University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

A study of Pacific Islander scholarship football players and their institutional experience in higher education

(USC Thesis Other)

A study of Pacific Islander scholarship football players and their institutional experience in higher education

PDF

Download a page range

Download transcript

Copy asset link

Request this asset

Transcript (if available)

Content Running head: PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 1

A Study of Pacific Islander Scholarship Football Players and
Their Institutional Experience in Higher Education

by

Monica K. Morita

A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION

December 2013

Copyright 2013 Monica K. Morita
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 2
Acknowledgements
I would first like to thank my parents, Alex and Naomi, and my sister Marcy for
providing me with unconditional love and support. My dad would have really enjoyed the paths
his daughter’s lives have taken since he passed away.
The two people I have to thank after my immediate family are my Chair, Dr. Larry Picus
who agreed to work with me when my original Chair proved to be a bad match. Dr. Picus has
been unbelievably supportive as I’ve juggled my job and navigated the journey to completion.
He is the reason I was able to continue on. Thank you, Dr. Picus – if everyone had you as their
Chair they would definitely successfully defend. Dr. Linda Fischer has probably been the reason
I am in the process of uploading. Throughout the years, Linda has really literally pushed, and
dragged me forward when I thought that I could not go on. Just when I thought I might not make
it, she would say that I was so close to finishing if I just did this one thing I would be ready to
schedule a defense. Amazingly optimistic, Linda would say I could finish Chapter 5 in two
hours. She has much more faith in us then we have in ourselves. Linda – you are the best!
Thank you to my committee members, Dr. Melora Sundt, Dr. Norm Chow and the recently
added Dr. Pedro Garcia. I appreciate you hanging in there with me as I finally successfully
defended.
I’d like to thank my boss, Dr. Magdi El Shahawy not only because I was able to use his
study but also for the friendship and support he has given me over the years. I am very lucky to
have Magdi in my corner. My co-workers have really been a great resource of friendship and
fellowship and I could not have done this without them and I wish them all the best. I will name
only the ones here when I defended: Jen A, Heather, Kevin, Willie, Cory, Mimi, Jenn, Susie,
Joyce, Alan, Martin, Ali, Kam, Denise, John, Kyle, Whitney, David, Marisa and Francisco.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 3
Thank you to Sarah who edited my paper and makes my work easier. I count my colleagues as
an extended family that I feel always has my back. I have gotten to know not only them but their
families as well.
I had not seriously considered working towards a doctorate until my two good friends
Allah-mi Basheer and Brent Blanton informed me that they were both applying for the Doctor of
Education program in USC’s Rossier School of Education. Afraid of being behind in education
in our Student-Athlete Academic Services, I quickly scrambled to apply as well. After the first
two semesters both of my friends decided that the Ed.D was not the route for them. I continued
on thinking that I would have a tough time without my friends. I was right – just the time
commitment alone was hard to manage since I did not want to give up friends, social things and
personal time. I was lucky to have Imre Meszaros as my friend to take classes with and as a
sounding board for changing from thematic dissertation to independent study. One of the
scariest and best decisions I’ve made. So, here I am ten years later finally finishing up. Thank
you for getting me started Allah-mi and Brent and thank you Imre for being there the rest of the
way. Dr. Christina Rivera, a former colleague helped me to define my study. After talking
about what interested me, we came up with a study on Polynesian scholarship football student-
athletes. Thank you, Christina. Thank you also to my Rossier advisors, Nadine and Bami, who
helped me navigate through registration, appealing for extension and finally the submission
paperwork.
My relatives and extended family friends have all really been a much needed source of
support the entire time. Uncle Bob and Auntie Mae – thank you for treating like a family
member and letting me live with your family. Thank you to my first cousins, Kathie (Geri),
Valerie (Kevin + Tim, Jason and Chrissy), Jennifer (Jeff), Cyndie (Ming + Jeremy) and Morgan
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 4
(Mel + Sachi and Kenzo). Thank you’s to Uncle Henry who passed away, Uncle Marcus who
has been a great academic role model earning two Master’s and Auntie Judi who made me laugh
when she called to congratulate me and remind me that I remembered the names of all of the
dinosaurs so she knew I was smart. Other extended family members that my sister calls “my
other families” the Leung and Tufenkian’s of San Marino and Goleta, the Johnson’s and
Akselrad’s of Las Vegas, my Gaucho Boxing family – Javier and Nico, Toey, Patricia and Nick
(Jaden, Corinne and Eleni), and Hamid and Nicole (Aden), the Klineman’s of Manhattan Beach,
the Nakamoto-Lee Family of Hilo, the Hata’s of Torrance, the Freed’s of Glendale, the Asato’s
of Kona, and my Yoshioka Hilo relatives. Thank you also to Uncle Harry and Auntie Jean who
helped celebrate my successful defense by traveling to Turkey and Azerbaijan with my mom and
me. Other friends are Steve, Silvia and Judi who have been very supportive. I am so lucky to
have such a wonderful family and extended family!
Prior to being part of the Athletic Department, I was a part of the Leventhal School of
Accounting family and I’d like to thank everyone there for all their support over the years.
Thank you to Coach Paul and Elizabeth Hackett who recruited me to the Athletic Department. I
would not have been a part of Athletics if it wasn’t for you. You are both wonderful examples of
really good people. Thank you to Steve Lopes and Ron Orr who thought of another opportunity
for me in the Athletic Department outside of “free agency.”
The best part of my job is the chance to work with the student-athlete population. This
unique group of students are focused, hard-working and a give us all a reason to come to work
every day. To see the growth and maturity in these students has been a wonderful perk of my
job.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 5
My amazing writing group gave me much inspiration. Evelyn, Celena and Elizabeth
provided me with the will to go on. These crazy women made me feel like a lightweight when I
left the group at midnight. They continue to support me even after they have completed their
doctorates and I feel so fortunate to have such incredible and caring friends who want to help me
complete my journey. I’m sorry if I missed anyone. If I did miss you please don’t take it
personally
I would like to thank everyone that I interviewed. I couldn’t have done this study without
you and unfortunately I can’t mention names. I’ve learned so much from speaking with all of
you and it was the most enjoyable part of the study. Finally, I would like to dedicate this study
in memory of Fred Matua and Tevita Moala who gave of themselves to the community and
inspired those around them.

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 6
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... 2
List of Tables ................................................................................................................................ 10
Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... 11
Chapter 1 Overview of the Study.................................................................................................. 12
Background of the Problem....................................................................................................... 13
Statement of the Problem .......................................................................................................... 20
Purpose of the Study ................................................................................................................. 22
The Importance of the Study ..................................................................................................... 25
Methodology ............................................................................................................................. 26
Limitations, Delimitations, Assumptions .................................................................................. 27
Definitions ................................................................................................................................. 27
Chapter 2 Literature Review ......................................................................................................... 29
The Higher Education Institution as it relates to Cultural and Social Capital ....................... 31
Social and Cultural Capital .................................................................................................... 32
Athletic Capital ...................................................................................................................... 40
Summary of Cultural and Social Capital ............................................................................... 42
Student Development ................................................................................................................ 43
Student-Athlete Development ............................................................................................... 50
Student-Athlete Institutional Experiences ............................................................................. 53
Environmental Factors Affecting Student-Athletes .............................................................. 56
Summary of Student Development ........................................................................................ 62
Chapter 3 Methodology ................................................................................................................ 64
Research Questions ................................................................................................................... 65
Sample and Population .............................................................................................................. 66
Procedures and Instrumentation ................................................................................................ 69
Data Collection .......................................................................................................................... 72
Data Analysis ............................................................................................................................ 72

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 7
Chapter 4 Results .......................................................................................................................... 73
Institution Information .............................................................................................................. 73
Participants ................................................................................................................................ 74
Results ....................................................................................................................................... 77
Athletic Capital ......................................................................................................................... 78
NFL ........................................................................................................................................ 78
Institute’s History of Polynesian Football Players ................................................................ 81
Negative Experiences as a Student-Athlete ........................................................................... 83
National Exposure and Opportunities – Status ...................................................................... 86
Discussion Athletic Capital ................................................................................................... 90
Polynesian Culture .................................................................................................................... 90
Geographical Cultural Differences ............................................................................................ 95
Respect .................................................................................................................................... 103
Respect – not talking out of turn ......................................................................................... 107
Respect – showing respect for institutional agents – example to other students ................. 110
Family...................................................................................................................................... 112
Religion ................................................................................................................................... 118
Summary ................................................................................................................................. 124
Chapter 5 Discussion .................................................................................................................. 125
Summary of the Findings ........................................................................................................ 126
Athletic Capital ....................................................................................................................... 127
Social and Cultural Capital ..................................................................................................... 129
Respect................................................................................................................................. 130
Family .................................................................................................................................. 131
Religion ............................................................................................................................... 132
Implications for Practice ......................................................................................................... 133
Recommendations for Research .............................................................................................. 135
Conclusions ............................................................................................................................. 136
Appendix A – Current Student-Athletes ..................................................................................... 138
Research Questions ................................................................................................................. 138
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 8
Section A – Background Information (Paper Survey) ......................................................... 138
Panel Interview ........................................................................................................................ 139
Section B – Institution ......................................................................................................... 139
Section C – Athletics ........................................................................................................... 139
Section D – Culture ............................................................................................................. 140
One-on-one interview .............................................................................................................. 140
Section E – Follow Up Questions........................................................................................ 140
Section F – Further Follow Up Questions ........................................................................... 141
Appendix B – Former Student-Athletes (Paper Survey) ............................................................ 142
Section A – Background Information .................................................................................. 142
One-on-one interview .............................................................................................................. 143
Section B – Institution ......................................................................................................... 143
Section C – Athletics ........................................................................................................... 143
Section D – Culture ............................................................................................................. 144
Appendix C – Pacific Islander Coaches...................................................................................... 145
One-on-one interview .............................................................................................................. 145
Section A – Background Information .................................................................................. 145
Section B – Institution ......................................................................................................... 145
Section C – Athletics ........................................................................................................... 146
Section D – Culture ............................................................................................................. 146
Appendix D – Pacific Islander Community Members ................................................................ 147
One-on-one interview .............................................................................................................. 147
Section A – Background Information .................................................................................. 147
Section B – Institution ......................................................................................................... 147
Section C – Athletics ........................................................................................................... 148
Section D – Culture ............................................................................................................. 148
Appendix E - Research Questions Linked to Theory ................................................................. 149
Appendix F – Current Student-Athletes ..................................................................................... 152
Appendix G – Former Student-Athletes ..................................................................................... 153
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 9
Appendix H – Pacific-Islander Coaches ..................................................................................... 154
Appendix I – Pacific-Islander Community Members ................................................................. 155
Appendix J - Theoretical Framework ......................................................................................... 156
References ................................................................................................................................... 159

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 10
List of Tables
Table I – Applicants and Enrolled Students Compared by Ethnicity ........................................... 67
Table II – Percentage of USC Enrollment Compared with Ethnicity of Scholarship Football
Players ................................................................................................................................... 69
Table III – Number of Times Themes Occurring During Interviews Linked to Research
Questions ............................................................................................................................... 77

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 11
Abstract
This study applies the theories of social and cultural capital and introduces athletic capital
in order to gain an understanding of Polynesian scholarship football players and their
experiences at an institution of higher education. Additionally, theories of student identity
development and student-athlete development are also utilized to gain a broader perspective of
this student-athlete population. The purpose of the study was to determine how social and
cultural capital are linked to the experiences of Polynesian scholarship student-athletes and if
athletic capital was involved. Using a qualitative approach, interviews with current student-
athletes, former student-athletes, Polynesian football coaches, non-Polynesian coaches, and
Polynesian community leaders, the data was collected, transcribed and then sorted by theme and
relevancy to the theories used in this study. Findings from this study suggest that athletic, social
and cultural capital does play a part in the experience of the Polynesian scholarship football
player at this institution. Themes of respect, family and religion emerged as an integral part of
the student’s culture. This study gives a better understanding of the Polynesian scholarship
football player and how athletic capital plays a part in the institutional experience and the
decision to possibly leave for the opportunity to compete in the NFL.

