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Essay Answers
Prompt #2

The most memorable film we watched in the course is Training Rules. This film was

shocking to me because prior to watching this I was unaware of the extent of the discrimination

lesbians faced in sports. I was shocked that girls were kicked off the team for what they did in

their personal lives.

The entire team knew Coach Rene Portland’s homophobic stance as her rules were “No

drinking, no drugs and no lesbians” yet she kept her job and was praised by the public for being a

great coach. It was devastating to see talented players’ basketball careers being thrown away for

something that should not have even been acknowledged on the court as it had nothing to do

with playing basketball. This film opened my eyes to the extreme discrimination lesbians in

sports faced and are still facing today.

Prompt #3

My goal of the collage was to show the journey of achieving the hoop dream for Native

Americans. Native Americans living on the reservation struggle with poverty, abandonment by a

parent, alcoholism, drugs and are often victims of racism. These are the obstacles many Native

Americans have to face so I felt it was necessary to put them in the collage. I put these four

photos furthest away from the photo of Shoni Schimel because these are obstacles that pull one

away from achieving the hoop dream.

I included a photo of a basketball hoop on the reservation because not only does this

show poverty again but it shows the passion Native American basketball players have for the

game as they are making the best out of the situation. I included another photo for passion, the
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burning heart, because passion is necessary to overcome all of these obstacles. I also included a

photo of family as that is important in Native American culture and a photo of two children

playing rez ball. All of these photos lead up to a picture of Shoni Schimel playing in the WNBA.

As a Native American, she endured the journey that the collage portrays and she achieved the

hoop dream. I decided to put a photo of Native Americans dressed in traditional attire as the

background for the entire collage. This is important to capture because Native Americans, even

when they get off the reservation, hold their culture and tradition dear to them.