Brett Kaveney English 1101-25 Rebecca Agosta November 11, 2013 Ethnography of Flag Football The discourse community

that I chose to study the behavior of and the interaction in their daily community context is my roommate Corys flag football team. I am doing the outsiders perspective of this group of people in order to really understand what its like to be a part of their community. For those who may not know, the flag football teams are part of the intramural sports leagues at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, in which it is a team or group of college students playing against other college students. The aspect of the game is very similar to regular football, however the only difference is that instead of tackling the players, the opposing team instead tries to take the flag off of their belt. The teams are usually either created by groups of friends, or people who already knew each other. On the other hand, the students can sign up as a free agent in the intramural sports league and get placed on a team randomly. The overall characteristic of these teams is that they play together and use their skills and strategies in order to win as many games as they possibly can all while having fun of course. Altogether, there is roughly 200 teams and counting just for the flag football intramural sport. Now, obviously seeing as how these teams are generally made with a group of friends, it doesnt mean that people need to have prior experience with either flag football or regular football. However Im sure that there a good amount of people playing in their flag football intramural teams who have played football for their high schools. As with any other

group, generally when these teams play together and practice together they will become more acquainted with everyone and possibly create new connections to other people and groups of friends. On Corys flag football team, the team consists of Tyler, Scott, Nathan, Bat, Adrian, Caleb, Charlie, and another Tyler. Cory and Scott are two of my friends, who are both freshman at UNCC and the other teammates are upperclassmen, juniors to be exact. Their team name is Flag Football, simply because nobody was creative enough to come up with a unique team name when they were creating their roster. Before the team was created however, all of the upperclassmen knew each other as they are all a group of friends. Scott and Cory went to the same high school together and since they are the only freshman on the team, they only knew Tyler and Bat before they joined this team. They knew Tyler because he is dating Scotts girlfriends roommate, Jessica, and they knew Bat because Tyler is roommates with him. As for prior experience to either football or flag football, Tyler and his group of friends had a flag football team freshman and sophomore year and Cory and Scott had played football for their high school team. Cory was the captain of the football team as well as the quarter back until he hurt his shoulder and then he played safety his senior year, and Scott played receiver freshman through junior year and running back his senior year. Tyler is the captain of the flag football team and also played linebacker in his high school career, Bat also played linebacker in high school. Caleb played quarter back for his high school in Mooresville with Tyler and Bat. The regulations and rules in this flag football intramural league compared to regular football is somewhat different. In flag football, there arent any fumbles which is when the player running with the ball drops the ball, and when the flag is pulled off the player, the spot that

they are called down at is the position of where the ball is at instead of where the flag is thrown. Generally what this entrails is that when a player knows he is about to get tagged, he will hold the ball out in front of him. In the intramural league, the amount of yards that a team needs to advance in order to get a first down, which is when they have four more chances to advance the amount of yards again, is not regulated like it is in football. The yards that a team needs to advance in regular football is 10 yards whereas in the intramural league the cones are set up by 20 yards but the cones could be off and when the team gets the first possession of the ball, they could potentially get a first down within 2 yards. In order for me to research this discourse community I had attended one of their flag football games. Overall, my information came mostly from observations and an interview with my roommate Cory. I didnt look at anyone in particular, it was more of a viewing of the overall team. My research altogether took roughly 2 hours, including the interview. At the time of the observation I had not related any of the observations to the material from Swales, Branick or Mirabelli. However, I was able to relate my observations to what I know now about the material. From what I observed I was able to gather information based around how the team interacts with each other during the game and also how the team interacts with the other team. I didnt have a notebook to take notes down when I went to their game, because I had gone to it before the assignment was given but I remember the game pretty well since I was paying attention to it. I can recall the outcomes of what happened when something specific happened like an interception for example, which is when the other team will catch a pass and gains control of the ball.

While playing the game, the captain of the team, Tyler, was not able to partake in the game that I went to observe because he had lost his student ID. During the game, he spent the entirety of the game on the sidelines talking to all of the teammates giving them guidelines on what needs to be done, what to watch for and so on. The quarter back, Cory, before the ball was snapped to him, which means that basically the ball is thrown back to him, can call audibles which is when a new formation is called while on the line of scrimmage based off the other teams formation, by saying things like blue 42. Obviously the way they act towards the other team is competitive but in a friendly manner in order to keep up their sportsmanship. How they act as a team however is organized and strategic in order to complete the tasks and goals of their current play. The way they think during a game is that they have the mindset to give it their all during a game, all while keeping it friendly. One thing I did notice about the game that did change the attitudes of the game was when it was down to the final minutes of the game and the opposing team was up by a few points. Corys team came back and scored another touchdown. The other team immediately started shouting profanity and showed unsportsmanlike conduct. I dont blame the other team, as it would be pretty frustrating to lose after you thought that your team had the win for sure. However, you want to keep your teams reputation in good standing as one that is sportsman-like. In their first game, they won 24-18, against the team Tap Dat Pass. It was a very close game, but they were able to intercept a few passes and pull out a couple trick plays that enabled them to score the final touchdown with just under a minute left in the game. In order to know what they had to do to come out on top against this team, they really had to observe their playing style and look for common patterns on their defensive maneuvers so that they