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 12
Chapter 1
Overview of the Study
United States history has shown that Asians and Pacific Islanders have been both
considered undesirable and model minorities (National Commission on Asian Pacific Islander
Research in Education, 2008; Zia, H, 2001). Asians and Pacific Islanders have been used by
politicians and federal policymakers to compare with other ethnicities as positive and negative
role models, whichever suited the situation (Kim, 1999). By generalizing the characteristics of
the Asians and Pacific Islanders as one group, there could be an inaccurate understanding of this
aggregated group as separate subgroups. The need to understand the differences between Asians
and Pacific Islanders is crucial in determining whether one group, specifically the Pacific
Islanders, need additional support or help through special social programs, city, state or federal
policy, or to provide for the general welfare and well-being of any underserved members of this
minority group. A recently published report by the National Commission on Asian and Pacific
Islander Research in Education (CARE) (National Commission on Asian Pacific Islander
Research in Education, 2008) argued that there should not be an aggregation of data regarding
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders because of the vast differences of traits between
ethnicities and cultures and variation in the socioeconomic status of families in the two groups.
As the CARE study points out, there is a need for additional scrutiny and study of these diverse
and formerly aggregated populations (National Commission on Asian Pacific Islander Research
in Education, 2008).
The necessity of understanding the influence of culture and ethnicity for the Pacific
Islander as a group within a predominately White educational setting has emerged in the football
profession also. The complexity of navigating challenges of culture, education, and sports has
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 13
captured the attention of the American public. Most recently, an increase of Polynesians in the
limelight with the suicide of Junior Seau and the social media coverage of Manti Te’o of Notre
Dame has brought these challenges to the forefront. Therefore, understanding how the football
student-athlete perceives and navigates challenges in this setting is important. This study seeks
to determine how culture and ethnicity factor into the institutional experience of the Pacific
Islander scholarship football student-athlete at a predominately White west coast private
institution of higher education. This study will help to determine how cultural and social capital
play a part in a student’s institutional experience as well as in his ability to understand what will
help them succeed at the institution (Stanton-Salazar, 1997). Understanding how these factors
affect the experience of the student will aid in increasing the positive experiences of this
population of students and help in the retention and attainment of baccalaureate degrees or
understanding as to why they don’t complete their degrees.
Background of the Problem
The Pacific Islander scholarship football student-athletes at an institution of higher
education is a group that has not been studied by the National Collegiate Athletic Association
(NCAA) and the data held by this organization does not disaggregate data specifically by the
Pacific Islander ethnicity (NCAA, 2005). In addition to the NCAA, institutions of higher
education and the U.S. Census Bureau have not always disaggregated the Pacific Islander
population from the Asian population generally, and data regarding educational attainment or
even accurately counting this population is not readily available. The Pacific Islander
scholarship football student-athlete represents a minority as both a student-athlete at any
institution and by his ethnicity (NCAA, 2005; U.S. Census 2000). As a double minority, this
population may encounter difficulties that both a student-athlete and an ethnic minority at a
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 14
predominately White institution may experience (Allen & Boykin, 1992; Bartolome, 1998;
Dovidio, Gaertner, Niemann & Snider, 2001; Miller & Kerr, 2002; Wright, 2003; Tierney,
1999). Interviews with the individuals in the study will be the first step in understanding how
this particular subgroup of Pacific Islanders perceive their experience in this situation.
NCAA and U.S. Census data are both needed to understand the population that will be
part of this study, and to compare this population with other population groups in U.S. Colleges
and Universities. In addition to background information on the status of Pacific Islander student-
athletes, this study will consider cultural and social capital, student development and student-
athlete identity, all of which are factors that speak to the need for a study of these students.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) 2005 NCAA Membership
Report indicates that the average undergraduate enrollment of a Division I institution in 2005
was 10,792, of which the average student-athlete population was 589. The student-athlete
population at the institution to be studied here is roughly 5.4% of the institution’s overall student
population. The student-athlete population could be compared to an ethnic minority. The two
groups are usually combined for statistical analyses and in other research studies. It is only
recently that institutions of higher education have begun to look more closely at the Pacific
Islander population alone. Reporting demographic characteristics of the Pacific Islanders in
combination with other Asian groups like the Korean, Chinese, Filipino, Asian Indian, Pakistani
and Japanese populations, may result in an inaccurate picture of the characteristics of Pacific
Islanders and their attainment of Bachelor’s degrees or higher (National Commission on Asian
Pacific Islander Research in Education, 2008). The report by the National Commission on Asian
and Pacific Islander Research in Education (2008) uses the U.S. Census data which reports that
the U.S. Average of earning Bachelor’s Degrees or Higher is 24.4%, while the total Asian
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 15
American population is 44.1% and markedly lower is the total of Pacific Islanders at 13.8%.
Considered as Asian Americans are: Hmong, Cambodian, Laotian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai,
Pakistani, Korean, Asian Indian, Filipino, Japanese and other Asian. Included as Pacific
Islanders are: Tongan, Fijian, Marshalese, Samoan, Guamanian, Native Hawaiian and other
Pacific Islander.
The UCLA and Asian American Studies Center, an official U.S. Census Information
Center, has released statistical data which separates the Asian and Pacific Islander populations.
The U.S. Census report (2000) is incorporated in the CARE report (2008) and shows that these
two ethnicities reside in relatively large numbers in only a few states, often within specific
localities inside certain cities. The CARE report (2008) states that two-thirds of Asian American
and Pacific Islanders in 2000 attended colleges in only eight states, and half of this group
attended colleges in California, New York and Texas (National Commission on Asian Pacific
Islander Research in Education, 2008). The study also found a majority of Asian and Pacific
Islander students attend public two and four year institutions rather than private four year
institutions (National Commission on Asian Pacific Islander Research in Education, 2008).
Absent in the CARE report (2008) is an analysis of differences between genders, an issue that is
important in a study of scholarship football players who are all male. CARE also reports that the
percentage of the Pacific Islander population living in poverty is more than five percent higher
than the percentage of the U.S. population living below the poverty level. Moreover, when
considered by even more distinct sub-groupings, the poverty rate of Samoan and Tongan
populations is more than seven percent above the U.S. average (U.S. Census, 2000).
The U.S. Census (2000) data on education revealed that the percentage of Asians and
Pacific Islanders receiving high school degrees is similar with 87% of Asians and 84% of Pacific
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 16
Islanders completing high school. The educational gap becomes greater in higher education
where 49% of Asians reported having a baccalaureate degree or higher while only 15% of Native
Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders had similar educational attainment. (U.S. Census, 2000).
In advanced degrees, Asians reported 20% or more earned a Master’s, Ph.D., M.D., or J.D.,
while the percentage for Pacific Islanders is 4% (U.S. Census, 2000).
Asians and Pacific Islanders have been combined in studies for many years. Because of
the decision to combine demographic data on these two clearly different groups, services for
deserving Pacific Islanders may not have been available due to the misconception that
educational attainment and financial resources of Pacific Islanders were higher than the actual
occurrences (U.S. Census, 2000). Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) may be starting to
disaggregate data. Until data are separated, programs that seek to boost institutional equity like
Bensimon’s (2004) Diversity Scorecard may not be able to uncover academic based inequities in
institutions affecting specific ethnicities. This may directly affect the individual’s institutional
experience or validate previous educational institutional experiences (Stanton-Salazar, Vasquez
& Mehan, 2000).
A student may have institutional experiences through their parent’s interactions with
teachers or with his own interactions with institutional agents. Parent’s utilization of cultural or
social capital in dealings with institutional agents may directly impact the institutional
experience of the student (Lareau, 1987; Lareau & Horvat, 1999). A student from a culturally
diverse background may have a different experience if a teacher understands how culture can be
integrated into the educational system to maximize the learning potential of the student (Lipka,
1991). The success or failure of minority student-athletes can be attributed to the interactions
with institutional agents such as teachers, counselors, administrators and coaches (Stanton-
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 17
Salazar, 1997). When institutional agents actively support the culture of the student, this helps in
the student’s institutional experience, and the student’s chance of learning increases (Bartolome,
1998). A student who decodes the culture of the institution or knows which institutional agents
to reach out to, will have a positive institutional experience (Stanton-Salazar, 1997). The CARE
(2008) report maintains that the lack of mentors of Asian and Pacific Islander ethnicity do not
provide a setting in which to attract or serve this population.
Bourdieu’s (1977) cultural and social capital is the concept of upbringing and social
connections affecting an individual’s ability to navigate positively or negatively in institutional
settings or in societal situations. Student-athletes, in addition to social and cultural capital, have
something called athletic capital which may negatively or positively affect a student-athlete’s
experience in higher education. Athletic capital is measured by institutional agents, nonathlete
students, alumni and fans (Engstrom & Sedlacek, 1991). Athletic capital is an integral part of
both the social capital and cultural capital categories. The student-athletes in this study have
cultural and social capital by virtue of their status as highly visible football scholarship athletes.
Bourdieu’s additional concept of habitus, an individual’s view of the world and their place in it,
was highlighted in a study by Dumais (2002). Dumais felt that in order to encompass Bourdieu’s
original cultural and social capital theory, habitus must be included. Habitus plays a part in a
football student-athlete’s decision to enter the National Football League’s draft because of his
anticipated draft ranking (El Shahawy, 1999).
El Shahawy (1999) studied the factors that predict whether a football player will elect to
enter the NFL draft with athletic eligibility remaining and without receiving a baccalaureate
degree. El Shahawy does not label factors in his study as athletic capital, however, his study
introduces the concept with factors like perceived student-athlete worth. El Shahawy indicates
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 18
that athletic capital can be divulged to the student-athlete by individuals like NFL scouts, sports
agents and professional football athletes. Institutional team rankings are not a good factor to rate
individual athletic capital. A student-athlete may have an inflated idea of self athletic capital
which does not accurately portray the student-athlete’s actual athletic capital (El Shahawy,
1999). Athletic capital can be negative as evidenced in Engstrom and Sedlacek’s (1991) study
which indicates that student-athletes experience prejudice by professors and non-athlete students
by forming preconceived negative stereotypes of student-athletes. The perceived extra benefits
of tutorial support and extra academic counseling by athletic department run academic service
units are seen in a negative light (Engstrom & Sedlacek, 1991).
Not only are there differences between student-athletes and nonathletes, there are
differences between scholarship student-athletes from revenue and non-revenue sports in terms
of development and institutional experiences (Simons, Van Rheenen & Covington, 1999;
Wolniak, Peterson & Pascarella, 2001). Upthegrove, Roscigno and Charles (1999) examined the
differences between student-athletes from revenue and non-revenue sports and the racial
concentrations, contradictory pressures and academic performance. The study indicates that
students from revenue sports tend to graduate at a lower rate than those students in non-revenue
sports. Also, African American student-athletes seem to graduate at a lower rate than their
White counterparts.
Student-athletes are given such a limited amount of free time and chances to act and think
independently that Sowa and Gressard (1983) have indicated that the decision making
capabilities of the student-athletes are adversely affected. The student-athlete’s development in
the higher education setting is unfavorably influenced because the student may focus mainly on
the athletic aspect of his or her institutional experience instead of the academic (Murphy,
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 19
Petitpas, & Brewer, 1996; Petitpas & Champagne, 1988; Simons, Van Rheenen & Covington,
1999; Snyder, 1996). The identity development of a student-athlete is unlike that of a non-
athlete and may be shaped by his or her athletic participation and the rigorous schedules which
he or she is bound to adhere to in order to remain a part of the athletic environment (Chartrand &
Lent, 1987; Nishimoto, 1997; Parham, 1993, Petitpas and Champagne, 1988; Smallman, Sowa
and Young, 1991).
Athletic participation can also increase the level of inclusiveness and satisfaction that a
student experiences when first attending and institution of higher education (Astin, 1984; Ryan,
1989). Student-athletes reportedly experienced more satisfaction in their college experience than
their non-athlete peers. The student-athlete spends a lot of time on campus and may have to
interact with more administrative personnel, making the student-athlete more invested as a part
of the campus community (Astin, 1984; Ryan, 1989). However, if a student’s identity is based
mainly on his or her athletic identity, an injured student-athlete who is no longer able to
participate in athletics is in danger of dropping out of the institution or regressing in
developmental stages (Harris, 2003). Understanding the identity development of a student-
athlete can aid in helping deal with situations like injury or with situations that may cause the
student to regress in the identity development or to stay in one stage longer before moving on
(Harris, 2003; Howard-Hamilton & Sina, 2001). Dovidio, Gaertner, Niemann and Snider’s
(2001) study link race and ethnic and cultural differences to institutional experiences on college
campuses and its effect on group identity. The study reported that individuals who reported a
strong identity with the organization or institution also indicated a more positive outlook even
with a connection to a less represented ethnic or cultural group. This would suggest that
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 20
students from less represented minority groups could still report a positive experience in an
institution if they felt a part of the institution.
Statement of the Problem
Data from both the NCAA (2005) and the U.S. Census (2000) show that Pacific Islander
scholarship football players are a small percentage of the student population in higher education
institutions. Because of their minority status in this institutional setting, it is important to
determine how the Pacific Islander scholarship student-athlete population perceives their
experience at predominately White universities (Dumais, 2002). If the NCAA and academic
institutions have utilized data based on the aggregated Asian and Pacific Islander populations it
is not clear what the information in the past had been used for. It is not known how many Pacific
Islanders are actually enrolled at the institution and what their graduation rate is. The NCAA
could have a high graduation rate for the Asian and Pacific Islander population, which could be
based on the Asian population’s persistence in obtaining a baccalaureate degree (U.S. Census,
2000). Correct data can be used to prescribe necessary services or programs specifically
designed for the population needing those skills or tools to succeed at the institution.
Higher education institutions that are predominately White institutions tend to validate
what is valued by the dominant class, cultural group or ethnicity (Lamont & Lareau, 1988). If
the perception by the student is that the dominant group does not give any value to another
group’s capital, then there is the perception that there is no capital to turn into economic or other
types of resources (Stanton-Salazar, Vasquez, & Mehan, 2000). Additionally, the newly
introduced concept of athletic capital can play a part in the student-athlete’s perceived worth and
the decisions made based on that perception (Engstrom & Sedlacek, 1991; El Shahawy, 1999). It
is unknown at this point how the Pacific Islander scholarship student-athletes view cultural
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 21
capital or habitus for themselves with identities as Pacific Islanders and student-athletes
(Dumais, 2002). Cultural and social capital in the United States may be unique with a lot of
attention focused on collegiate athletes and at many schools, specifically football athletes
(Lamont & Lareau, 1988).
At this point it is unknown how Pacific Islander scholarship student-athletes manage their
identity development as an ethnic minority, student-athlete and university student (Dovidio,
Gaertner, Niemann & Snider, 2001; Miller & Kerr, 2002; Wright, 2003). Pacific Islander
student-athletes have many different areas of student development which can be attributed to
their ethnicity, being a student-athlete, or regular student development in higher education. In a
study by Sowa and Gressard (1983), athletes rated significantly lower than non-athletes in
developmental areas relating to educational plans, career plans and mature relationships with
peers. Males from non-revenue sports tend to also have a higher degree of identity foreclosure
and career maturity than the revenue sport athletes. Most student-athletes in the revenue sports
were recruited for their athletic ability. The student-athlete may already have a pattern of
behavior which discounts the importance of academics, having been conditioned by parents,
peers and coaches before attending the university. Once students enter the athletic culture of the
institution, they are often subjected to the pressure of putting athletics ahead of academics. This
may be more prevalent among students in revenue driven sports like football and basketball
(Simons, Van Rheenen, & Covington, 1999).
The lack of published studies on Pacific Islanders in higher education on any topic may
indicate that there is little interest in this population which could validate to the students that they
are seen as unimportant by the dominant group. Tierney (1999) also makes it clear that
institutions must also provide support for these culturally diverse students in order for them to
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 22
succeed. The institutional support is what ultimately facilitates the success of the student
without the suppression of cultural values and background. A student has a better chance of
learning the material if the culture that they are from is actively supported by the educational
system (Bartolome, 1998). There may not be any institutional agents or role models specifically
from the Pacific Islander population. As the data have indicated, only 15% of Pacific Islanders
earn a baccalaureate degree and only 4% continue on to receive a Master’s or higher, therefore
the data suggests that the number of Pacific Island educators or administrators will be a small
number (U.S. Census, 2000).
Pacific Islander student-athletes are a minority both by their ethnicity and by being
student-athletes. Additionally, the tendency is that as male scholarship student-athletes from a
revenue sport, they are more likely to be slower in developmental stages than their non-revenue
student-athlete counterparts, non-athletes and female student-athletes (Murphy, Petitpas, and
Brewer, 1996). An Upthegrove, Roscigno, and Charles (1999) study also indicates that revenue
sport athletes tend to graduate at a lower rate than those students in non-revenue sports. There
seems to be little continuity in the study of student-athletes. Studies in student-athlete
development are a relatively new area and there is a need for research. Therefore, studies are
done differently each time, with different institutions and for different reasons. The lack of
replication of studies and the variance of studies done on student-athletes make generalizations
and reporting findings more difficult to support. Not much is known about the Pacific-Islander
scholarship football student-athlete at this time.
Purpose of the Study
This study will be done with the expectation that discussion with the Pacific Islander
scholarship football student-athlete at a predominately White west coast private institution will
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 23
reveal how culture and ethnicity relate to the institutional experience of this population. This
study will determine how cultural and social capital are linked to a student’s institutional
experience and if his capital aids him in succeeding at an institution (Stanton-Salazar, 1997).
Insight of the institutional experience of this student population will construct an understanding
on how to foster the positive experiences of this population of students and hope to increase the
number of those students retained for enrollment and ultimately the attainment of undergraduate
degrees. Noting the decrease of Pacific Islander graduates at the baccalaureate and Master’s or
higher level compared to Asians, it is not clear if higher education is not valued or considered as
cultural or social capital in the Pacific Islander culture. It has not been determined if economic
factors are the cause of Pacific Islanders lack of higher education pursuit or if there are other
cultural factors. Pacific Islanders may have a different set of cultural values or cultural
legitimacy that affects the attainment of higher education (Lamont & Lareau, 1988). Based on
the U.S. Census (2000) data, it is likely that a Pacific Islander scholarship football player
represents an ethnicity of which only a small percentage earn baccalaureate degrees and an even
smaller percentage go on to obtain Master’s, Ph.D., or J.D. degrees. The chance to become a
professional athlete may also contribute to this population leaving an institution before earning a
degree (El Shahawy, 1999).
Additionally, information gathered can be used by institutions to determine if gaps in
student development exist. Gaps may indicate if there is a potential problem hindering the
progress of student development or institutional success of the Pacific Islander football
scholarship student-athletes (Tierney, 1999). Two areas that may provide insight to account for
these differences in the attainment of higher education degrees are cultural and social capital and
student development. Both areas may be related specifically to the student-athlete population.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 24
Individuals have cultural and social capital through upbringing and social connections. Cultural
and social capital introduced by Bourdieu (1977) was explained as a form of asset that an
individual has by their social status or cultural background that can be converted to economic
resources. Understanding how culture, ethnicity and being a student-athlete affect the
development and persistence of the Pacific Islander student-athlete at a predominately white
university, may indicate the areas which require further study. Roscigno and Ainsworth-
Darnell’s (1999) study details how cultural advantages, educational resources and SES differ
between Whites and Blacks. As in the Roscigno and Ainsworth-Darnell (1999) study,
comparisons are made between Whites and Blacks, however similar studies are absent for the
Pacific Islander population.
There appears to be little continuity in the study of student-athletes and no studies have
been conducted focusing solely on the Pacific Islander population in the area of cultural identity
and the institutional experience. Nishimoto’s (1997) study of football student-athletes although
valuable and close to the proposed population, is limited in drawing conclusions on the Pacific
Islander culture because of the inclusion of other non-Pacific Islander subjects. The study of the
student-athlete and its effects on individuals’ development is a relatively new area and there is a
need for further research. Studies have been done using different methodologies, focusing on
different institutions and are conducted for different reasons. The lack of replication of studies
and the variance of studies conducted on student-athletes make generalizations and the reported
findings more difficult to support. The information from this study could give insight on the
Pacific Islander student population that could be used to increase the number of students in
higher education, and aid in the positive institutional experience of these students. Since the
Pacific Islander revenue student-athlete population is an at-risk population in higher education,
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 25
any new information can only help in developing student services that could increase the
persistence of this group and create future opportunities for members of the Pacific Islander
population.
The Research Questions which guided this study are as follows:
1. What are the perceptions of Pacific Islander scholarship football student-athletes
regarding their institutional experiences and types of support they received?
2. Do Pacific Islander scholarship football student-athletes feel this institutional support
helped meet their developmental needs?
3. In what ways did these institutional agents influence the development of these Pacific
Islander scholarship football student-athletes?
The Importance of the Study
The Pacific-Islander scholarship football student-athlete is a double minority by being
both a student-athlete and a Pacific Islander college student. As the U.S. Census (2000)
indicated, the Pacific Islander population, compared to the Asian population, report much lower
numbers in receiving higher education degrees. This study can uncover factors leading to Pacific
Islander football student-athletes leaving for the NFL while foregoing a baccalaureate degree (El
Shahawy, 1999). The social and cultural capital of the Pacific Islander football scholarship
student-athlete will give institutional agents an idea of the perceived experience of the student
and the how the services could be improved to provide greater support (Tierney, 1999).
Policymakers in educational systems need to determine what causes the decrease in
educational attainment of Pacific Islanders students after obtaining a high school degree. The
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 26
study can determine what factors are causing the gap in baccalaureate degrees or higher and if
cultural or ethnicity related reasons are to blame. Programs like Tierney’s (1999) study on the
Neighborhood Academic Initiative (NAI) program, which targets minority student’s with close
proximity to the University of Southern California (USC), are bridge programs designed at
mentoring students from grades 7 through 12. Students are given the opportunity to have the
goal of attending USC with scholarship incentives. Institutional support has been built into the
program to ensure the continued success of the NAI student (Tierney, 1999). A program like the
NAI can be developed for institutions, but Pacific Islander students may not be in the areas
directly located around such an institution. Additional areas of study need to be determined by
starting with a small sample of this population. Policymakers need to be concerned about the
Pacific Islander population for the good of the population. Since this is the first study on this
specific population, researchers can determine which areas need to be further studied. This study
will be focused on cultural aspects of the individuals and the impact on institutional experiences.
Information may be disclosed that could indicate that studies need to be focused in areas outside
of what is studied. Each institution may yield results unique to that institution because of factors
not present in this study’s institution. This study can only increase any data or information we
have on the Pacific Islander population.
Methodology
The sample of this study will be five to eight Pacific Islander scholarship student-athletes
currently enrolled at one predominately White private institution on the West Coast. All
interviews and discussions will be taped and transcribed. A background data interview will be
held with each individual. A panel discussion will be held with the 5 to 8 subjects. All
individuals in this population will be asked to participate. Follow up interviews will be held
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 27
either in person or by phone. Information will be validated by interviews with 5 to 6 former
Pacific Islander scholarship football players, up to 5 Pacific Islander football coaches, up to 5
non Pacific Islander football coaches and up to 5 leaders of the Pacific Islander community.
Limitations, Delimitations, Assumptions
Scholarship student-athletes from revenue sports may have experiences that vary from
those non-scholarship students in revenue sports (Murphy, Petitpas, & Brewer, 1996). This
study will only include football scholarship student-athletes. There will be no measure of the
perceptions of student-athletes versus non-athletes because of the sample of scholarship athletes
only. Sowa and Gressard’s (1983) study has found that there are differences in career goals
between athletes and non-athletes. As scholarship revenue sport athletes and as part of a
Division I top ten football program, these Pacific Islander student-athletes career aspirations may
be focused on the NFL solely, with little regard to higher education (El Shahawy, 1999). The
students in this study may come from varying Pacific Islander backgrounds that could yield
inconclusive results (Torres, 2003). It is anticipated that the majority of the students in this study
will be first generation university students (U.S. Census, 2000). These student-athletes may not
disclose what they actually think because of their preconceived perceptions of institutional
agents. Since all of the students will come from one institution, there will be no comparison data
on other institutions.
Definitions
Depth-chart. The football team has a depth-chart of which each position ranks its players by
position, number one being the best and the higher the number the less likely the player will be
starter.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 28
Division I. As defined by the NCAA as a member institution that can compete with other
members at the same level and must abide by standards as set by the NCAA.
Football scholarship athlete. One of the student-athletes awarded one of the 85 scholarships
allowable in this head count sport.
Head count sport. A head count sport is a sport that must count each individual receiving
athletic aid as one scholarship.
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The NCAA is the administrating body that
athletic member institutions must belong in order to compete in university athletic competitions.
Non-revenue sport. Any sport that doesn’t bring in revenue normally, at this west coast
university it is any other sport other than football and basketball.
Pacific Islanders. For purposes of this study, Pacific Islanders include the ethnicities of
Hawaiian, Samoan and Tongan.
Revenue sport. Sport determined to bring in revenue at a university. For this study – it is
football.
SES. Socioeconomic status.
Starter. A starter on the football team is an individual who is the number one at that position
and will more than likely be called to go in for the first play of the game when the opportunity
arises.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 29
Chapter 2
Literature Review

