A MIXED-METHOD AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC EXPLORATION INTO THE HOMESCHOOL ATHLETE CULTURE: SPORT HISTORY AND PARTICIPATION

Sports have been exemplified across cultures and time for their plethora of positive benefits. Homeschool athletes are a unique subset of youth competitor in the sporting world that has been largely overlooked in the literature despite rapid growth. Barriers to a positive sport experience for homeschool athletes include injuries, transportation, funds, proper preparation, qualified coaches, and lack of equipment and facilities. These issues are highly interrelated and can be tied back to lack of information and support for the homeschool educator/coach. Through quantitative and qualitative methods, a snapshot of the typical homeschool athlete from a West Texas homeschool track and field team was developed to identify parental and athlete goals for sport participation, detect barriers to a positive sport experience, compare this experience to typical youth sport involvement, and propose solutions and suggestions for further research. Qualitative results showed that parents value athletics for developing fitness, friendships, character, and team work abilities in their homeschool children. Further, 39% percent of homeschool athletes commute more than 30 minutes for practices, games, and events. This highlighted that transportation and/or lack of local access to sport opportunities are significant barriers to sport participation for the typical homeschooler in this sample. Ten percent of athletes started sports for the first time after age 11, and this was correlated with a higher incidence of injury in the last 12 months. Overuse injury rates and amount of active time spent outside of sports were similar to those of youth athletes in general (Brenner, 2007; National Physical Activity Plan vi Alliance, 2018). Further research is warranted to produce a more robust picture of the homeschool youth athlete experience.