Crush Introduction

The Anderson Crush team is a softball travel team, which basically means a softball team that travels city to city playing in competitions. My travel team tries to win tournaments for trophies, recognition and to be able to enter other tournaments. This is the group I decided to research. I consider softball teams to be discourse communities because they basically follow the six characteristics of a discourse community constructed by John Swales. My team has common public goals. Our goals are to join into tournaments, like other softball teams, to compete and to experience alongside our teammates. We also have our own intercommunication. Anderson Crush has its own way to communicate between the coaches and players by using hand gestures and short sayings. Each team member participates in some sort of way to benefit the team, such as playing in certain positions. The team has a genre that keeps the members in line and keeps the team functioning properly, this is also known as the roster or lineup. This lets the team members know where they are playing and when they are hitting in the lineup. A teammate will glance or even memorize the roster, to make sure they are in the right position for the game. The lexis of the community is the slang and hand signals that are arranged with the team. Also, in this group there are a variety of levels of experience such as a coach, who is considered to have the highest level, and the players, who have experience but not as much as the coaches. I have chosen my softball team because it is the only community that I have been involved with for the most of my life and is a grand example of a discourse community. Methodology

To truly understand and identify my softball team as a discourse community, I had to research, observe, interview and analyze. I gathered information from my father, who is the founder, a coach and manager of the team. He has kept old copies of liability insurance. He also kept an official record of the teams roster for a sanction tournament. The documents show some glimpses of a timeline of the softball team. These papers display what is required for some tournaments such as insurance or a roster. I observed two settings. Theses settings are common amongst my teammates and I. I observed a training facility and I also was a spectator of a softball practice. I would observe, practice, then when break time came, I would write what I found. I interviewed different people with different levels of experience and expertise. The interviewed were Brian Schmitt, my father and head coach, and Rachel Sherwood, my teammate. Both have experience in softball but the intelligence about the sport is quite different. Results

Observation Account #1 My first observed setting was on February 21th. This observation was in a training facility known as Fuel Performance. When I was looking for the building, I couldnt recognize it because it was painted a dull grey just like the other neighboring buildings. The building is quite small for how many people actually workout inside. When the team walks in, we have to sign our names on a piece a paper so the employees know that we showed up to our appointed lesson. All I can smell is sweat like a gym locker room. At first it is very off-putting but after working out at this facility for over two years, you get use to the smell. The speakers that are

placed all over the building play music, mostly something upbeat. When I first walk in I see a small area with weight lifting machines. Off to the right there is net draping on wire; those are the hitting cages so the team can practice on their swings. Finally in the back the floor is covered in turf that you would see on a football field. It even has the white lines and numbers from football. On left side, the wall is covered with all sorts of exercising equipment; bungee cords, dumbbells, exercise balls, yoga mats, sleds, etc. The facility is like a commercial workout facility but compacted like a smart car; has everything you need but does not use as much space. The ceiling has bright industrial lights that warm the building up like an incubator and we are the little chicks. Now our trainer, Horace, tells the team to grab exercise rubber bands and stretch for about 15 minutes very enthusiastically. We grab florescent yellow 20 pound jackets and bungee anklets. These are worn during the whole lesson. Everyone lines up after putting on their appropriate equipment. Chit chat and mumbling occurs on and off between each set. Then he tells them what he plans on having the team do today. Of course there are some moans and faces of disapproval. Go! he shouts. We thrusted our knees up and down repeatedly until he told us to stop. The first turn doesnt seem to affect me very much. However, after the third, fourth and fifth turn, my face started to perspire and change to a cherry red. It became harder to breathe and it became shorter and faster the more I moved. Although Horace puts us through some tough exercise he always encouraged the team. He never stopped cheering and making positive comments about how everyone is working hard. Even the other team members are cheering on the ones who were struggling. You got it, dont stop. All most theregood job, one of the girls cheered. After a good effort on an exercise task he, allowed the team to have a 5 to 10 minute break for a drink of water, using the bathroom or allowing us to catch our breathe. One of the team members, Allie, looked pale and sickly. One of the other girls, Sydney, checked on her and make sure that she is ok and offered her some water and a towel to wipe off the sweat from her forehead. Hey, you ok? Sydney asked. Yea, I just need to take a minute Allie replied. After we finished lifting weights and some ab crunches, Horace then grabbed a metal black sled and added round weights to it. Sled time Horace grinned.