The student-athlete population at an institution of higher education represents a small
percentage of the general student population (NCAA, 2005). The National Collegiate Athletic
Association (NCAA) is the governing agency of collegiate athletics and provides standards of
regulation that an athletics program within an institution of higher education must adhere to.
Many institutions, including the NCAA, do not disaggregate data between Asians and
Pacific Islanders. Pacific Islander students have been aggregated with Asian students in
statistical counts as well as data collection and in studies. It is only recently that institutions have
begun to take a closer look at the Pacific Islander population by disaggregating the data. Asian
groups like the Korean, Chinese and Japanese whose data is compiled with the Pacific Islander
population, may not be reporting an accurate picture of information regarding education or the
involvement of parents in academic pursuits. Asakawa’s (2001) study compares Asian
Americans made up of a sample of Chinese, Filipinos, Japanese, Koreans, Southeast Asians and
South Asians and Whites in understanding academic socialization processes. Similarly, Eaton
and Denbo’s (1996) study included Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese students
discussing motivational theories of Asian American students and the effect on academic
achievement. While the Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese and Japanese population is historically
known to have a tendency of pursuing higher education, there appears to be a lack of studies
including the Pacific Islander population, thus validating the need to explore the higher education
experience of the Pacific Islander student (Asakawa, 2001; Eaton & Dembo, 1996).
The UCLA and Asian American Studies Center, as an official U.S. Census Information
Center, recently released statistical data regarding education and disaggregating Asians and
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 30
Pacific Islanders’ information. The educational achievements of Asians and Pacific Islanders are
relatively close at the high school level with 87% of Asians and 84% of the Pacific Islanders
earning a high school degrees (U.S. Census, 2000).
Asians and Pacific Islanders differ by a greater degree in higher education completion.
While 49% of Asians reported to have a bachelor’s degree or higher level of education, the
percentage for Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders is reported at 15%. With advanced
degrees, 20% of Asians earn either a Master’s, Ph.D., M.D. or J.D., while the percentage for
Pacific Islanders is 4% (U.S. Census, 2000).
The data indicate that each year the exponential gap of Asians and Pacific Islanders as
related to higher education, especially for those with Master’s or higher, will represent a greater
disparity than originally indicated with aggregated data (U.S. Census, 2000). As the
disaggregated data show there are some major differences in the attainment of higher education
degrees between the Asians and Pacific Islanders (U.S. Census, 2000). Based on the U.S.
Census (2000) data, it is likely that a Pacific Islander scholarship football player represents an
ethnicity of which only a small percentage earn baccalaureate degrees and an even smaller
percentage go on to obtain Master’s, Ph.D., or J.D. degrees. A study done by El Shahawy
(1999), identified predictors leading scholarship football players to leave early for the NFL draft.
It has not been determined if leaving early for the NFL draft is a factor for this subculture. The
chance to become a professional athlete may also contribute to this population leaving an
institution before earning a degree (El Shahawy, 1999).
Based on the relatively recent disaggregating of data and the low numbers of the Pacific
Islander population’s representation in higher education, the theoretical areas that may provide
insight to account for these differences in the attainment of higher education degrees are cultural,
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 31
social and athletic capital and student development relating specifically to the student-athlete
population and the Pacific Islander’s identity. Understanding how culture, ethnicity and being a
student-athlete affect the development and persistence of the Pacific Islander student-athlete at a
predominately White private university, may indicate the areas which require further study.
First I will explore the theory of social and cultural capital, introducing past studies that
may correlate to the subculture of Pacific Islander scholarship football student-athletes in higher
education. I will then introduce the theory of athletic capital as another form of capital not
previously discussed or defined anywhere under the title of athletic capital. Finally, I will discuss
student development theory focusing on ethnic and cultural identity, Pacific Islander institutional
experience, student-athlete development, student-athlete institutional experiences, environmental
factors for student-athletes, and the injured student-athlete experience.
The Higher Education Institution as it relates to Cultural and Social Capital
First, social and cultural capital will be discussed with an explanation of its relevance to
higher education. The paper will then explain the implications of disaggregating data within an
institution of higher education followed by the importance of cultural capital as a factor in an
institution for a group with a significantly smaller representation in the general student
population. The impact of institutional agents on the experience of the student will follow, as the
social and cultural capital section ends with the differences for males and their role of cultural
capital and their success at an institution of higher education.
Based on the ideology of social and cultural capital, a new concept called athletic capital
will be introduced, unique to the subculture of athletes. The assessment of athletic capital by
institutional agents, non-athletes, alumni, fans and general public will be detailed, defined and
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 32
examples will be presented. A student-athlete’s perceived athletic capital will complete the
section.
The sections of social, cultural and athletic capital will be summarized beginning with the
comparison of the attainment of higher education degrees by Pacific Islanders compared to the
Asian population that they were once aggregated with and the views of Pacific Islanders on
cultural and social capital. This segment will finish with the perception of athletic capital and
the student-athletes decision to graduate first or leave for the NFL.
Social and Cultural Capital
Defining social and cultural capital. Individuals have cultural and social capital through
upbringing and social connections. Cultural and social capital, introduced by Bourdieu (1977),
was explained as a form of asset that an individual has by his or her social status or cultural
background that can be converted to economic resources. Lamont and Lareau (1988) further
explain the Bourdieu and Passeron (1977) original concept of cultural capital by expounding on
the idea that a family’s social and cultural understanding have an impact on the academic success
and institutional experience of a student. Bourdieu and Passeron (1977) link the cultural and
social capital of a student to factors leading to the academic achievement disparity rather than
intellectual ability (Lamont and Lareau, 1988). Lamont and Lareau (1988) explain that
according to the conceptual theory of Bourdieu and Passeron (1977) the institution is the
underlying factor affecting the achievement of the student.

