Hendersonville Observation

Place of observation-Hunter Middle School in Hendersonville, Tennessee

Date/Time - Saturday, February 20th from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Event taking place - Parks league basketball games (First and second grade boys) I work as a referee for the city of Hendersonville’s parks department, and I decided to observe the actions and behaviors of the parents of or the adults supporting the kids that are participating in the league. On Saturday, I had seven basketball games of first and second grade boys. I split the entire group of adults in to two categories, those that were at the morning games, and those that were at the afternoon games. The following is what I observed through out the day.

Morning game adults - These adults tended to split themselves

There was not to much to observe from this group, as they were very quiet. They were cordial to those around them, but for the most part kept to themselves. They would clap from time to time, but would rarely become really loud. They tended to be very even keel and kept their composure the best of all the groups. If they talked at all it was to each other, however they were usually conversations without eye contact. They would simply talk while watching the game. The afternoon crowd was much more docile and didn 't create as many subgroups as the crowds before them. There was also more interaction and talking amongst each other, however the conversations did not appear to be very deep, as they did not last long. More couples were present, and more of them sat together. The cheering was minimal and mostly involved just clapping with few words said. In addition, there was a larger presents of children at these games. They did a much better job communicating with each other than their parents did, and appeared to be in better

It is possible the earlier crowd over all had more energy because they were fresh and probably just had a cup of coffee. It was the first task of the day. Within this group, it’s possible that the couples were more docile than the mob parents or the loner parents simply because they had each other to keep accountable. In other words, they did not want to embarrass one another. With the later group, there were probably more kids due to the fact that all other games or events had finished up and everyone was awake. Also, it is possible that the parents were less enthusiastic because they had already had other things to do earlier in the day. Lastly, it is possible that the parents of different races did not mingle due to the judgment from each other. It’s hard to mesh with a group of people who cast judgment on you, not for your actions, but for the color of your