A discourse community is a group of individuals who bond over a similar interest, hobby, and goals. A discourse community that I am a part of and has had a significant impact on my life is basketball. I started watching professional basketball at the age of seven and joined a co-ed team when I was eight years old. Since I was the only girl on the team, I was never passed the ball, and became super discouraged. My parents convinced me to continue playing and put me on a new team. I played for a few more seasons, and my skills improved extremely. I gained a lot of confidence; thus leading me to willingly play against boys in middle school because I found it challenging. I played all four years of high school and learned how to be a leader. I wanted to give up every season and quit but instead, I put all of my effort and time into making my whole team better. I made new plays, set up extra practices, watched footage everyday, and wrote notes and feedback for everyone. This effort not only made me a better player, leader, and citizen, but it also aided the rest of my team grow as well, and helped us win CIF championships.
Since I was young playing in a co-ed team, I have always noticed the difference between how girls basketball have been treated and seen compared to boys basketball. My freshman year of high school basketball, the girls and the boys team practiced together because we had the same coach who is a woman. All the boys did not respect her as a coach because she was a woman and they were vocal about it. Women’s sports in general has always been overlooked however, I noticed a gain in popularity in women’s basketball after LSU vs. Iowa in the Women’s NCAA March Madness 2023 final. American basketball player, Caitlin Clark, had made a huge impact on the basketball community and caused the viewers for televised women’s basketball to increase. There is an article that was published on May 15, 2025, “The boom In WNBA popularity”. This article shows statistical analyses of the immense increase in attendance trends, franchise values, in-stadium experience, viewership, and market positioning from 1997 to 2025. Although the WNBA popularity has gained, Women’s NCAA teams are still very overlooked compared to the men’s college teams. For example, at the university I attend, San Diego State University, I can easily see the huge difference between the favored team between the men and women’s basketball program as someone who is very passionate and follows college basketball closely.
I want to research more about the basketball community but more specifically women’s basketball. As someone who played on teams with both only boys and only girls, and I also watch a lot of high school, college, and professional basketball, I want to dive deeper into why in general the basketball community favors men’s teams. I also want to dissect more into marketing strategies that the women basketball programs have used since the rise of popularity in 2023.