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 33
Significance of institutional agents. Stanton-Salazar, Vasquez and Mehan (2000) merge
the theory of cultural capital and social capital with the idea that institutional agents within a
formal setting provide the necessary power and resources to enable the ability of social
networking for a student without cultural and social capital on their own. Stanton-Salazar,
Vasquez and Mehan (2000) study signals how one group has a valued set of resources in the
form of power and privilege and why another group does not If the dominant group does not give
any value to another group’s capital, then there is no capital to turn into economic resources
(Stanton-Salazar, Vasquez, & Mehan, 2000). The CARE report (2008) reveals that there is a low
number of Asian and Pacific Islander faculty and staff at institutions, and those that are there are
not in a position to affect any policies regarding the Asian and Pacific Islanders. There is a lack
of published studies that have determined how Pacific Islander student-athletes view their
cultural or social capital within an institutional setting.
Importance of disaggregating data within an institution of higher education.
According to the 2005 NCAA Membership Report (2005), the average Division I
institution had an undergraduate enrollment of 10,792 and an average student-athlete population
of 589. These figures show that on the average, the student-athlete population was about 5.4%
of the enrolled student population. The U.S. Census (2000) report and NCAA (2005) report
validate that the combination of being a Pacific Islander student-athlete represents a minority
population in higher education.
Higher education institutions that are predominately White institutions tend to validate
what is valued by the dominant class, cultural group or ethnicity (Lamont & Lareau, 1988).
Many institutions of higher education in the continental United States provide Asian language
classes in Korean, Chinese and Japanese. By course offerings, an institution can validate the
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 34
languages it perceives to be of value. Unless data is disaggregated between all Asian ethnicities,
the institutions really don’t know the actual percentage of population that could potentially
support these languages. The institution’s course offerings support the assumption of disinterest
or lack of a population to maintain a specific language program.
Without disaggregating enrolled student population data, an institution is predicting that
the student population does not support Pacific Islander language courses or that there are not
enough students who would be interested in taking the courses. Comparatively, at the University
of Hawai’i there are courses in languages and culture in Hawaiian, Samoan, Tongan, Chamorro,
and Maori. In order to be able to offer the specific language courses, the University of Hawai’i
may have a measurement of assessing language or interest needs by using disaggregated data
noting ethnicity. An institution can telegraph the importance of a specific culture by course
offerings, lack of mentors or the lack of students from a particular ethnicity. These deficiencies
can hinder the success of a group like the Pacific Islanders (Stanton-Salazar, Vasquez & Mehan,
2000).
An institution may yield an accurate picture of their Pacific Islander population by
disaggregating the student data and noting enrollment figures. The graduation rate of the Pacific
Islander population cannot be tracked without disaggregated data. Institutions have started to
disaggregate their data by creating an ethnicity category listing Native Hawaiian or Pacific
Islander in addition to specific Asian categories. Moving forward, institutions will now be able
to see the success rate of the Pacific Islander population without the Asian numbers.
Bensimon’s (2004) Diversity Scorecard determined that a review of quantitative data
would bring to light any achievement gaps based on ethnicity. The Diversity Scorecard analyzed
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 35
achievement by different ethnicities in individual classes that impacted the attainment of specific
majors. It was determined that educational inequities by ethnicity existed within 14 institutions
based on a review of the quantitative data. In this way, studies like the Diversity Scorecard can
be instituted to detect institutional ethnic bias for Pacific Islanders (Bensimon, 2004). Studies
comparing other ethnicities may exhibit similar findings for Pacific Islanders based on SES and
cultural capital theories.
Family support and involvement in the educational system. A study by Lareau (1987)
discussed how a family’s cultural capital affects the relationship that parents of different
backgrounds have with educational agents. Lareau (1987) detailed each group of parents and
gave great detail on the educational programs and interactive opportunities that both
communities had. Lareau studied two first grade classes in two economically diverse
communities. One community was in a middle class area with parents who had equal or greater
educational backgrounds than the teachers, while the other community was a working class
neighborhood with parent’s educational backgrounds below that of the teachers. Lareau (1987)
found that parents from a lower education background than teachers were reluctant to become
involved in the academics of their child, or did not understand the interaction necessary which
would facilitate more services needed by their child. Services included additional testing to
determine whether or not a student required special academic services or belonged in a different
academic setting. Those parents with less education were seen by the teachers as non
participative. Lareau’s (1987) study alternatively found that parents with equal or more
education than teachers were more aggressive in their request of academic services and were
gauged to be more positively involved in their child’s academic program.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 36
Lareau (1987) presented the results of the interactions between parents and teachers at
both schools and examined the differences between both groups. This study could undoubtedly
be used with any two vastly different communities and may or may not yield the same results.
Other cultures practicing a similar extended family unit with the same SES may have similar
outcomes.
Lareau’s (1987) study of working class parents could parallel the parents of Pacific
Islander students who may have less education than teachers. As the U.S. Census (2000)
indicated, the Pacific Islander population has a low percentage of individuals with higher
education degrees, thus parents could be experiencing similar feelings of alienation or
inadequacy with their lack of education.
A different perspective of cultural capital was done in a longitudinal study by Roscigno
and Ainsworth-Darnell (1999) who used data from the National Center for Education Statistics
(NCES) and took random samples from 1,000 middle schools. This study was done to uncover
the differences in achievement between races, taking into account SES by using cultural capital
theories. The sample of 16,189 included 83.6% White and 16.4% Black students (Roscigno &
Ainsworth-Darnell, 1999). The study found that cultural trips are linked to the economic
resources of the family. However, what it doesn’t take into account is the accessibility of the
students with relation to what cultural opportunities are available to them geographically.

