Fourteenth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

This study focuses on the difference between a championship team and a team who wins a championship. Those these two outcomes/experiences can co-exist, but they don’t always. Working off the notion of inversion theories (based around the idea of inversion weather systems), the functioning of support communities, and sport as strategic art, this paper proposes an interwoven approach to professionalism, sport, and communities that seeks to explore how to foster the development of sustainable championship teams. The methodology utilized is PERPLE or practically engaged reflection on the processing of lived experience, integrating lived experience with theoretical perspectives to provide practical proposals for how to do things and accomplish desired outcomes. Rather than having the orienting goal be winning a championship, the practical endeavor is participating on a championship team. Professional sports athletes and franchises play a supportive part is developing a community of championship teams and vice versa. The paradigm becomes one where the professional ethic of championship teams is central throughout the community. Expression of self through engaging sport as a strategic art provides an exemplar for embodied participation in championship teams. Analyzing teams who have won professional championships related to the lived experiences of the author and her teammates, viewed through insightful theoretical lenses, provides an explanation of the community impact of a professional championship team ethic.