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Haley Furguson
Professor Olivia Rines
UWRT 1101-02
20 March 2015
Football Players of UNC Charlotte
The world is filled with many different communities; it is what people associate each
other with today. For instance, football; some people may play it and some people may watch it.
One of the most common American pastimes is watching football. Whether it is high school,
college or professional; football has become a very popular sport to both watch and play. I chose
to conduct ethnographic research on a college football community. According to John Swales,
college football players at UNC Charlotte are a discourse community that many people who
watch football for entertainment would not understand fully. A discourse community is
something that can be identified through John Swales six defining characteristics of a discourse
community (Swales 220). With the community of UNC Charlotte developing a new football
program in the past three years, there are many things that have changed quickly and are still
changing. I conducted two interviews with football players Tanner Fleming and Steve
Muscarello. I also observed the community by watching a weight lifting session, scrimmage and
also a conditioning session to see how the community interacts with each other and whether or
not they form a true discourse community according to Swales. After much observation and a
closer look into the football players at UNC Charlotte, it is clear that the community is a hard
working intelligent discourse community.
Football may seem like an easy way to get school paid for or even just an easy way to get
an education; for example, easier classes, early class registration and the list goes on. This is far

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from true; from my observations everything about football seems hard. As a student undergoing
16 credit hours, my schedule is busy enough as is, but with a football schedule on top of 15
credit hours, players schedule is more than three times as time consuming. Players only have
one day off, Steve Muscarello described football as really demanding we have stuff just about
everyday[] during spring ball we only have Sundays off so it can get pretty hectic. And even
with Sundays off, some players have to go to treatment, study hall or even work if they are not
on scholarship with football. Practices are very physically demanding and hard on players, when
observing practices the players were moving nonstop and constantly showing signs of
exhaustion. It is important for outsiders to know how hard players work in class and on the field
rather than assuming that the players have an easy course of education.
Swale describes the first characteristic of a discourse community as sharing a broadly
agreed set of common goals (Swales, 220). Football players at UNC Charlotte have quickly
made their way up college football divisions. According to Tanner Fleming, a division is a
group of teams, usually about twelve teams, where each team plays most other teams. Divisions
vary depending on how developed the team is and how strong the team is. With higher divisions
there are harder and harder teams and the goal to win becomes even stronger. The goal of most
athletic teams anywhere is to win, which is UNC Charlotte football teams main goal. Steve
Muscarello told me, of course our first goal for the whole team is to win the most games we
physically can. Another goal of the football team is to become the strongest they can
individually and as a whole. Tanner Fleming told me, we all want to become the best athletes
we can and stay in shape; it is a great feeling accomplishing a heavy lift or a fast sprint. The
team is constantly competing to obtain the maximum weight they can for squats, benching and
be the best at every exercise they can. During my observations on each kind of practice I noticed

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how much players pushed themselves and how happy they were to accomplish a physical goal.
Competition is one of the biggest parts of football both on and off the field, it is what motivates
and keeps players interests. Steve told me, competition is always fun, during our conditioning
we sometimes have competition which keeps our minds off of the hard work we are doing on the
field. Having players motivated is very important when it comes to obtaining the standard of the
team. With the team being newly started, the standard that is set of the team becomes very
important. Tanner Fleming told me, it takes years to build a program and it will always grow but
we were the first ones here to begin it. When looking back when we are older it would be nice to
see that we fit in with the other successful programs in the nation. One goal that is not very
recognizable is the goal of earning an education. For some players, they are in the program
mainly to play football but all of them are enrolled to earn a degree. Many players are on full
scholarship or even partial scholarship, so much of football is to help pay for school. One
interviewee confessed to not trying hard in school because football is so time committing, but
many are very focused on earning a degree. Steve described his personal goals, We are student
athletes, I am not going to play in the NFL so I know I am going to get a degree and try to better
myself both as a man and in the classroom.
As the football schedule is so time consuming, having a beneficial communication
system within each other is very important. Swales describes that a discourse community has
mechanisms of intercommunication among its members (Swales, 221). When observing the
communication between coaches and teammates, it was apparent to me that the contact is
nonstop; whether it is between the coaches and players or the teammates themselves. The contact
ranges from friendly conversations between each other to discussing the schedule and different
elements of football. Teammates seemed to be very close to each other when observing during

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practice and off the field. In my interviews, players had explained how close they are to their
fellow teammates and even living with them created a stronger bond, almost like a brotherhood
in a sense. Steve had stated, We help each other out a lot and I love those guys not only as
teammates but as brothers. The players are constantly texting in group texts and individually
between each other. Coaches are also involved in group texting and sometimes check in to see if
the players are asleep before a game or even checking in on what they are doing in their free
time. One of the biggest forms of communication throughout the team is an app on cellphones
called Teamworks. This application has the entire schedule of each player laid out for them to
help plan out their week. This schedule changes with each player depending on class schedule,
which position they play and how well they are doing in school. These schedules are made by
advisors and coaches. The student athlete advisors will schedule academic meetings and study
hall for the players; Coaches for each position will schedule meetings and practices. With such
an intensive schedule, this application is very helpful to the entire team.
Within communication is the lexis that the team themselves know very well. Swales
stated a discourse community has acquired a specific lexis (Swales, 222).