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 37
Differences of institutional experiences of students based on cultural capital. Roscigno
and Ainsworth-Darnell’s (1999) study details how cultural advantages, educational resources and
SES differ between Whites and Blacks. It is mentioned that student-teacher evaluations need to
also be taken into account because of the race based bias with the subjective teacher feedback.
The findings do indicate that those students lacking cultural capital and with less educational
resources showed negative effects on academic achievement (Roscigno & Ainsworth-Darnell,
1999). This study mentioned that observations of teacher-student interactions would minimize
the subjectivity of teacher evaluations. The Roscisgno and Ainsworth-Darnell (1999) study may
be related to the idea that Pacific Islander students lack cultural capital, less educational
resources, and may be academically disadvantaged in a higher education setting.
Roles institutional agents play on the institutional experience of students. The
institution and institutional agents, such as professors, counselors, administrators and coaches
have a lot to do with the success or failure of minority student-athletes (Stanton-Salazar, 1997).
A student’s ability to utilize his or her knowledge of decoding the institutional educational and
cultural system or recognizing those institutional agents who can help them succeed is key to his
or her success in institutional settings (Stanton-Salazar, 1997).
An example of how institutional agent bias can affect the interaction between a student
and teacher is seen in a study by Lipka (1991). Lipka’s case study on a Yup’ik Eskimo teacher
and his lesson taught in the cultural style of the Yup’iks is an example of the differences cultural
discourse makes in the learning of students of that culture. Lipka’s (1991) case study was to
point out how teachers from other cultures may have difficulty understanding the lessons being
learned by the students or that the students are learning cultural values in addition to an actual
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 38
lesson. This illustrates the importance of institutional agents and the impact their cultural
teaching or communicating style has on students.
Parental support as it relates to the Pacific Island culture. Students receive validation
of worth not only from institutions, but also from parental support. What may shape a student’s
view comes from lessons learned at home. Pacific Island families are close-knit units which
include not only parents, but also may include relatives of several generations (Kelly, 1981).
While there may be a single parent family, other relatives are part of what is considered the
immediate family unit providing additional support for the student. It is not uncommon for
children to live with other relatives for economic reasons or to give the children more
opportunities (Kelly, 1981). The Pacific Islander family unit and the interaction with their
family members are experiences which shape a student outside of an educational institution.
The differences for males and their role of cultural capital and their success at an
institution of higher education. Dumais’ (2002) study on cultural capital included habitus, a
component of Bourdieu’s cultural capital theory which is the view of the world by an individual
and their place in it. Dumais felt that the idea of cultural capital in itself had to include habitus,
people’s view of the world and their place in it, in order to encompass and to be true to the
original theory. This Dumais study on eighth grade boys and girls determined how gender,
cultural capital and habitus affected school success. Results of Dumais’ (2002) study noted that
although differences in SES did affect participation of cultural activities, the participation by
gender concluded that females participated in more cultural activities no matter what the level of
SES was. Dumais inferred that socialization by parents contributed to the level of participation
by males and females. Cultural capital was not significant in academic achievement for either
males or females.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 39
The study suggests that males may downplay cultural capital because of its possible
association with female traits, weakness and a sign of wanting to win an institutional agents
approval. Dumais’ (2002) study done with White eighth graders resulted in differences that were
based on SES. At the higher education level, results could be extremely different because of the
interaction between students from many different ethnicities, culture and SES. A student’s
habitus can be shaped by an institution, home environment or parental influence.
Parental interaction affecting student’s institutional experience. In a case study by
Lareau and Horvat (1999), Black and White third graders and their parents were observed over
the course of nine months. Parental interactions were analyzed in relation to race and cultural
and social capital and the outcomes on behalf of their children that resulted in social inclusion
and exclusion. Examples were given to show the actions of the parents and the outcomes that
resulted from the parental and teacher interaction.
The parental interaction was shown to both negatively and positively affect the
educational experience of the children. The Lareau and Horvat (1999) study results indicated
that low SES Black parents who visited and gave feedback on the lack of Black history
representations, were seen as antagonistic and not constructive by teachers. Middle class Black
parents who interacted in a quieter, more passive manner were seen as cooperative and
concerned and their requests for additional resources were more than likely granted.
This case study gave insight into how a parent can influence or manipulate the progress
of the child through the educational system and why certain interactions are more successful.
Since this case study highlighted the interactions between White and Black educators and
parents, it is not known what parental involvement or interactions Pacific Islander parents
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 40
experience. Pacific Islander parents may react in a similar manner to the Black parents as a
represented minority.
Athletic Capital
Defining the new concept of athletic capital. Student-athletes, in addition to social and
cultural capital, have something called athletic capital which may negatively or positively affect
a student-athlete’s experience in higher education. Athletic capital is measured by institutional
agents, nonathlete students, alumni and fans (Engstrom & Sedlacek, 1991). Athletic capital falls
in both the social capital and cultural capital categories. These student-athletes have cultural and
social capital by virtue of their status as highly visible football scholarship athletes. Athletic
capital can give a student-athlete social capital, as evidenced by our Heisman trophy athletes
who interact with celebrities. Athletic capital also falls into the cultural capital category, because
student-athletes do have a subculture by virtue of their athletic affiliation that can be further
grouped by sport and in larger sports, by sport position.
Institutional agents and their biases regarding student-athletes. Engstrom and
Sedlacek’s (1991) study of prejudice of university student-athletes in relation to academics
indicates that student-athletes in a higher education setting are seen in a negative manner. In this
study, non-athlete students did not see student-athletes in a favorable light when earning a high
grade in a class. Additionally, the Engstrom and Sedlacek (1991) results indicated that student’s
did not want student-athletes as lab partners and were not surprised or unhappy when a student-
athlete left the institution. The findings also revealed that any extra tutorial or advising sessions
for student-athletes were seen as negative. Engstrom and Sedlacek’s (1999) study point towards
less social capital for student-athletes in relation to academic success by their non-athlete peers.

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 41
Information on division I football scholarships. Collegiate football at a Division I
institution is a head count scholarship sport. A head count scholarship means that each person
receiving a scholarship is counted as opposed to an equivalency scholarship which can be
allocated by percentage. There are 85 scholarships at the Division I level in collegiate football
that can be awarded. Only 85 scholarships can be given out. A scholarship football player has
the opportunity to earn a college degree and play collegiate football. This student-athlete has the
chance to get a degree in anticipation of a career or to pursue a career in the National Football
League (NFL) after graduating with a degree or leaving without a degree.
Football student-athletes and their perception of athletic capital. El Shahawy (1999)
studied the predictors leading scholarship football players to leave school early for the NFL
draft. The study indicates that a student-athlete may anticipate what his athletic capital is by his
own perceptions and that may affect his decision to leave the institution early for the NFL draft.
El Shahawy suggests that student-athletes base their perceived athletic capital on the national
ranking of the football team that they play for, which may or may not be accurate. El Shahawy
recommends that a student-athlete gather information from outside objective sources which
could give a better indication of actual athletic capital.
According to El Shahawy (1999), the main reasons scholarship football players leave
early are to earn money to help their families or fear of becoming injured which could affect
their NFL chances in the future. This study did not include any information on ethnicity, but
used SES which could correlate with low SES with student-athletes wanting to make money to
help their families.

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 42
Summary of Cultural and Social Capital
Based on the decrease of Pacific Islander graduates at the baccalaureate and Master’s or
higher level compared to Asians, it is not clear if higher education is not valued or considered as
cultural or social capital in the Pacific Islander culture. It has not been determined if economic
factors are the cause of Pacific Islanders lack of higher education pursuit or if there are other
cultural factors. Pacific Islanders may have a different set of cultural values or cultural
legitimacy that affects the attainment of higher education (Lamont & Lareau, 1988).
It is unknown at this point how the Pacific Islander scholarship student-athletes view
cultural capital or habitus for themselves with identities as Pacific Islanders and student-athletes
(Dumais, 2002). Cultural and social capital in the United States may be unique with a lot of
attention focused on collegiate athletes and at many schools, specifically football athletes
(Lamont & Lareau, 1988).
Collegiate football players are considered amateurs and may not receive compensation
other than what is determined to be a full athletic scholarship (NCAA, 2005). At the end of
April, there is a process called the National Football League Draft in which collegiate football
players’ perceived cultural, social and athletic capital are considered and the players are then
selected by professional teams. Contracts worth millions of dollars will be negotiated and the
cultural, social and athletic capital will become economic resources (Lamont & Lareau, 1988).
The athletic capital that student-athletes have can be either positive or negative as
evidenced in the Engstrom and Sedlacek (1999) study. Non-athlete students view extra services
or tutorial for student-athletes as negative and are less likely to be happy about a student-athlete
with a high grade than a non-athlete.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 43
Athletic Collegiate football players eligible for the draft are measured by feats of
strength, endurance and subjectively by perceptions of strength of character. There may be
factors that suggest whether or not a football scholarship athlete will decide to pursue a career in
professional football before getting a college degree and with athletic eligibility remaining (El
Shahawy, 1999). El Shahawy’s (1999) study suggests that a student-athlete may have an
incorrect perception of their personal athletic capital by analyzing the NFL draft results.
Student Development
The student development portion will focus on ethnic and cultural identity, Pacific
Islander institutional experience, student-athlete development, student-athlete institutional
experiences, environmental factors, and the injured student-athlete experience. Each of these
segments will work together in presenting the development of the Pacific Islander student-athlete
scholarship football player.
Student Ethnic and Cultural Identity. This student development section will explore
ethnic and cultural identity. This area begins with discussing the development of the identities of
college students and those being student-athletes, the perceived prejudices student-athletes feel
are projected to their subculture, and the Pacific Islander student and his perception of group
identity. A progression to this section is the Pacific Islander institutional experience. This area
opens with how ethnicity or cultural identity and the institution’s recognition of cultural factors
play a part in a student’s educational success. I will present student-athlete development and the
differences facing this population compared to the general student population. I will explore
student-athlete institutional experiences, as well as, the environmental factors affecting student-
athletes.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 44
I will discuss how ethnicity affects choice of major and ultimate career path. Finally, I
will summarize the student development section stressing that groups like Pacific Islanders
represent a smaller percentage within athletics than Blacks or Whites, and that there is a lack of
replication of studies done on the student-athlete population. Possible problems in these studies
could be because of studies lacking the disclosure of gender and ethnic differences, the
perceptions of student-athletes could vary at different institutions, between revenue and
nonrevenue student-athletes and the absence of SES information.
Identities of college students and student-athletes. All student-athletes have dual
identities as collegiate students and as athletes. Being a student-athlete is a subculture that
categorizes a student into a group not unlike an ethnic classification (Dovidio, Gaertner,
Niemann & Snider, 2001; Miller & Kerr, 2002). Student-athletes have mentioned that they are
more likely to be prejudiced for their sport participation then for the color of their skin
(Engstrom & Sedlacek, 1991). Pacific Islander student-athletes have many different areas of
student development which can be attributed to their ethnicity, being a student-athlete, or regular
student development in higher education.
As students make the transition from high school to an institution of higher education,
they will undergo identity development which could include differences in gender, race, and the
individual developmental stages that the students will move through. Wright’s (2003)
dissertation on Hawaiian identity in higher education is an example of specific experiences of
Hawaiians from the Pacific Islander group and their experiences in higher education.
Pacific islander students and their experiences in higher education. Culturally,
Wright’s (2003) examples of building rapport with her 10 subjects indicates her epistemological
understanding of the subject’s identity which could have provided her with access to information
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 45
the subjects may not have shared with someone else. Wright’s study was made up of students in
the Hawaiian studies program which could have provided the students with a stronger connection
to their cultural or ethnic identity than another student in a major unrelated to Hawaiian studies.
The subject’s backgrounds were diverse in terms of SES and location of upbringing, however,
only one female student was identified as a student-athlete and the subjects were all Hawaiian.
In Wright’s (2003) study, three themes emerged as essential to the students’ choice of
Hawaiian studies: beliefs, values and behaviors and practices. Beliefs were their personal
understanding of themselves and their communities and their definition of Hawaiian culture.
Values were the resources and the importance that the students placed on those resources.
Behaviors and practices were what the Hawaiians viewed as inherently Hawaiian. Wright’s
(2003) findings were that cultural identity is linked to the student’s perception of themselves and
community, their values and the activities that they participate in which links them to a specific
culture.
Race, ethnic and cultural differences on group identity. Dovidio, Gaertner, Niemann
and Snider (2001) link race, ethnic and cultural differences to discrimination on college
campuses and its effects on group identity. This study indicated that dissatisfaction and negative
stigmatization was related to the lack of group identity. The data included Whites, Blacks,
Asians and Hispanics. The data reported for Asians does not explain what specific ethnicities
were included as Asians. As the previous census data has indicated, the Pacific Islander
population would without a doubt include only a small percentage, if the Asian and Pacific
Islander information was aggregated. The study reported that individuals who reported a strong
identity with the organization or institution also indicated a more positive outlook even with a
connection to a less represented ethnic or cultural group. This would suggest that students from
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 46
less represented minority groups could still report a positive experience in an institution if they
felt a part of the institution.
The Dovidio, Gaertner, Niemann and Snider (2001) study could be correlated to the
Pacific Islander student’s lack of group identification with the low number of Pacific Islanders
on campus. Another explanation could be that Pacific Islander students band together to form a
group instead of remaining within their separate Pacific Islander ethnicities.
Race and cultural differences relating to institutional experiences. Tierney (1999)
discusses Tinto’s (1987) theory of student departure and its non-applicability to students of color.
Tierney (1999) argues that while Tinto (1987) postures that students must shed their cultural
identities in order to assimilate with the dominant culture to succeed, students who have
embraced their cultural differences have been more successful in the postsecondary institutions.
Tierney (1999) also makes it clear that institutions must provide support for these culturally
diverse students in order for them to succeed.
Tierney (1999) describes a Neighborhood Academic Initiative (NAI) which is a program
located on the campus of the University of Southern California involving low-income minority
students from grades 7 through 12, and their goals to attend a university for postsecondary
education. Students who successfully make it through the program and meet the admissions
criteria of USC are promised full tuition. Although, tuition is one hurdle the students will not
have to face, the continued support of the institution and its agents will be the only way an NAI
student will be successful.
The NAI program works with students and their families to expand their educational
goals to include the attainment of a baccalaureate degree. Students of color in the NAI program
are taught that their culture aids them in the pursuit of academic achievement rather than hinders
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 47
their progress. Institutional support is what ultimately facilitates the success of the student
without the suppression of cultural values and background. Similarly, Pacific Islander student-
athletes from low-income families can also be supported in the same way by reiterating the
importance that their culture plays in their eventual success in degree achievement.
Identity development in institutions of higher education relating to ethnicity and
cultural identity. Tinto (2003) discussed the ethnic identity development of Latino college
student in their first two years of college. The Latino ethnicity is a broad group that
encompasses many groups that do not share the same characteristics. Tinto (2003) interviewed
10 students who identified themselves into seven different Latino ethnicities. Tinto (2003)
explained that the backgrounds of the students and their experiences on campus lead them to
associate themselves with a particular identity. The selection of a particular category of ethnic
identity can be compared to other students of color who speak another language or are first
generation students. The Tinto (2003) study points to a similar situation where Pacific Islander
students may gravitate towards each other because of their low individual ethnicity numbers, and
form a broader Pacific Islander group.
Pacific Islander Institutional Experience. The section covers the influence of
institutional experiences which continues to highlight the differences between student-athletes
and the general student population. This area discusses how student-athletes deal with academic
issues, the emphasis of the special needs of student-athletes because of time constraints, the
importance of education to student-athletes entering the institution, and the comparison of
revenue and non-revenue student-athletes as well as the impact of ethnicity.

