Good Essay About Community

My community is my senior high school’s basketball team which is not only an interest community but as well a solidarity community. It is a community in the sense that it encompasses students in my school and formulates a working team that has set objectives (Govier 70). To start with, my basketball team is a placed-based since the team mates are bound together by the aspect of being schoolmates. Therefore, through the time we spend together at school has merged us to form a community that has an integral role of joining us together at school.
The team is also a community of interest since we us the players are bound together by our interest and common passion in this sport. We normally exchange ideas and thoughts concerning our field of interest which is playing basketball. Basketball in our school creates what can be referred to as a solidarity community since it causes strong bonds to exist within the team and amongst the members of the team resulting to a social glue. This is normally as a result of the strong connections that exist between members of the team whereby due to sharing of a common goal, we are interlinked with each other to ensure our success.
Born in a poor county within China, I was ignorant about the basketball sport since I achieved both my primary school degree as well as my high school degree within this county. The county was a small remote place and sports were not perceived with high esteem like it was the case when I joined senior school located in a big city. My career in basketball commenced the moment I joined senior school and having a height advantage of being 180 cm tall, I was a favorable element if I had to join the sport.
Despite the fact that I was taller than some individuals in the basketball court, I was outsmarted by those who were lower in height than for I was not experienced in playing the game. I could not win rebound from my colleagues and jumping and keeping hang time was a nightmare to me. This marked one of my most distressing moments in my endeavors on the sport.
Despite the constant predicaments that I faced in the field of play, the turning point to my engagement in the sport occurred when I discovered a basketball channel in my radio. The channel discussed in length about basketball game and how to become an efficient player in the field. I decided to make the radio channel my bosom friend and would constantly listen to the channel at night after retiring to my bed to gain basketball techniques. I implemented the skills that I learnt from the channel and it was a matter of a short period of time before I was endorsed by my school’s basketball team. This marked the start of my long term involvement in an official basketball real life experience.
After I joined the basketball team in my senior school, we had to go through a series of training programs that shifted my attention from my academic activities. I neglected studies and this resulted to poor performance whereby I started recording poor grades. My parents were summoned by my class teacher after I drew his attention to figure out what was causing my academic prowess to deter. Consequently, they found out that the principle reason as to why my grades were deteriorating was the consequence of my involvement in basketball. It was decided that I had to quit playing football and concentrate with my studies. I obeyed my parents will and after quitting basketball, my grades soon began to improve.
Nevertheless, the community interest developed through my involvement in basketball caused me to feel isolated from what I figured out as one of my integral part in life. I never felt the enthusiasm, that I enjoyed when I was in the team and this provoked me to offer my parents a deal that if given a chance to join the team, I would make sure that I balanced it with studies and improvement would be noted. I was granted my wish and I ensured that my promise was kept and this is how I discovered that my basketball team was a community of interest to me.
The aim of joining basketball team at the second year of my senior high school was to ensure that I became competent enough to join city’s basketball tournament. The first time I got the chance to join my basketball team in the competition was below our expectations since we had aimed to win the trophy bat settled for the second place. Our efforts however did not deter and we continued to practice with an objective of becoming champions the next time the tournament would be held. However, my endeavors were smashed when I sustained a hamstring injury during one of the training sessions during a 100 meters sprint. The injury was so serious that I was sidelined in my team with an injury for one year. Solidarity manifested its self when the team leader invited me for celebrations after they emerged winners.
Every community is made up of assets that are intended to effect development in that particular community. In a basketball team, some of the community assets considered are the individual asset which is basically the students who form the team, associations that are intertwined with playing basketball and the institution the community is found. These three assets exploits the individual gifts and skills to build a more powerful communities and establish developments that are sustainable. These assets ensure that the developments that occur in a community are community-driven as opposed to being driven by any other factors that might be external (Great Britain 124).
Associations are the platform of a community development and are therefore important assets in a community. For instance, associations that are made by team mates in a basketball team can be harnessed to affect changes both in the field as well as in academic affairs. Students who work together in the field are usually in form of groups that can be employed in academic duties and this will improve grades and general performance at school. Therefore, it is essential to identify the associations and work with them to effect changes in the community.
Identity also remains a key element in the community for it involves individual participation in developing a cohesive community. In the basketball field, interests of playing the game identify each student and their participation usually results to solidarity community development in addition to making the community a point of interest. This is so because every individual feels appreciated and their gift realized through partaking in the game (Peterson 202).
All the undertakings in a community are made possible by the existence of an institute through which these communities are founded. In the case of the basketball team, the school forms the institute and it is possible to engage in building the community due to existence of an institute. An institute is an asset in the community mainly due to the services they provide to the community such as provision of equipment used by the basketball team for example balls and uniforms, not to forget communication links available that oversees the success of the community (Peterson 34).
One significant need that has been hindering the prowess of the basketball community in our school is lack of parental support and involvement in the sport. For instance in my case, I was faced with the challenge of lack of parental support when I was beginning my career in sports after my parents noted that my grades were being affected by the game. Lack of parental support affects the welfare of the community in that instead of endorsing the community and offering alternative ways to merge it with academic activities, parents often abolish their children’s involvement in the community resulting to diminished development.

Interview Questions

Why did you as the team leader invite me for the celebrations?
What is the driving force towards your achievements?
How did the institution facilitate the winning of the tournament?
What are your comments about the social glue and associations within the team?
What are your future plans on the activities of the basketball community?
In conclusion, significant change has not been realized in the basketball community due to financial barriers. The school fraternity fails to allocate enough resources to support the basketball team for instance acquiring highly trained coaches. This is the reason why I had to listen to a radio channel to garner techniques for playing basketball. By not fully engaging in the sports as a way to foster community development, my basketball community has not realized its full potential whereby we can play even in other regions of the country or create an international basketball team.

Works Cited

Dey, S. K. Community development. Allahabad: Kitab Mahal, (2010).Print
Great Britain. Community development. London: H.M.S.O., (2012).Print
Lauderdale, M. L., & Peterson, J. H. Community development. Washington: Education, Training, and Research Sciences Corp., (2009).Print
Govier, T. Social trust and human communities. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2010.Print