None of the girls looked forward to this exercise, not even me. It takes all the energy out of you, thats why he saved it for last, so we would be all exhausted by the end of the lesson. I grabbed the poles attached to the sled and used my legs to push the sled across the small building. The team flew across the floor in the first set but after that, I could see exhaustion in the teams eyes. After our 5th set, Horace told us that we were done for the day. Everyone was so glad it was over. We grabbed our stuff, said our thank yous and goodbyes to Horace and went home. Observation Account #2 The next event was a softball practice on February 22nd. The team players started to show up to the field that is normally practiced on by our team. Some showed up early, some late and some not at all. Everyone greeted each other when entering the dugout. Hey, whats up? Rachel, the second basemen asked. Not much, just tired said Sydney. Same here girl. All the players, including me put on their cleats and grabbed our softball gloves and picked a partner. Rachel? one looked at another questioning. Yea, heres a ball. The team warmed up by stretching and throwing the ball back and forth. Some, like me, took their time making sure their throwing form is being performed correctly. Others didnt show that much consideration for their form. During warming up, most of the girls gossiped about what is new in their life, like whos wearing what to prom. After warm ups, we lined up one by one in the fielding positions. The coach yelled what was going to happen and where we needed to throw the ball. He hit the ball and I fielded and throws like was routine. The other girls followed by behavior. It is mostly quiet because we all were focusing on our personal performances in practice. After one round, the coach had he team pick the position that we usually played during the game. We hustled to the spots and crouched ready for the play. Go first! the coach shouted as he hits the ball. The ball shot to a fielder and she scooped and threw swiftly, trying to get the ball to the base as fast and as accurately as she could. Each girl on the team gets a try to field and throw. I thought, personally, I did a pretty good job. The catcher is usually the one who is the most

communicative during the game. Since the catcher can see the whole field, it is her responsibility to make sure that the players know where to know during the game. When practice is over, the team gathered up and listened to the coaches talk about certain things they noticed during practice or pervious games and what they wanted us to change. I paid attention to the coaches for most of the team meeting. After the coaches were done discussing about any issues, the team gathered closer together and placed one hand in the circle. The catcher counted down. Onetwothree! Crush! the team shouted. We gather our equipment and things and go home. Interview Summaries The person I interviewed as the high level of expertise in the community was my father, Brian Schmitt. He has played baseball, which is similar to softball and has coached for over 10 years. I asked him a series of questions pertaining to his experience with the team and the communication between his players. The reason he created the community was to coach his children and give girls, the same age as his daughters, a chance to improve their skills in softball. Explaining his excitement for the team, Brian said he was looking for girls who had natural talent and who wanted to play. He thinks that his experience with baseball helped with relating forms of throwing and hitting to softball. His goal is to have fun with other people who have the same interest and teach younger members to reach their full potential. Another goal is to try to win some tournaments, if possible. The coaches try to achieve these goals by having practice and enter tournaments so the team can show and work on their skills pertaining to softball. He is very proud and feels accomplished of the goals set for this community and its members. Brain explains how the team communicates by hand gestures which are called signs these are used during a game when the team does not want the opposing team to realize what they are up to. These signs are highly enforced and discussed with the pitcher and catcher. He mentions that the team players communicate with each other and to the coaches by cutting sentences. Such as instead of saying throw to the first base, they say go one. The reason for codes is to be a lot easier for the team as a whole. My other interview was with my teammate Rachel Sherwood. She has been with the team since it was created and compared to my other interview; her experience is lesser to Brian. She said that she heard about the community when Brain Schmitt called her to see if she was interested and he wanted her to play for the team. What influence her to join was that her brothers played baseball so she wanted to do something too.

Rachel joined about the same time when the team started. She said that she was nervous but really excited about playing with her friends. Since most of the team members started the same as she did, they all treated each other fairly nice. The requirement that the coach told her, which was expected, was to pay a yearly fee. She said she had no clue what talents she could have shared when she first joined but after being on the team for over 10 years, she stated that she did have a lot more to offer compared to the start of the community. Rachel explained that her goals within the community were to have fun with her friends and try to win. She overall agrees with the goals that Brian set for the team. She said that she feels the team is family to her and that she has had a lot of fun being a part of the community. The team communicates with signs and short sayings Rachel stated. Discussion/Conclusion The patterns that I found included our goals and communication. I found a pattern that the team works together as a whole but each team member has to do things on their own in order for the team to benefit. Our goals, for the community are generally consistent. The team always wants to strive to be better and try to win tournaments. Communication is key when it comes to the function of the team. Shouting and yelling is a common norm in the softball community. They find it normal to cheer on their own team because to them they have to work together to win and if one is no working then it is nearly impossible for the team to succeed. No communication, no progress. I find it interesting and unique that how the ending of the community, everyone considers their own teammates as family.