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 48
Institutional support and institutional agents affecting student’s experiences. A
student has a better chance of learning the material if the culture that they are from is actively
supported by the educational system (Bartolome, 1998). Within the Pacific Islander population,
there is a mix of students of races of involuntary immigration and voluntary immigration (Ogbu
& Simons, 1998). Families of Hawaiian students for example may display a similar lack of
enthusiasm for institutional education like the Native Americans who were involuntary
immigrants (Simpson, 2001).
It is important for teachers to understand the culture from which the students are coming
(Allen & Boykin, 1992; Bartolome, 1998). In some cultures, it is not appropriate to interact
vocally in certain situations or make eye contact. Teachers may interpret a student’s actions and
exchanges based on their own personal views instead of the student’s actions based on a cultural
foundation (Allen & Boykin, 1992; Bartolome, 1998). There may not be any institutional agents
or role models specifically from the Pacific Islander population. As the data has indicated, only
15% of Pacific Islanders get a baccalaureate degree and only 4% continue on to get a Master’s or
higher, so the data suggests that the number of Pacific Island educators will be a small number
(U.S. Census, 2000).
Kamehameha educational system. The Kamehameha educational system in Hawai’i
was developed exclusively to serve the needs of the indigenous natives of Hawai’i (Admissions,
2003). Recognizing that the Hawaiian students had a different learning style than the prescribed
public educational system, a new method of teaching was needed (Au & Carroll, 1997; Boggs,
1985; John-Steiner & Mahn, 1996).
A constructivist approach to literacy called the Kamehameha Elementary Education
Program (KEEP) was implemented for Hawaiian children based on interactions and learning
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 49
styles in the Hawaiian culture. Hawaiian children’s verbal interaction in small groups plays a big
part in their learning (Au & Carroll, 1997; Boggs, 1985; John-Steiner & Mahn, 1996). While the
KEEP program did work with the Hawaiian children, it was not as effective with Native
American children. Instead of a small group of peers, Native American children worked best in
pairs. The variety of differences in each culture is clearly demonstrated in the separate learning
styles of these two ethnic minorities (Au & Kawakami, 1991; John-Steiner & Mahn, 1996).
Choice of major and ultimately a career path influenced by ethnicity. Ethnicity or
culture does appear to have an effect on the overall academic experience of students both in the
classroom and in higher education (Allen & Boykin, 1992; Bartolome, 1998; Simpson, 2001).
Simpson (2001) studied the racial differences influencing academic majors of Whites, Asians,
African, Hispanic and Native Americans. Simpson postulated that choice of major leads to
career choice which translates to economic resources. More scientific or technical academic
programs lead to jobs of higher income. Factors such as family involvement, institutional
racism, academic preparation, racial issues, social and cultural capital, and institutional role
models were discussed in a student’s choice of major.
White and Asian students who attended a private high school were influenced in their
choice of major. However, Asian, African, Hispanic and Native American students who
attended private colleges or universities were also influenced in their choice of major. While
attending a private high school decreased the likelihood of choosing a technical degree, attending
a private college or university increased the likelihood of choosing a technical degree. Although
cultural capital affects choice of major for Whites, it does not affect the choices for African and
Native Americans. Asian American mothers are more likely to emphasize the importance of
education than African American or White mothers. The more active a role an Asian American
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 50
mother takes in a student’s academic life, the higher the likelihood that the student’s choice of
major will be in a public service field.
Simpson’s (2001) study suggests that Asian Americans and non Asian Americans when
selecting a degree vary the most in differences. In relation to salary, Whites do just as well as
Asian Americans despite Asian Americans entering more technical careers (U.S. Census, 2000).
The Simpson (2001) study, gave insight to the choices students of color make regarding degree
choice, however, Pacific Island students may take on characteristics of different ethnic groups
and may not fit in to any of the categories in this study.
Student-Athlete Development
Student-athlete development affected by time schedules. To point out the differences,
the section begins with the effect of demanding time schedules of student-athletes and their
development in an institution of higher education. A variety of studies will cover the differences
in student development between males and females, revenue and non-revenue sport athletes, and
the comparisons between student-athletes and their non-athlete peers. This portion closes with
the impact of athletic participation and the identities maintained by student-athletes in a variety
of settings.
Student-athletes are often separated from the rest of the students and experience isolation
due to their practice and competition schedules often maintain time demanding schedules
(Chartrand & Lent, 1987; Nishimoto, 1997; Parham, 1993; Petitpas & Champagne, 1988;
Smallman, Sowa, & Young, 1991). In a Sowa and Gressard (1983) study, athletes rated
significantly lower than non athletes in developmental areas relating to educational plans, career
plans and mature relationships with peers. This study used a well known testing instrument on
student development to specifically be measured against Chickering’s vectors (Sowa & Gressard,
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 51
1983). The sample was done on a relatively small scale, however, and factors such as SES,
academic achievement, and academic ability were not taken into account. There may also be a
neglected cultural factor because the sample was taken from one geographical area.
Differences of student-athlete development within this population. A study done by
Murphy, Petitpas, and Brewer (1996) on identity foreclosure, athletic identity and career
maturity included only a student-athlete population. The study found that within the athlete
population, there were differences between men and women and between student-athletes from
revenue and non-revenue sports. Women tend to have more identity foreclosure and career
maturity than their male counterparts. Males from non-revenue sports tend to also have more
identity foreclosure and career maturity than the revenue sport athletes.
Student-athletes less focused on career goals than non-athletes. In another study done
by Sowa and Gressard (1983), both student-athletes and non-athletes were surveyed and results
indicated that student-athletes were not as focused on their career goals as their non-athlete
peers. Both studies show that student-athletes were not as career oriented as their non-athlete
counterparts. However, the Murphy, Petitpas and Brewer (1996) study was able to determine
that within the student-athlete population there were differences between men and women and
revenue and non-revenue sports. Male revenue sport student-athletes were more cautious about
engaging in career activities because their career goal was to solely participate in a professional
sports career. By comparing both studies, valuable information can be determined in contrasting
the two groups of students and recognizing their differences. Other differences can also be
discovered by examining other developmental factors such as the transition to college life.

