Wes Reall and Lauren Hetrick, members of the social studies department, developed a new class at Big Spring High School for the 2019-20 school year that centers around sports and the way it shapes society as a whole. Hetrick said, “The course looks at different social issues that appear in sports such as, race discrimination, sexism, and civil rights just to name a few.” The students in the class read newspaper articles about these social issues and how sports have affected this issues whether it was a positive effect or a negative effect.

Reall said, “I took a course through Duke online that was called Sports in Society, and I liked the way the professor broke things down and the way he looked at society within sports.” Reall, along with some help from Hetrick, then took the name of the class and modified the curriculum of it to fit better at the high school level.

Aaron Mathews, freshman, said, “I am interested in this class because I play so many sports and love sports in general. “ Not only are students who play sports interested in the class, fans also have an interest to take the class as well.” The curriculum includes projects and newspaper articles. It focuses on sports figures such as Bill Russell, Jesse Owens, and Billie Jean King just to name a few. With the newspaper articles, students read about these sports figures and interpret what they did during and after their careers that changed or helped society. Students insert  their research into a project and they teach the rest of the class about this sports figure and what they did.

This class could be helpful for a student who wants to go into a field of study that is based in sports.