Black Canadian university football players’ perspectives on the coach-athlete relationship

Abstract

Since their inception, the concepts of identity politics, racism, exclusion, and North American sport have been inextricably intertwined with one another through a multitude of manifestations. North American sport has historically been deemed as a diverse institution in which athletes of various intersectional identities participate across youth to elite levels. Despite this assumption of inclusion, sport is monocultural and colonial in nature as it is exclusionary to folks who fall outside of the "norm" of being white, able-bodied, and male (Blodgett et al., 2017;Salter & Adams, 2013). Black athletes in particular are subject to oppressive behavior from sport entities that often leads to disharmony in multicultural coach-athlete relationships (Economou et al., 2022). The purpose of this study was to investigate the coach-athlete relationships of Black, Canadian University football players and their coaches. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine Black football players from five Canadian Universities. Each interview was transcribed verbatim and analyzed through a thematic analysis, then data was separated into themes and subthemes, offering a rounded comprehension of the participants' perspectives . The study's results explained some of the differences between the coach-athlete relationships of white versus Black coaches. Moreover, the athletes' perspectives revealed that race sometimes had a positive or detrimental effect on the partnerships with their coaches depending on the acceptance of and interactions between racial differences within the alliances. The athletes additionally offered advice to non-Black University football coaches on strategies for bolstering levels of cultural literacy to better support and build connections with Black players. These findings highlight and emphasize the need for coaches to develop their cultural competency. With a lack of available pedagogical programs in place, athletic organizations, coaches, and governing bodies must begin the process of creating and mandating culturally competent education within sport contexts to become anti-racist, culturally competent, and supportive of the intersectionally marginalized athletes they serve.COACH-ATHLETE RELATIONSHIP v proud. I love you. And to Rod, a huge inspiration in this project. Your achievements as a legendary athlete who has leapt over the systemic hoops discussed within this study are a testament to your and our power as Black and Brown athletes. Your ability to stay humble, true to yourself, and entirely dedicated to your craft despite your experiences is beyond words. I love you and am unfathomably proud to be your goddaughter. Thank you for everything and helping me get to this point. -To Renan, my rock, my light, my ocean, my home, mon petit bébé. Who could have thought Montreal of places in this world would be the origin of our story? From the moment you came into my life, you brightened it with your infectious zest for living, sense of adventure, fearlessness to take risks, and ability to share all that y...