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 52
Athletic involvement affecting a student’s college experience. Athletic involvement is a
positive factor in a student’s satisfaction of college life (Astin, 1984; Ryan, 1989). According to
Ryan (1989), student-athletes reported that personal confidence, cooperation and independent
thinking in a group context were developed through their athletic involvement. Ryan surveyed
college freshman nationwide, including students from every demographic area, different SES,
ethnicities, and gender. However, because the test did not allow for extra interpretation of the
data, the participation of athletics may not be fully noted.
Student-athletes and their involvement in the institution. Student-athletes reportedly
experienced more satisfaction in their college experience than their non athlete peers. The
student-athlete spends a lot of time on campus and may have to interact with more administrative
personnel, making the student-athlete more invested as a part of the campus community (Astin,
1984; Ryan, 1989). The large student sample size of 192,248 in Ryan’s study validated that
results based on responses by student-athletes yielded solid data, but did not distinguish between
revenue and nonrevenue sports or the level of competition. These additional factors could have
impacted the results of the study.
Student-athlete identities in different settings. Differences of attitude may exist between
revenue and non revenue sport athletes and it is important to understand what those distinctions
are (Simons, Van Rheenen, & Covington, 1999). Each sport may have a unique culture. In a
study by Nishimoto (1997), eight football players were interviewed about their dual roles of
student and athlete. Themes emerging from Nishimoto’s study were camaraderie, us against the
world, and the athlete persona. All participants viewed the student-athletes in their sport as their
main support system. The participants recognized that each person had individuality, but once
they came together the team was the most important thing. Nishimoto’s study found that the
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 53
football student-athletes maintained separate exterior personas to cope with their perceived
public image. The limitation of this study was the diversity of the eight participants.
Assumptions could not be made based on cultural or ethnic differences with such a diverse
group. The study brought up some valuable information on sport culture and individual ethnic
identity, but more focus could have been in-depth in its comparison with student theories on
identity and student development like Erikson and Chickering (Astin, 1984; Chickering, 1969;
Howard-Hamilton & Sina, 2001).
Student-Athlete Institutional Experiences
The student-athlete academic experience. Student athletes may find dealing with
academics at an institution particularly challenging because of the amount of time required for
athletic competition and injuries (Howard-Hamilton & Sina, 2001; Simons, Van Rheenen, &
Covington, 1999). A number of factors impact the motivation level of student-athletes regarding
academics. Covington’s self worth theory was used in a study done by Simons, Van Rheenen,
and Covington (1999). In the study, students were assigned into categories such as success-
oriented, overstrivers, failure-avoiders and failure-acceptors based on test results. In defining
these categories: success-oriented students are highly motivated to succeed without being afraid
to fail; overstrivers fear failure and are motivated to succeed so that they don’t fail; failure-
avoiders tend to try to avoid failing more than trying for success; and failure-acceptors have a
history of failing so they neither try for success nor fear failure.
In the Simons, Van Rheenen and Covington (1999) study there were more student-
athletes falling into the categories of failure-avoiders and failure-acceptors who were poor
academic performers and more committed to athletics. Students also felt exploited by the
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 54
institution for their athletic abilities and fell into the failure-avoider and failure acceptor
categories.
Most student-athletes in the revenue sports were recruited for their athletic ability. The
student-athlete may already have a pattern of behavior which discounts the importance of
academics, having been conditioned by parents, peers and coaches before attending the
university. Once students enter the athletic culture of the institution, they are often subjected to
the pressure of putting academics behind athletics. This may be more prevalent among students
in revenue driven sports like football and basketball (Simons, Van Rheenen, & Covington,
1999).
The controlled environment of the Simons, Van Rheenen and Covington (1999) study
yielded a large number of responses, with a mix of demographics of students, non revenue and
revenue sports included, and results were separated to obtain valuable information by gender and
ethnicity. The study’s findings indicate that for the most part, success-oriented and overstrivers
performed better academically than failure-avoiders and failure-acceptors. It was also found that
failure-avoiders and failure-acceptors tended to be more focused on their participation in
athletics than the success-oriented and overstrivers. It would be interesting to see how the results
of this study may change depending on institution size and location. Although gender
differences were noted, there could have been a comparison of theories to results.
Special needs for student-athletes affected by time schedules. Student-athletes during
their sport season may be involved in athletics between 20 to 30 hours per week and because of
their lack of personal time, have special needs that should be addressed (Simons, Van Rheenen,
& Covington, 1999). Their life is structured and dictated by coaches, competition, tutors, and
class attendance. Because of their mandatory obligations, student-athletes may never have the
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 55
chance to learn how to set their own schedules. Student-athletes who suffer a stressful event
may stay in one developmental stage or regress in development until they find it comfortable to
move on. (Howard-Hamilton & Sina, 2001).
Ethnicity affecting the perceptions of student-athletes on higher education. Snyder’s
(1996) study on academic motivation among White and African American male student-athletes
discusses the differences between the two ethnicities on admission information, graduation rates,
perception on entering professional sports and social and cultural isolation. The study used
student-athletes from five different campuses of a university system. The study determined the
level that the student-athlete placed on degree completion or going into professional sports.
More White student-athletes tended to select that they would finish their degree than go
professional than did African American student-athletes. African American student-athletes
ranked spending as much as possible for a final exam significantly higher that their White
counterparts. White student-athletes in roommate selection would most likely choose a non-
athlete roommate of average academic ability, while African American athletes would rather live
with other student-athletes no matter what their academic ability. Snyder’s (1996) study found
that African American athletes seem to place a higher degree of importance on the making it in
professional sports than on academic completion. The cultural significance of choosing
professional sports over degree completion gives insight to the values that African American
student-athletes have upheld.
Revenue compared to non-revenue student-athletes. Upthegrove, Roscigno and Charles
(1999) examined the differences between student- athletes from revenue and non-revenue sports
and the racial concentrations, contradictory pressures and academic performance. The study
indicates that students from revenue sports tend to graduate at a lower rate than those students in
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 56
non-revenue sports. Also, African American student-athletes seem to graduate at a lower rate
than their White counterparts. African American student-athletes in revenue sports would
therefore seem to be in the most disadvantaged position.
Whitner and Myers (1986) developed a case study of Mike, a student-athlete who
experienced many challenges facing student-athletes whose basic educational skills are below
the average student and therefore find it difficult to academically compete in the classroom. In
this case study, not enough ethnic or cultural background was given on the student. This study
would have been stronger if links to theoretical framework were made.
Environmental Factors Affecting Student-Athletes
Prejudices or perceptions facing student-athletes. The next segment addresses the
environmental factors that affect the student-athlete’s experience. Environmental factors include
the prejudices or perceptions facing student-athletes, the perceptions of women vs men and
Black vs White student-athletes and the differences within different groups and their dealings
with stressful situations. Within this segment is the understanding of student-athletes’ identities
and the need to maintain a dual identity of a student and an athlete and the impact on a student-
athlete’s identity if he/she is injured. The impact of athletics on the development of educational
and career goals and need to hold coaches responsible for some of the negative influences of
student development close out this segment. The reality of injury for the student-athlete
emphasizes the following section on the Kubler-Ross stages of bereavement as it relates to the
student-athlete’s loss of the ability to continue athletic competition and the adjustment of the loss
of the athletic identity.
When student-athletes come to an institution, they experience all the same challenges as
other new students. As all students work on developing their identity, but the student-athlete
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 57
also faces prejudices from their non-athlete peers. Some of the prejudices that student- athletes
encounter are negative perceptions of extra benefits like tutors and additional counselors, and the
opinion that the student-athlete is not as intellectually competitive (Engstrom & Sedlacek, 1991).
Engstrom and Sedlacek (1991) studied the preconceptions of the incoming freshman of a school
as it relates to student-athletes. The Situational Attitude Scale (SAS), a proven reliable
instrument was used, however, the sample was predominantly white at 76%, minorities
combined at 24%.
The data suggest that student-athletes receiving higher grades were looked on as
suspicious and, despite requiring special needs, extra services provided to student-athletes were
frowned on. Women reacted more positively towards athletes than did men and did not seem to
mind any perceived advantages by student-athletes (Engstrom & Sedlacek, 1991). Institutional
racism can also apply to the student-athlete population instead of a specific ethnicity (Engstrom
& Sedlacek, 1991). The sample did not reflect a balance of ethnicity and there may not be an
accurate representation to fit all institutions. The data may reflect the prejudice only on that
particular campus.
Ethnic and gender differences of student-athletes on perceptions in higher education.
Smallman, Sowa and Young (1991), studied the ethnic and gender differences of student-athletes
in stressful life events by comparing data from Blacks, Whites, men and women. The study
suggests that women find competition within their team to be more stressful than men. Women
also noted that they find more support in the university setting than do men. The study was done
at two predominantly White institutions in the southeastern United States, so the inference by the
data that suggests Blacks may find stressful events more difficult to deal with perhaps because of
the ethnic mix. Smallman, Sowa and Young’s (1991) study did not account for the differences
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 58
between revenue and non revenue sports or the amount of participation that the athlete
contributes to the team which could be factors. Based on the results, Black male athletes were at
the greatest risk of developing anxiety leading to depression and general feelings of stress after
the experience of a stressful life event. Male student-athletes reported more levels of stress than
female student-athletes.
In the Smallman, Sowa and Young study, variables on athletic participation, SES and
other sociological factors were not examined. Other factors to study would be the breakdown of
ethnicity within the team that the student-athlete participates in. Programs that help in the
adjustment of an ethnic minority at a predominately White institution would also be a factor to
consider (Tierney, 1999). The Smallman, Sowa and Young study did mention that further
research would need to be done on subcultures within athletics that were not part of this current
study. Pacific Islander student-athletes could report similar responses as the Blacks in dealing
with stressful life events and possibly being uncomfortable with competition against another
Pacific Islander as females were with teammate competition. With such a small ethnic
representation within the student-athlete population, Pacific Islander student-athletes may also
experience difficulty in competing against another Pacific Islander student-athlete. Correlating
studies with the Pacific Islander population and other ethnicities may paint an inaccurate view of
the actual representation of the Pacific Islander experience.
Student-athletes maintaining dual identities in higher education. Chickering’s (1969)
theory of seven vectors of student development can be applied to student-athletes and their dual
roles as students and as athletes which may explain the experience of a growth in development in
one identity only as an athlete, but not as a student. For example, in developing competence, a
student-athlete can be a star player on the field or court, and feel very confident. However, in the
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 59
academic arena a student-athlete may struggle. While a student-athlete’s athletic identity may be
highly developed the student area may need some catching up. Student-athletes are unique
because they have two highly important identities with needs to be addressed (Murphy, Petitpas,
& Brewer, 1996). The student-athlete must sometimes operate under extreme pressure and
public scrutiny. Student-athletes may have to work on controlling emotions on a regular basis
and when they operate in student versus athlete identity (Engstrom & Sedlacek, 1991).
Athletic identity when student-athlete is injured. When a student-athlete’s athletic
identity has ended because of injury, there is the danger that the student may become depressed
and unable to cope with the loss (Kubler-Ross, 1991). For this reason, the emphasis on
developing the student identity is equally important to that of the athlete (Harris, 2003). Sowa
and Gressard (1983) studied the dual identity that student- athletes have as students and as
athletes using an instrument known to measure student development as defined by Chickering
(1969).
Student-athletes and educational and career plans. Sowa and Gressard’s (1983) study
found that athletes scored significantly lower than non-athletes in the developmental areas of
educational plans, career plans and mature relationships with peers. The data indicate that
student-athletes find it difficult to set educational plans and they do not express fulfillment from
educational experiences. Student-athletes are sometimes walked through procedures which limit
their ability to think independently. It is important that student-athletes be given direction,
however they also need to be able to problem solve on their own. This is a step towards
maturing and learning how to think independently (Sowa & Gressard, 1983). Some factors that
were absent in this study are socioeconomic status, academic achievement, ethnicity and
academic ability.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 60
Special needs of student-athletes in higher education. Rhatigan (1984) published some
of the first written works to distinguish that the student- athlete population had special needs. In
1975, the National Association of Advisors for Athletes (N4A) was established to begin focusing
on special needs students may have and how counselors could be prepared to address those
concerns (Broughton & Neyer, 2001). Each year, the N4A meets to discuss the changing
environment of athletics and to cover pertinent issues facing all athletic departments.
Coaches as institutional agents. Coaches need to be held accountable as part of the
problem in student development (Petitpas & Champagne, 1988). The structured environment
dictated by a sport, holds the athlete to a strict and rigorous schedule. The coach’s expectations
of the student-athlete may not take into consideration the responsibilities that the institution
holds the student-athlete accountable for. It is the institution’s job to make sure that the coach
understands and is compliant with the needs of the student-athletes right and need to be a student
(Astin, 1984).
Wolniak, Pierson and Pascarella (2001) studied males from revenue and non-revenue
sports and the effects of learning at 18 institutions. The four learning orientations were:
openness to diversity and challenge; learning for self-understanding; internal locus of attribution
for academic success; and preference for higher order cognitive activities. Male athletes in non-
revenue sports tended to have lower levels of openness to diversity and challenge and learning
for self understanding than male non-athletes. Male revenue student-athletes showed growth that
was equal to male non-athletes in openness to diversity, internal locus attribution for academic
success and preference for higher order cognitive activities. While non-revenue athletes in
fraternities exhibited a low openness to diversity, conversely, male revenue athletes in
fraternities exhibited the highest level of openness to diversity of any group.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 61
Although studies were done from 18 institutions in 15 states, generalizations should not
be made to include all four year institutions. Since some students elected not to participate or
dropped out of the study, there may be self-selected bias in the data. The reason males chose to
participate in intercollegiate athletics was not included, which could have added additional
insight to the analysis of the data.
Injured student-athlete. Student-athletes who become injured temporarily experience
other challenges. Several articles have compared the ending of an athletic career to the Kubler-
Ross stages of bereavement (Harris, 2003). When an athlete becomes injured they may face
denial, isolation, anger, bargaining, depression and then acceptance (Kubler-Ross, 1991). The
NCAA has suggested that an injury component should be integrated into the CHAMPS/Life
Skills program to help the student-athlete cope with the loss. A weakness of this area is that not
many studies have been done on the injured student-athlete.
The development of the student-athlete without athletics. Harris (2003), examined the
psychological process of the injured student-athlete. She integrated the stages a student-athlete
may go through to Chickering and Reisser’s theory. Additionally, she has noted what solutions a
counselor could use when dealing with the student who is having a difficult time. Harris
examined the situation from the perspective of helping the student learn how to deal with his or
her situation while moving towards growth and acceptance. Injured student-athletes who have
not developed an identity other than one associated with athletics will have a more difficult time
when they can no longer compete. The identity development must start at the beginning without
including athletics (Harris, 2003).

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 62
Summary of Student Development
Groups like Pacific Islanders, as a subculture of student-athletes, represent an even
smaller percentage within athletics than African Americans and Whites. Ethnicity, academic
achievement, playing time and whether a student is in a revenue or non revenue sport may be
factors that need to be taken into consideration in the reported experience of student-athletes
relating to stress coping factors (Smallman, Sowa & Young, 1991).
There seems to be little continuity in the study of student-athletes. The study of the
effects of student-athletes development is a relatively new area and there is a need for research.
Therefore, studies are done differently each time, with different institutions and for different
reasons. The lack of replication of studies and the variance of studies done on student-athletes
make generalizations and reporting findings more difficult to support.
Many of the studies used small samples and the data may only be accurate for that
specific institution or region. Gender and ethnic differences were not represented in several of
the studies. Some of the studies separated revenue and non-revenue student-athletes in the data.
The campus climate and attitudes towards athletics may aid in the interpretation of the data. The
data might be reflected differently for a school that places more emphasis on athletics. Other
factors to investigate would to include SES or information about the student-athlete that would
influence the responses. It will be important to include whether or not the student-athlete is a
starter on the team or contributes athletically to his/her team on a regular basis.
Conclusion
Studies have indicated that there are cultural differences between ethnicities and SES
within the educational institutions (Lareau, 1987; Lareau & Horvat, 1999). The institutional
experience of the Pacific Islander scholarship football player can be linked to cultural and social
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 63
capital studies on ethnic minorities and their experiences within an institution and the agents that
they interact with (Stanton-Salazar, Vasquez & Mehan, 2000). Additionally, there is athletic
capital which the collegiate student-athlete experiences in the form of negative and positive
stereotyping by professors and non-athletes (Engstrom & Sedlacek, 1991). The perceived
athletic capital by a student-athlete can also cause the student-athlete to pursue a professional
career in the NFL while foregoing their educational degree (El Shahawy, 1999).
There is little known about the Pacific Islander scholarship football student-athletes
because of both their ethnic representation in higher education and the small percentage of
student-athletes within the institutions. The lack of information on this population suggests that
there may be factors that are important in the higher education experience of both the Pacific
Islander and the student-athlete population.

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 64
Chapter 3
Methodology
The purpose of this study is to determine how culture and ethnicity factor into the
institutional experience of the Pacific Islander scholarship football student-athlete at a
predominately White west coast institution. This study will examine how cultural and social
capital plays a part in the student’s institutional experience as well as his ability to understand
what will help in his success at the institution (Stanton-Salazar, 1997). Understanding how
cultural, social and athletic capital affect the experience of the student will aid in increasing the
positive experiences of Pacific Islander students and help in the retention and attainment of
baccalaureate degrees. Noting the decrease of Pacific Islander graduates at the baccalaureate and
Master’s or higher level compared to Asians, it is not clear if higher education is not valued in
the Pacific Islander culture. It has not been determined if economic factors are the cause of
Pacific Islanders lack of higher education pursuit or if there are other cultural factors. Pacific
Islanders may have a different set of cultural values or cultural legitimacy that affects the
attainment of higher education (Lamont & Lareau, 1988). Based on the U.S. Census (2000) data,
it is likely that a Pacific Islander scholarship football player represents an ethnicity of which only
a small percentage earn baccalaureate degrees and an even smaller percentage go on to Master’s
Ph.D. or J.D. degrees. The chance to become a professional athlete may also contribute to this
population leaving an institution before earning a degree (El Shahawy, 1999).
There seems to be little continuity in the study of student-athletes and no studies done
with the Pacific Islander population solely in the area of cultural identity and the institutional
experience. Nishimoto’s 1997 study of football student-athletes although valuable and close to
the proposed population, is limited in drawing conclusions on the Pacific Islander culture
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 65
because of the inclusion of other non-Pacific Islander subjects. The study of the effects on
student-athletes development is a relatively new area and there is a need for further research.
Therefore, studies are done differently each time, with different institutions and for different
reasons. The lack of replication of studies and the variance of studies done on student-athletes
make generalizations and reporting findings more difficult to support. The information from this
study could give insight to the Pacific Islander student population that could be used to increase
the number of students in higher education and aid in the positive institutional experience of
these students. Since the Pacific Islander revenue student-athlete population is an at-risk
population in higher education, any new information can only help in developing student
services that could increase the persistence of this group and create future opportunities for
member of the Pacific Islander population.
Research Questions
1. What are the perceptions of Pacific Islander scholarship football student-athletes
regarding their institutional experiences and types of support they received?
2. Do Pacific Islander scholarship football student-athletes feel this institutional support
helped meet their developmental needs?
3. In what ways did these institutional agents influence the development of these Pacific
Islander scholarship football student-athletes?

