ExCo classes gives sports a chance

Classes offered in baseball history, football

A new Experimental College class is helping students like sophomore Jesse Robinson learn something they can't get from the regular college curriculum: football.

"I don't know anything about football," Robinson said. "I admire the football players at Oberlin, it takes a lot of balls to keep playing on a team that hasn't won in four years. We didn't win a single game last year in field hockey."

While Robinson is a skilled field hockey player, she recognizes that there was a void in her knowledge about football, and a need to get a fix of hanging out with "the boys." Fortunately, Robinson is taking the football appreciation ExCo to fill both those needs at once.

There are two ExCo classes, in fact, where pursuit of sports in a nonathletic manner is the major theme. The football appreciation ExCo focuses on watching the game of football in the immediate, the now. Football as an American past time has become increasingly popular among the X generation, especially within the past 20 years. Baseball, however, has experienced a slack in popularity, considerably so among college students.

With this lack of current popularity, and a deep history, inclusive of extensive literature and statistics, the baseball history ExCo requires a more specific interest from it's students.

The Football Appreciation ExCo is being taught Sunday afternoons in Zechiel House lounge by junior Crimson Thunder offensive linemen Chris Lavin and Garth Stidolph. While providing a mellow environment in which to watch professional teams play, such as the Houston Oilers and Green Bay Packers, Lavin and Stidolph answer questions about the game, positions of the players, or life in general.

"Who knows why the flag was thrown?" Stidolph asks after a penalty is given for an illegal play. Gravitating primarily around the handful of females in the class, Lavin tries to incite questions, generally receiving an apathetic response, or none at all. Interestingly enough the most enthusiastic viewers of the game are those in the back, the passers-by, the Zechiel residents. If Robinson wanted a time to hang out with the boys, this certainly is optimum.

Experience shows though, that Sunday afternoons aren't conducive to an active ExCo class. Goldson and Watson taught their ExCo Sunday afternoons last year. Team teaching the Baseball History class for the second year in a row, Goldson commented that meeting Thursday evenings at 7 p.m. seems to be a much better time to meet than Sunday afternoons.

With a talkative group of eight students the baseball history class is easily able to verge off in to a discussion of recent games that have been played, what players are doing well or poorly, or towards some unknown destination lost in the history of baseball. "Most students have a favorite team; we get in to discussions frequently about that," said Goldson.

The baseball class is less oriented to the game itself than it is to many surrounding topics of the baseball epic. Most general information concerning the game itself was covered in the first two classes. Goldson and Watson wanted to get in to specifics as soon as possible. Discussing baseball players as much enthusiasm as cinematic boxer Rocky Balboa had summoning Adrian, many aspects of America history can be included in a class about baseball. "It's impossible not to talk about depression and wars [in relation to baseball]," said Watson, "as long as society is changing."

It is this intrinsic connection to American culture, this historical connection, that drew junior Rory Keohane to the class. "[Baseball] goes with American culture, before ten to twelve years in the past," said Keohane, "baseball has a colorful history that I'm interested in."

Admittedly, not all of baseball is terrifically interesting. "Baseball is grounded in statistics, you must have them for the basis of information," said Goldson. But the class is far from boring. Focusing on what Goldson and Watson know about baseball and avoiding topics that are less clear to them, they are reorganizing the semester differently than last year and segmenting classes in to topics such as batting, rather than teaching chronologically. "We want to stay as far away from intellectual issues as we can," Goldson noted.

While students in the football ExCo have individual reasons for taking the class, some more deep than others, the intellectual aspects of the game predominate neither in the student's outlook nor the teacher's. Sophomore Emily Bell has a long standing explanation for her participation in the football ExCo. Growing up, Bell felt excluded from her brothers when they watched football because she didn't understand what was going on. Now, she says, "I can bond with them more, we have more to talk about when we visit." While Bell is optimistic that she'll learn more as time goes on, she admits that she is not learning as much as she expected.

While watching the game itself constitutes the bulk of class time, other activities are planned to better assist people in learning about and appreciating football. For example, students are strongly encouraged to watch the Crimson Thunder games at Oberlin on Saturdays. A casual game of touch football is planned in a few weeks, and guest lecturers are scheduled, such as football alumni.

This Sunday senior Kris Jones is going to guest lecture on punting and kicking. Jones, a student in the ExCo who is currently PA announcer for the home football games, was a punter and kicker his four years as a Yeoman.

The environment is such that students can sit and discuss, or even do other homework as they watch the game. That may or may not be the best way to enable students to learn to appreciate football though. Robinson admits, "I haven't achieved appreciation yet."