YouTube For High-School Jocks 97
theodp writes "Used to be college scouts had to put in lots of miles to find a hick from French Lick. But thanks to the Internet, athletic recruiters no longer have to traipse out to actual games to find talent. The players are coming to them via links to video streamed from sports-info websites like Student-Athlete Showcase, iPlayers, and GetMyNameOut. The home-video-meets-NFL-Films highlight reels — which parents commission for a fee ranging from $300 to $5,000 — have become a standard component of college applications for jocks (as well as for aspiring actors, dancers, and musicians). One sales pitch: 'Are you willing to risk your child's potential scholarship with a homemade videotape? Remember, first impressions last forever!'"
Jock? (Score:5, Interesting)
That's short for "jockstrap" (Score:5, Informative)
A jock is an athlete, and therefore the bane of every Slashdotter.
A jock is not an athlete (Score:3, Informative)
Re:A jock is not an athlete (Score:4, Insightful)
It is interesting to note that the majority of definitions there also appear to be written by people who would never consider themselves to be a "Jock". Now, I know that some of these would be the "Real Athletes" mentioned in that one definition, however I would not hesitate to guess that most of these people would be those people who grew up hating "Jocks" during their school years, for a number of reasons.
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Nerd:Slashdotter
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I think that's pretty stupid.
There's a natural slide of words into meaning just good and bad. It's not very useful, because we already have those words.
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Jock [hyperdictionary.com]:
2. [n] a person trained to compete in sports
Athlete [hyperdictionary.com]:
[n] a person trained to compete in sports
A jock is not JUST an athlete. (Score:3, Informative)
Apparently, in Europe being interested in both sports and intellectual pursuits is socially acceptable. This is not the case in most high
Re:A jock is not JUST an athlete. (Score:4, Interesting)
Of course not all football/baseball/basketball players were like that, but I didn't see that behavior at all in any other sport.
Fast forward to today. Those adults playing team sports still strike me as dumb jocks vs. those who are runners, triathletes, cyclists, endurance athletes.
Just my observations in the central pennsylvania area. I realize it's likely different elsewhere.
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My buddy Stefan Youngs played for the London Irish (Score:3, Interesting)
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Re:A jock is not JUST an athlete. (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, you had a bad experience in the AV club in high school, get over it. Go to your local park and find an ad-hoc football game, talk to the guys, then tell me they're all arrogant anti-intellectuals. Hell, some of the smartest people I know, in the most cutting-edge tech companies, have basketball and soccer teams organized.
Stereotypes are bad, mmmkay?
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Hasn't Always Been That Way (Score:1)
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Re:Jock? (Score:5, Insightful)
The characterization of athletes in this article shows the high school nerd mentality that everyone who is athletic must fall into the class of people who bully nerds. Most people outgrow this attitude as they get older and don't make such bigoted characterizations. Sadly, as this article shows, not everyone does.
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I think ones dislike for publicly sponsored athletics goes farther than wimps being bullied however. Schools waste a LOT of time and money on sports, diverting attention away from what little actual education they do (or could) offer. Furthermore, a lot of morons manage to make it through classes simply because they can run fast and will thus bring in the big bucks. School athleti
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OR they evolve into multi-million dollar sports superstars who committ some of the dumbest and most irrational events, such as (publicly) releasing dog-fighting information, or badly covered-up rape scenarios, or (with the help of their coach) getting a cruise ship full of whores and prostitutes and having everyone know about it (Vikings)...
Of course, there are sports for the more intellectually inclined, like cycling, running, etc. Then again, being successful in those sports requires a good working know
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Now, I never considered myself a jock, and even had some of the experiences with "jocks" that some here have noted that are considered stereotypical of that of a "nerd's" experience in high school. But I did play high school soccer (and grew up playing basketball and base
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Though, maybe my school is just weird...
~Jarik
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good business models are few and far between (Score:5, Funny)
Mod parent off topic (Score:2)
I was discussion the entrance audition videos (Score:2)
But thank you for your kind words.
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Have you a link? (Score:2)
My cat's musical career didn't last very long - the one time she ever tried to walk on my piano keyboard, the sound scared her and she would never go on it again.
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He's most likely referring to this [youtube.com] or one of the many things that show up on the "related videos" sidebar.
Michael Patrick Dumbell-Smith changed his name (Score:2)
Unfortunately, he's had decades to build his fame, I'm just starting on mine, so it's going to be a long time before my PageRank can crush his.
