A lens into JUCO schools
November 17th, 2017 at 4:53 PM ^
The silliest thing about trying to make it through football is that you literally have to go to college to make it through football. You might as well just get a valuable degree while you're there. The only reason not to finish is because you've made it.
November 17th, 2017 at 4:55 PM ^
November 17th, 2017 at 4:54 PM ^
November 17th, 2017 at 5:07 PM ^
Good sentiment, OP. But this thread won't end well.
November 17th, 2017 at 8:53 PM ^
November 17th, 2017 at 5:13 PM ^
November 17th, 2017 at 5:18 PM ^
November 17th, 2017 at 8:31 PM ^
a Constitutional peasant all the way to Michigan. It's not quite as good as being the King of the Britons, but it's on the way there. Good for you, man.
November 18th, 2017 at 6:54 AM ^
Nothing wrong with working your way up...
"People of Osiris 4, please welcome a man who started
as a slave but worked his way up to lord of all creation!
Our new Pharaoh - Bender!"
November 17th, 2017 at 5:47 PM ^
Scooba's 20 miles away from Macon, MS --- which is, literally, the poorest town in America.
I definitely root for the kids on the show. But you sort of just know that most of them won't make it.
November 17th, 2017 at 5:59 PM ^
Isn't there supposed to be a link in the OP for those of us who are not clued in on what the hell program you are referring to?
November 17th, 2017 at 6:30 PM ^
have ended up there have been failed by the school systems their entire lives. In the south a lot of schools will just pass you along, especially if you're a talented football player. In Bruce Feldman's book "Meat Market", Jerrell Powe read at a 1st grade level, and nobody figured it out until he was 19. Imagine how shy alot of us were as teenagers, now imagine asking for help learning how to read at 16 years old? It's pretty tragic.
November 17th, 2017 at 8:21 PM ^
but I found it incredibly compelling, and equal parts sad and infuriating. Sad, because when you learn the backstories of the players (often dead, absentee, or in prison dads), you realize they've never had a positive male role model in their lives. Or they witnessed their mom being shot in front of their eyes (Ollie). And on and on.
EMCC seems like just another stop where education is mostly an afterthought... I'm glad a few make it to scholarships at 4-year schools, but it's hard to be optimistic. You're really pulling for them (mostly, not all) as you're watching the show, just to go to class and get their act together, but they've been surrounded by adults making shitty choices their whole lives, it's as though their good-choice muscles never developed.
Found it impossible not to binge-watch.
November 17th, 2017 at 10:16 PM ^
Recently watched a Texas Tech game and was happy to see he made it back to their program and is playing.
November 18th, 2017 at 4:24 AM ^
I've never seen the show but having worked on the academic side of several colleges and universities at different levels (from NAIA to Big Ten), I have seen more than my share of football players who ain't there to play school (also some who are good and diligent students as well).
I have seen some who are at their 3rd school (almost always due to off-field issues, usually academics), and I've seen many who believe they have a shot at the NFL. They have no backup plan and no desire to earn a college degree. For a majority of the ones I see, they have really long odds of ever even sniffing an NFL practice squad, and it's really sad to see them deluding themselves.