White and the myth of the non-athlete

The women's and men's basketball teams made the playoffs for the first time in five years. All the signs and radio announcements seemed to point at a successful year for Oberlin basketball, particularly men's basketball (even though women's basketball had a better record, and more competitive playoff game). Signs were posted all across campus that asked Oberlin students to listen to WOBC at 11 for the men's basketball game. Making the conference playoffs means not coming in last. The men's team won a whopping three games. The women won one more than the men. And besides the fact that the women's game should have been on the radio and the accompanying underlying gender bias in that exclusion, one bottom line seems to be that not too many people care about how the basketball teams do ... or the swimming team ... or women's lacrosse ... or any sports team. And that's fine. School athletic spirit doesn't lessen tuition or show up on a transcript as CR/NE. But because not too many students care about or support Oberlin's athletic teams, there's an understanding, as articulated by Jeff White, that Oberlin students are nonathletic. Labeling the students as nonathletic makes it easy for White, director of intramurals and club sports, to be lackadaisical.

Since Division III schools cannot dish out athletics scholarships, the bulk of their athletes come from the regular student body. One can't assume that because most of Oberlin teams do poorly that the student body is nonathletic. Perhaps our student body is performance deficient. Perhaps our coaching sucks. Whatever the case may be, a nonathletic campus and a campus that doesn't support its athletic teams are two vastly different things. Look around. Weather permitting, the streets of Oberlin are hoarded with people jogging and riding bikes. The South and North fields are probably whining their eyes out because of the constant pounding they get from the Ultimate and Rugby folk. There's more to athletics than rah rah men's football, baseball and basketball.

Jeff White's statement on the nonathleticism of Oberlin students is a popular belief that can't really be substantiated. It's a popular Oberlin myth, one of those myths to which we perpetually cling - like Doc Appleton being an all-thumbs witchdoctor, or Stevenson being a receptacle for road kill, or Third World House being this scary place where all the revolutionaries roam, or our classrooms being splendid how-to's in pious academia. These myths, when wielded by students, are relatively impotent. When wielded by administrators, faculty, or staff, these myths can scapegoat that person's ineptness and adversely affect student lives. White should relinquish the myth, or attempt to change the myth. Intramurals, club sports, and Phillips Gym need better direction, more student input and unconditional care. Jeff White, not his student-workers, is in a great position to do this.