to be the best. Even from a young age I could tell that MJ was the best player on the court and that he knew it. I really admired the way he carried himself as an athlete. These athletes contributed to my way I looked at sports as a young boy.