Blog #8

When I was in high school I played on a couple of sports teams.  Each of these teams had an impact on my life because of the communities I got involved with.  One of most meaningful communities I joined was the soccer team.  As a team I believe we went through the stages described in Peck’s theory.

The first stage is pseudocommunity in this stage “a group may feel like things are just fine, people seem to be getting along…” (Exploring Leadership, p.299).  During my sophomore year I believe the team went through this stage.  Many of the kids on the team were friends from school and other travel soccer teams.  All of the members on the team got along and there weren’t many issues that arrived.  Mostly because the junior varsity was filled with all sophomore students.

Next stage is the chaos and views that come with many individuals on a team.  The text states “Different people or factions are asserting their perspectives…” (Exploring Leadership, p.300).  During the summer we trained almost every day in the morning at the gym and afternoons on the fields.  As the summer went on many began to voice their ideas and opinions on the future of our team heading into the next season. This caused many to disagree and fight over who would play this position, who’s the captains going to be, and how much playing time.

Then third stage came into effect when as team we realized that all the things we were saying became barriers.  These barriers prevented us from “truly listening and understanding (and being understood)” (Exploring Leadership, p.301).  For instance, the seniors believed that as sophomores we weren’t good enough to be asked to play up in varsity.  These assumptions and thoughts began to bring the sophomores together to prove them wrong.  As a team we ended up going against the varsity players in a scrimmage and beat them.  Those assumptions and barriers were then gone and we became closer as a soccer program.

The final stage is the team came together as a soccer program and no one was left out.  For example, as the summer ended we all had one goal in mind and that was to make it to states.  As a team all the players of junior varsity and varsity helped each other out to better our skills.  When conflicts came about we all handled it as a team and solved the problem.  For instance, when half of the varsity team was seniors and graduated we had to come together and decide who would fill those positions.  These decisions were decided by the general consensus of the team and given to the coach to have the final say.

Overall the stages of Peck’s theory work well when it came to sports teams and my experience.  I believe that after reading the theory it explains how a new team can come together overtime.  It also shows the importance of the overall development it takes to making an efficient community.