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I'm afraid I don't know yet (Score:2)
However, I have in mind to play the piano arrangement of Flight of the Bumblebee for one of my audition songs. I'd say that's at least grade nine material. (If you don't know the piece, it's extremely fast).
To gradually build my speed and dexterity, I play just scales for about an hour every day, and am gradually learning them all - there are twelve major scales, and thirty-six minor scales (natural,
nice idea (Score:5, Interesting)
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you mean like the portfolio scammers who prey on young girls who want to be models?
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I find this rather dubious with using videos solely rather than watching on site performance because as everyone knows, you can pretty much doctor even the worst performance and make it look good with the right sound bites and clips. Then those athletes who may even be better at the sport and who can't afford to make a good production video won't get as much attention.
Of course, one would suspect something if a set of parents spent $50 gra
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Because it'd be about 3 seconds long, right?
Re:nice idea (Score:4, Insightful)
However, as a starting point it's an excellent way of whittling down candidates and seeing what's out there. This is a good idea as long as it doesn't become exploitative (um, which for modelling and acting such things very much already are). Yes, you can alter perception to a degree with CG, with visual effects, or even just good camera direction -- however, this is highly skilled and very few people on Earth can do it, most of them already do indeed work in the film industry.
Incidentally if you think Pixar would do a YouTube video for 50 grand... try 50 grand per second, and you'd be closer.
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bullshit (Score:5, Informative)
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What kind of bullshit is this: "have become a standard component of college applications for jocks?"
I work in a school in a major metropolitan area with many great sports players. I guarantee you that if this was a "standard component" of college applications in any way I would have heard of it before.
Why must you stretch the truth? No where near a majority of "jocks" have even heard of this.
It's called marketing. Build up social proof by demonstrating responses of many others, highlight others' past successes, and give testimonials from similar people. Promote the concept as being "standard" and people will not want to be left out.
Lots of hostility... (Score:5, Insightful)
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It's totally off-topic, but the other day, I was stopped at a redlight, when I was approached by HS football jocks begging for change with their helmets.
I told the one that walked up to my car door: "It's kinda funny, I never see nerds out on the street, begging for change..."
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Of course you never nerds fund raising, they don't participate in any extra-curricular activities that require as much money as sports do (equipment, uniforms, game fees.)
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If they think these things are so important, why don't they pay for them out of their own pocket instead of begging other people for money? Athletics aren't important for the advancement of society.
I'd love to just sit around and hack on obscure and unpopular open-source software projects all day instead of having a real job, but somehow
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I told the one that walked up to my car door: "It's kinda funny, I never see nerds out on the street, begging for change..."
Yeah, god forbid you see a "nerd" collecting money for charities to help children who received severe burns in fires.
Holy crap, are you seriously that much of a jerk? Did you literally say that in front of him?
Jocks = Nerds? (Score:1)
Not quite accurate (Score:5, Informative)
A little side rant. Whats with this idea that you couldn't have been an academic in high school while playing sports? A significant number of the 10% of my class played sports, usually more than one. Very few on the other end of the academic scale did anything extracurricular. No they didn't get in the top 10% by taking bullshit classes either as our harder (advanced and AP) classes were weighted 5.0 on 4.0 scale.
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I'm a shit-jock? Yea I played sports in high school, so what?
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As far as advanced non-ap classes, we had English, college vocab and physics.
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Our starting pitcher, who eventually wound up playing AAA minor league baseball, took those courses. When his shoulder wore out, he ended up going back to college and wound up attending law school at Princeton. Say what you will about attorneys, to get into a school like that, one has to exhibit an extraordinary and rare combination of academic talents. It's quite normal for someone to have the kind of work ethic necessary to compete at a high level of athletics who can transfer that to coursework. It sta
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With the classes weighted, how did they take into account actual credit hours into GPA?
As a freshman I took 7 classes instead of the suggested 6 (who really wanted to waste their time in study hall?), with three honors classes weighted at 5.0.
Some class mates that also had three honors classes only took 6 classes with a study hall.
Since study hall didn't have any associated credit/cost with it, the GPA came in favor of those who took less classes.
Other sites? (Score:5, Funny)
Where's the site for aspiring p0rn stars?
Two words... (Score:5, Interesting)
'nuff said.
Reminds me of... (Score:2)
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Well, not enough to point out WVU's current rank at the time of your post.
A way... (Score:2)
It amazes me what can be done with internet technology.
Am I doing something wrong? (Score:1)
LINK [youtube.com]
Maybe I should be saving that for scouts....
Either way, the video is dark, but what do you think?