Miah Smith

Sociology 1010

Dan Poole

June 7, 2023

The Crushers

Introduction

I am a member of The Crushers club. The Crushers are a soccer club that I will be talking

about throughout this paper. I will be discussing the history, social context, and norms of the

club. I will also talk about what symbolic interactionism is and apply this theoretical perspective

to the club. I will be talking about gender, age, and race/ethnicity throughout the club.

History of the Group

This group was started by my friends Emelia, Angel, Katie, Emmah, Bev, and me. We all

played soccer together growing up, we played on competitive club teams and on the same high

school team together. Once we were done with high school a few of us went on to play at a

college, but most of our soccer careers were over. We still all loved to play soccer for fun and

still wanted to be able to play together, and that is when we decided to make a rec team so we

could still play together. We all decided to text our old teammates, and a few friends (that didn’t

play soccer at all) to see if they would want to join our club, and that is how The Crushers came

to be.

Social Context of the Group

 The social context of our soccer club is that we have a competitive environment where

we use teamwork, communication skills, and conflict management, in order to achieve a

common goal which is to play our best and win. We have to communicate to one another, so we

know where the ball is on the field, if a player is open for a pass or a shot, and especially if a

player has a man on them. We have to understand each other’s behaviors so we can properly

communicate and understand what each person needs on the field and what role each person is

playing.

Norms Associated with the Group

There are a few norms that The Crushers club has. Our team has games on Sundays, and

when we play, we all wear our orange uniform. Due to our superstitions we all do the same

hairstyle for every game so we can all match and look like a strong team. We have a special

chant that we do before every game. After our games on Sunday’s, we all try to go to lunch

together and catch up. As a team we also try to catch at least one Real Salt Lake game together.

We have a team party at the end of each season, where we all get together either have a barbeque

or a game night. Each game one of our members brings an orange for each teammate to have

after the game, because the orange is a special symbol to our team.

Discuss the Theoretical Perspective You Have Chosen

Symbolic interactionism is a theory that explains how individuals interact. People act

based on meanings that they give things, for example, symbols. This perspective is appropriate to

our club because our club has a ton of symbols that are very meaningful to us and shows how our

team interacts.
Apply the Theoretical Perspective

A few of our symbols are our uniforms, our special chant/ word, our team’s name, and

our team logo. Our uniforms are a symbol within our group because they are all the exact same

to symbolize that we are a team. In rec, your team doesn’t have to have the same uniform or even

color on, but we wanted to show other teams that we are one and that we work as a team. In our

special chant that we do before every game we add the word family at the end because we see

each other as family, and family works together and always has each other’s backs on and off the

field. Our teams’ name is special to us because we think of each other as crushers and can do

anything we put our minds to, we also decided to make our uniforms orange to match our teams’

name. Lastly, we have our team logo, which is a whole orange, I bet you can guess why it is an

orange. We decided that our team logo was going to be an orange so it could match our teams’

uniforms, and our team’s name. We decided that our logo would be a whole orange because you

need individual slices to make up an entire orange. Our members are each a slice of an orange

and when we come together using teamwork and communication, we make a whole orange and a

great team.

Discuss at Least Three of the Following Concepts

In this section of my paper, I will be discussing the different genders, ages, and races/ethnicity

within The Crushers club.

1. Gender

Within our club the main gender is female. This is because our team is in an all-female

rec league, but there are rec leagues that are all males, and there are even leagues that
 have both females and males. We chose to play in an all- female league because all of our

members are females from our old soccer team/teams.

2. Age

The age range within our club is 19-22. This isn’t a requirement to be a part of the club or

anything like that, you could be any age to join the club the only requirement is that you

are a female since we are in an all-female league. The reason our clubs age range 19-22 is

because we all played in the same competitive age group growing up.

3. Race/Ethnicity

Our club doesn’t have one specific race/ethnicity, some of us are the same race/ethnicity,

but some of us, like me, don’t have the same race/ethnicity as the rest of the club. Most

member are Caucasian or are part Caucasian, but we also have Hispanics, Asians, and

African Americans on our team.

Conclusion

The Crushers is a soccer club that was created by me and my friends for females that love

to play soccer. We are a competitive team that believes in teamwork and always having each

other’s backs no matter what. We have a lot of fun norms/traditions that we like to do as a team,

and we have many meaningful symbols within our club. The Crushers club is for any female no

matter gender, age, or race/ethnicity that would like to join. The Crushers will treat you like

family and always have your back on and off the field! If you or someone you know who loves

either playing or watching soccer that would like to join a rec team, you should join The

Crushers.

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