could get past their defense and score. The final touchdown was scored by Scott, who was told to run a hitch-and-go play in which he runs forward a bit, stops abruptly and then once again takes off. The person who was defending Scott did not see it coming and Scott was able to get by and score. Needless to say, the other team was a little frustrated that they were not able to stop their team from scoring the last touchdown but thats understandable. However, as stated before they couldve shown a little more respect. In their second game, they unfortunately lost pretty badly with a score of 6-33, against the team The Comebacks. The main reasoning behind the loss in this game was that in the first game, one of their players, Nathan, injured his knee when he ran into Scott accidentally and Scott also hurt his ankle. Therefore, they were not able to play as efficiently as they could normally but they did give it their best. The other team was winning by a pretty good amount, and then the mercy rule was put into play, which is a rule that states that if one team is completely ahead of the other team in that it is not possible for them to come back, the game will be over. The attitude that pervades or describes the flag football community as a whole is a friendly, and safe environment. All of the teams are competing against each other in a friendly matter, seeing as how its an intramural league and the point of an intramural league is to have fun playing a game that the person likes to play. The only issues that would potentially bring a flag football community apart is when somebody on the team doesnt show up to practices or games altogether. Especially in a team who only has eight players, like Corys team, there is only room for one substitute at a time. For teams like that it is crucial that everybody on the team shows up to practices and games on time otherwise it could be extremely detrimental to

the team. Another good example would be if a player on a team, or players, dont cooperate well with others and then perform poorly during the games when it matters most. In a game, it is very important and crucial that all teammates give it their all during a game in order to ensure that the team plays at their top efficiency and plays their best. Within the flag football community, the ultimate motive that brings a group together is that they want to win the football games together and sharpen their skills in football, all while becoming better friends and becoming more acquainted with even more people than they already know. Other than winning games, Im sure that there are people who want to play on these teams for sub-accomplishments like building leadership skills and personal skills that teammates need in order to bring the most that they can with their team. From observing this discourse community I was able to learn a little more about how flag football works, considering I have never been on an organized flag football team before. It showed me the differences between regular football and the game of flag football, differences for example like how fumbles cannot be made. I was also able to see the similarities of the two different games and how it may help a team to have players who had played football back in high school even though technically with flag football it is more about speed and agility and being able to dodge the opposing team trying to rip off the flag. Also within this community I learned how the importance of communication can make or break a team out on the field, and can also impact who shows up to a game. If a player isnt notified of the game time, they could potentially be down a player. Communication out on the field is vital in a game like this because you need to be able to tell the players what they need to do in a certain play so that they can advance the amount of yards necessary in hopes to gain a touchdown.

What really struck me as something unusual or extraordinary about this community is that everybody is able to play on a flag football team, you do not necessarily need to be really good at playing football, as long as you can run fast and have good footwork then you should be a good aspect of the team. What is nice about these intramural leagues is that it offers college students who dont necessarily have the time to play an actual regulated sport. They are able to play on these intramural teams with friends and still get to experience the sport and the fun of the sport without all of the time commitment that a college athlete usually gives. To relate it back to Swales, Branick, and Mirabelli, there were a lot of characteristics of the discourse community that were important. Within this community, there is a general lexis, in which a person who does not know much about football or flag football may not understand the vocabulary such as an audible, or an interception for example. On each and every team, they all share the common goal of playing together with a group of friends, in hopes to win as many games as they possibly can. Not only that, but on each team there is a variation of skill levels that ranges from novices to experts. The experts in this case, might be someone who had played on a successful flag football team before or somebody who had played football back in high school might be considered an expert. A novice on the other hand might be considered somebody who is relatively new to the concepts or ideas of flag football or football in general. However, generally just by playing on the team the novice will quickly get a hold on the general ideas of the game and soon become experts themselves. The ethnographies that Branick and Mirabelli wrote definitely helped me think about what was needed to place into this paper and also what I needed to look for in my observations.

Their flag football team communicates with each other mostly through text messages. They have a group message set up on their phones that includes Tyler, Scott, Cory, Nathan, Bat, Adrian, Caleb, Charlie and the other Tyler. The general purpose of this group message is so that the captain, Tyler, can inform everyone on when practices or games are, and see who is available to play at a specific time on their assigned game days, Mondays. I was able to obtain a copy of the group text messages from Cory, and the very first thing that was said in the group message was by Tyler, who said Just signed us up for a division scheduled for Mondays at 8, 9, or 10. Does that work for everyone? First game is on the 1st. The group text messages provides an easy way for the teammates to get in touch with everyone else, instead of having to call each and every person, or text them one by one. In other words, it helps the players become more organized. Usually, the times that they are talking in the group message is when game days come around, they will all text each other letting the team know if they will be there, or if they can play. Unfortunately since there were a few injuries there were a couple times where they were shorthanded by playing with one less teammate. For the interview portion of this ethnography, I interviewed my roommate Cory who is the quarter back for the team and asked him a few questions. I started the interview by asking him if he knew any of the players on the team before he joined. He said that he knew Tyler and Scott before he joined, as well as Bat. It took him roughly one practice or two in order to get more acquainted with the other teammates that he had not known prior to joining. When I asked him if he hangs out with the team outside of practice or games, he replied by saying that when he hangs out with people on the team he will either spend time with Scott, Tyler, Bat, or Caleb and when they hang out its a lot more relaxed and they will either watch television or

play video games. He had told me that what is most important in a team being successful and efficient together is that everybody does their job and works together as a team, as well respecting all the players including the other team. With Cory being the quarter back, his obligations to the team is that he has to be at the games at all times, since hes the person who can throw the best and he usually has to bring his football, he also has to be somewhat of a leader and tell the other players what routes to run. If the team does not do really well this season, he said that he would not leave them as he has become good friends with all of them and has a good time playing with them.

Works Cited Blake, Cory. Personal Interview. November 6, 2013. Swales, John. The Concept of Discourse Community. Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Boston: Cambridge UP, 1990. 21-32. Print.