Today we’ll contrast the culture of American Football with that of College Basketball in the USA. I am aware that our experience here may be significantly different from yours, but I think much of this is true beyond our university.
Football culture is highly organized and very regimented whereas basketball is much more fluid. Football practices are broken down into five minute periods with a script of situations, plays and drills and the schedule is closely followed. A countdown clock is visible to everyone and a loud horn punctuates each period’s end. Basketball practices also have structure, but it is less obvious to observers and players. The coaches generally have a practice plan, but they may start five minutes late if watching video or lifting weights ran long. Pre-game meals may start fifteen minutes later than scheduled simply because the shoot around took longer than expected. A much more fluid approach to time as over against football culture.
Football is very complicated simply because of the number of people involved. At our level of football there are twelve coaches on the staff, plus a half dozen equipment managers, plus another half dozen athletic trainers (physios), plus three or four people who videotape virtually every moment of practices, plus around one hundred players. With that many people it’s very complex and therefore highly structured. Otherwise chaos would reign. Basketball on the other hand is much more malleable. Most coaching staffs are made up of about six coaches or fewer, plus some student assistants / equipment managers, plus one athletic trainer, plus one video person, plus 13-15 players. A much smaller group of people requiring much less structure and focus on time management. This leads to a much looser feel to practices and pre-game preparations.
Football has a very distinct rhythm to its season, whereas basketball is much more erratic. One can count on the same cadence to a college football season, year after year. It will begin in August with pre-season practices, culminating in a scrimmage (game situation practice) to wrap up the pre-season preparations. A regular season of 11-12 games, once per week, usually on Saturday afternoons or evenings and then hopefully playoff games or a post-season bowl game. Every week has a very familiar rhythm and it hums along like clockwork. Basketball is much different. It begins with pre-season workouts for individuals and conditioning, then finally they can practice as a team and then they have a couple of exhibition games to tune up. Those are followed by around a dozen non-conference games and then they play almost exclusively teams from their conference, usually twice each. Many conferences then follow the regular season with a conference tournament which sends its champion to post-season tournaments. The irregular thing about basketball is that a team may play once, twice or even three times in a week. If they’re in a tournament, it may mean three or four games in as many days. During semester final exams, they may have as many as 10 or 11 days with no games at all. The irregularity of the games and the demands of travel lead to sometimes practicing at 6:00 am, sometimes at 3:00 pm and other times at noon prior to boarding the bus for a twelve hour trip.
Football is a very welcoming environment for sport chaplains and basketball requires a little more commitment and flexibility from them. Because of the nature of football – a large group of people in a highly structured environment – it works very well for things like team chapels. Basketball’s fluid culture, flexibility of schedule, smaller and more nimble group size lead to it being more difficult. Before the season even starts I usually know the times, locations and durations of every pre-game chapel for the football team. With basketball, all of those factors could change two or three times within a week. The contrast between football and basketball cultures leads to some frustration for some team chaplains and sometimes leads them to walk away from serving basketball.
We who serve either or both of these sports must learn to understand, respect and adjust to each one. We must fit into the culture where we’re serving at the moment. Please don’t expect basketball players to act like football players and worse, don’t expect basketball coaches to fit the football coach’s template for organization and structure. If we can find a way to live in their worlds, to speak their language and to breathe in rhythm with them, they will trust us, hear us and will experience the Lord’s presence with us.
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