Many football

terms are known to outsiders through entertainment, like touchdown, halftime, quarters and the
list goes on. But past the basic terms of football is the teams own language of plays, stances,
nicknames, etc. Each team has different names of plays calls, for example, bingo exchange ton
two backer is a play call that is called out during the game to inform players what play they will
be using, which I had observed being called out during a practice. There are also different
formations for different lines of players. For the defensive line there can be over ten different
formations. For example, a 4-3 defensive line formation consists of four defensive linemen, three
linebackers, and four defensive backs. This formation is only one of many, not including the

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different formations of offense line. There are also different positions; for example, tight end,
defensive end or nose guard. There are hundreds of terms that football players accumulate over
the years, these examples are a very small amount of what the lexis actually consists of. When
observing different practices, I noticed many things that I did not understand and were uniformly
and quickly understood by all players and needed to be explained to me later on; for example the
names of different stations during practice. Players attend meetings to keep up with the lexis of
the community and to learn even more about every week. Each player is required to study to
learn these different lexis for quizzes they have at meetings, according to Tanner. Lexis is
something that is learned rather than something that comes naturally. Studying for these quizzes
and memorizing terms means that there is more hard work necessary from each player.
Because players are constantly being shared this information and playing many games
throughout the season, there are different mechanisms to inform and give feedback. Swales
described this criteria of a discourse community as A discourse community uses its
participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback (Swales, 221). To
inform players their schedule and changes in their schedule is the application of Teamworks.
When players first join the team, I was told by Tanner that they have entrance meetings and
orientations to teach them what they should be aware of when coming into the team. Before
joining the team, the players also shadowed a player where they live with an upperclassman
football player for a weekend and learned how they would live and understand the schools
football program before committing to the team. For current players, there are also many
meetings to inform players the different plays and formations they should be aware of when it
comes down to game time. During meetings there can also be film of previous games and is
important to help coaches give feedback to what happened during the game. Film and meetings

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are one of the main mechanisms of feedback for football. This allows football players to grow
and learn where they had gone right and wrong.
Film is also considered one of the many genres that football utilizes. Swales describes
genre as being the next characteristic of the discourse community A discourse community
utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims
(Swales, 221). Football players are constantly wearing team color, attire and advertising their
team and team logo. The logo is used as a genre to attract and show fans pride in the players
team and are also displayed throughout the field house and meeting rooms. In meeting rooms
there are boards to display different formations, plays and positions. Within meetings players
may receive binders to help them study the different plays and stances. Players may also receive
inspirational and motivational quotes that help players get through games and practices. Football
players also listen to fast pace motivational music during practice, this genre of music is used to
keep the pace of practice up and the morale of the team high.
For the last characteristic Swales states a discourse community has a threshold level of
members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise (Swales, 222). For
people just starting the program, there are older players to help younger players understand how
the program works. There are also captains of the team and people who fall superior to others for
different benefits. This seniority allows the standard to stay higher and is another learning service
for newer players and the program itself. With the program being so tough, having stronger
players that lead is very important. There are also different strings of players that are used during
games. Strings of players range from first string to even fourth string players, both of the players
I interviewed were second string players. This means that one player of their position is put into
the game before they are and get more playing time. The lower the players string, the less they

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play. This is a threshold of members because there are very good players on a team and less
skilled players on a team. Without the difference of players, higher string players who get hurt or
need a replacement would not have their replacement. Also, less skilled players would not have
stronger players to learn from.
UNC Charlottes football program is effectively growing and many fans from what I have
observed are impressed how the program has started. With that being said, is the goal of football
players to earn a degree being fulfilled? After much observation and interviews, I do believe that
the football program makes it hard for players to find time for school. The program seems to be
aware of the time that it takes away from players from being students, hence why they are
offering mandatory study hall to students who do not make a high enough grade point average to
the standards that the team sets. This defies the stereotype that many people seem to think
football players as stupid or airheads and only focused on football. People also believe
that college football players want to earn a career in football and that is the only reason why they
are in college. All of these stereo types are not always or are barely true. Both football players I
had interviewed do not want to have a career in football and Tanner told me try putting a
football schedule in with fifteen credit hours of a normal student and see how they do This
proves that players do not have it easy, but they do get by enough to earn their degree and make
their dream of a career come true.
UNC Charlotte football players are all strong men that have very strong goals to be
successful in every way. Being told by Steve that 98% of people do not have the opportunity to
collegiately play a sport tells me that playing football is something that requires lots of hard
work and effort. Although there are many cons to playing football including the exhaustion and
time required to be involved, a player had told me the pros always outweigh the cons. Football

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shapes players by teaching not only the sport of football, but discipline and respect. Football
players of UNC Charlotte have proved to raise a concrete program from the start and are diligent
workers both on the field and in the classroom.

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Works Cited
Swales, John. The Concept of Discourse Community. Genre Analysis: English in Academic
and Research Settings. Boston; Cambridge UP, 1990. 21-32. Print.