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 66
Sample and Population
In Fall 2007, the institution did not disaggregate data between Asian and Pacific Islander
students in enrollment. In comparing the overall enrollment of students at this institution and
comparing the ethnic breakdown to the football team, it can be determined that ethnic breakdown
does not mirror that of the institution. The aggregated Asian and Pacific Islander population of
the institution is at 21%, while the football team has 9.56%. In fact the only ethnicity which is
represented at a higher rate on the football team than the overall student population, is the
African American student-athlete. The difference of ethnic representation between the
institution and that of the breakdown of ethnicity on the football team is just one of the examples
of ethnic representation differences that can be discussed when analyzing the general population
and higher education. The differences in use of ethnicity for admission, enrollment and
graduation may be an indication of how USC may mirror how other institutions disaggregate and
aggregate the data to be used in reporting numbers.
Overall, in the background information of the university application, there are 18
ethnicity categories which are then condensed into 7 ethnicity categories for enrollment figures.
The application process shows that there are seven separate Asian and Pacific Islander
categories, however, the enrollment statistics aggregate the seven categories into an Asian or
Pacific Islander category. Based on the representation of this data, the institution does not track
Pacific Islander students separately from the other Asian categories. Noting that Asians and
Pacific Islanders represent 21% of the institution’s enrollment, the data suggests by the
breakdown of degrees attained in higher education by Asians and Pacific Islanders that most of
the students in the demographic are Asians. Asians and Pacific Islanders differ by a greater
degree in higher education. While 49% of Asians reported to have a bachelor’s degree or higher
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 67
level of education, the percentage for Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders is 15%. With
advanced degrees, 20% of Asians earn either a Master’s, Ph.D., M.D. or J.D. while the
percentage of Pacific Islanders is 4% (U.S. Census, 2000). The Asian and Pacific Islander
football players represent 7.35% of the entire Asian and Pacific Islander male student-athlete
population (31 Asian and Pacific Islanders out of 422 total male student-athletes).
With the limited number of available subjects to interview, the goal will be to interview
the entire Pacific Islander scholarship football student-athlete population at this institution.
Purposive sampling will be used for current student-athletes, targeting all the Pacific Islander
scholarship football student-athletes made up of Pacific Islanders of Hawaiian, Samoan and
Tongan ethnicities, including those student-athletes of mixed Pacific Islander descent. The
undergraduate student-athletes will all be from one institution, a Division I West Coast school
from the Pacific-10 Conference (Pac-10). The study will include 5 to 8 male student-athletes
currently enrolled in the institution and 5 to 8 previously enrolled male student-athletes.
Table I
Applicants and Enrolled Students compared by Ethnicity
Code Ethnicity in Application Code Enrolled Ethnic Category
X Int’l Student/Non-Resident Alien W White-non Hispanic
N American Indian/Alaskan Native B Black non-Hispanic
B Black/African American A Asian or Pacific Islander
I Asian Indian/Indian-Amer./Pakistani-
Amer.
H Hispanic
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 68
C Chinese/Chinese-American NA American Indian/Alaskan Native
F Filipino/Filipino American NRA Non-Resident Alien
K Korean/Korean American U Unknown
V Vietnamese/Vietnamese American
A Other Asian/Asian American
P Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander
M Mexican/Mexican-Amer/Chicano/Chicana
E Cuban
G Puerto Rican
Q Dominican
L Central American
S South American
H Oth. Spanish-Amer/Hispanic/Latino/Latina
W White/Caucasian

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 69
Table II
Percentage of USC Enrollment by Ethnicity Compared with Ethnicity of Scholarship Football
Players
Fall 2007 Institution % Football% Football Compared to Institution
Asian + Pacific Islanders 23.00 8.24 Less
African Americans 5.00 54.12 More
Hispanic 12.00 1.17 Less
Native American 1.00 0.00 Less
Non-Resident Alien 9.00 1.17 Less
Unknown 3.00 7.06 More
White 47.00 28.24 Less
Total Percentage 100.00 100.00

Procedures and Instrumentation
The absence of previous studies involving this subset of student-athlete population
indicate that a qualitative study is an appropriate type of study for data involving Pacific Islander
scholarship football players. By Creswell’s criteria the need for a qualitative study is that of a
topic that needs to be explored, details which need to be uncovered and subjects that need to be
studied in their natural setting (Creswell, 1998).
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 70
For current students, there will first be a background survey, followed by a focus group
interview which will then be followed by up to three individual interview sessions. A
background paper survey will be administered to the subjects by the interviewer in a 20 minute
introductory one-on-one session. This will provide general information on each of the subjects
with some open-ended questions. The background survey will be used to determine ethnicity,
whether or not they are a first generation student, year in school, geographic area where they
grew up, who is included in the family unit and information about parents or guardians. A 1
hour panel discussion with open ended questions will be organized with the Pacific Islander
student-athletes so that the students will become used to sharing experiences. Pacific Islander
students have a tendency to be more comfortable in an institutional educational setting in a group
(Au & Kawakami, 1991). Following up the panel discussion will be one-on-one interviews with
open-ended questions. This will allow the subject the freedom to describe any situation which
would indicate the institutional experiences they encountered at the institution or with
institutional agents. There will be up to three sets of interviews with each subject. The first
interview will take up to 30 minutes and the second follow up interview will be up to 20 minutes.
The second interview will take place about two weeks to one month after the initial interview. If
there is any need, a third interview will be scheduled two weeks to one month after the second
interview to clarify any information not to take longer than 15 minutes. The second and third
individual interviews will take place in order to provide follow up to the first individual
interview session. The identities of the student-athletes will be coded to provide anonymity.
Former student-athletes with the same criteria as the sample will be interviewed. The
former student-athletes interviewed will be currently playing in the NFL or pursuing other career
opportunities and will be within eight years of graduating or leaving the institution. Since access
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 71
to former student-athletes is more difficult, background interview may be through email and all
other interviews may be by phone. The panel interview will not take place for the former
student-athlete because of the difficulty to organize a meeting with many of the population not in
the area. There will be up to three sets of interviews with each subject. The first interview will
take up to 30 minutes, and the second, a follow up interview will be up to 20 minutes. The
second interview will take place about two weeks to one month after the initial interview. If there
is any need to, a third interview will be scheduled two weeks to one month after the second
interview to clarify any information and will not take longer than 15 minutes. The second and
third individual interviews will take place in order to provide follow up to the first individual
interview session. The identities of the student-athletes will be coded to provide anonymity.
To validate the information collected from interviews with current and previous student-
athletes, the interviews will be conducted with position coaches, Pacific Islander coaches, and
leaders of the Pacific Island community. Position coaches will be interviewed to verify
information collected from student-athletes regarding the student-athlete’s perception of their
athletic achievement or relationships within the sport of football. Position coaches are those
assistant coaches in the sport who work most closely with the football player and may have the
closest relationship with the player within the sport. Pacific Islander football coaches at the high
school, collegiate and professional levels will also be interviewed to triangulate the collected
data and corroborate information. Pacific Islander community leaders will be interviewed for
additional information on culture and to provide insight and validation or invalidation to the data
collected.

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 72
Data Collection
The background sheet will be given to the subjects to complete in a 30 minute meeting
prior to the panel discussion. All interviews will be taped or digitally recorded with permission.
Notes will be taken and recorded interviews will be transcribed. All interviews will be
conducted by one individual trained in an Ed. D. required course. The interviewer will also have
attended an ethnographic study course. Student-athletes will be offered the opportunity to
review the transcription of interviews.
Data Analysis
There will be three types of analysis: academic achievement, personal information from
survey and interviews of subjects, and interview data collected by former student-athletes,
coaches and community leaders. Document analysis will be done on the student-athlete’s high
school g.p.a. and SAT or ACT scores as well as the current academic records at the institution.
The informational background survey on family background will be collected and analyzed for
cultural and social capital. The data will be analyzed using framework and/or concepts on
cultural, social and athletic capital, the role of institutional agents and the effect on institutional
experiences of the subjects and student development. All interviews will be transcribed by the
same individual and coded for recurring themes. The data will then be sorted into themes and
similarities and differences will emerge from those themes. During the theme analysis, trends
will be noted and compared with previous studies if available. If information collected is still
unclear, additional clarification of interview will be requested from interviewed individual.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 73
Chapter 4
Results
This chapter presents the data collected from interviews conducted with current and
former Pacific Islander scholarship football players at a predominately White west coast
institution, Division I football coaches, and Pacific Islander community leaders to explore how
perceived cultural and social capital impacts the institutional experience of this student
population.
The researcher interviewed six current student-athletes, six former student-athletes, four
Pacific Islander position coaches, three non-Pacific Islander position coaches, and five
community leaders. All current student-athletes were interviewed using face-to-face interviews.
The current student-athletes interviewed were: one freshman, two sophomores, one junior, one
senior and one graduate student. All other interviews were either conducted by face to face or
telephone interviews.
The researcher will give a description of each of the participants by category, followed by
a discussion of the most predominant findings for the three research questions by participant
group. Following the presentation of the findings by each participant group, there will be an
explanation of the findings. Related studies will be cited where applicable to provide context for
the themes which emerged. Finally, there will be a summary discussion of the results.
Institution Information
The institution is located in Los Angeles and has an undergraduate population of about
17,000. The ethnic breakdown of the institution in Fall 2010 was 43.0% White, 21.6% Asian,
13.6% Hispanic, 11.2% International Student, 4.4% African American, 4.4% Two or more races,
1.3% Unknown/Other, 0.2% American Indian/Alaskan Native, and 0.2% Pacific Islander. The
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 74
Football program at this institution is in a category known as Division I. The ranking of this
Football program from 2002 through 2008 ranged between 1
st
through 4
th
in the nation. From
2009 through 2011 the program was ranked 22, out of the top 25, and 23 respectively (ESPN,
2011).
Participants
To maintain confidentiality of the student-athletes, coaches and community leaders the
researcher used pseudonyms for the participants. The researcher will describe the characteristics
of a) current student-athletes, b) former student-athletes, c) Polynesian coaches, d) Non-
Polynesian coaches and e) Polynesian Community Leaders.
The Pacific Islander designation as an ethnicity includes: Fijians, Hawaiians, Samoans
and Tongans. However, when discussing this group with those that are in this designation they
refer to themselves and each other as “Polys” (Polynesians). Four groups of participants were
interviewed. Group One included all of the current student-athletes at this institution that are
Pacific Islander scholarship football players. Group Two were former student-athletes of this
same institution that were Pacific Islander scholarship football players. Group Three consisted
of football position coaches at this institution and Pacific Islander football position coaches from
other Division I institutions. Group Four consists of Community Leaders that have a
considerable amount of interaction with the Pacific Islander youth population and are former
student-athletes and may have participated in professional sports.
The six current student-athletes that participated in the study range from freshmen to
seniors. Joshua is a Samoan/mixed ethnicity student from Hawai’i majoring in Public Policy.
Simon is Tongan/Samoan student from Northern California majoring in Communications.
Benjamin is Tongan student from Utah majoring in Sociology. Daniel is Tongan/White student
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 75
originally from Tonga who attended high school in California and is majoring in American
Studies. Matthew is a Tongan graduate student who received his Bachelor’s in Political Science
and is pursuing his graduate degree in Communications. Luke is a Tongan student originally
from Tonga who immigrated to Hawai’i when he was in grade school and is majoring in
Sociology. All current student-athletes plan to graduate and five out of the six students intend on
pursuing a career in the NFL. Five out of the twelve parents have a Bachelor’s or Master’s
degree and two additional parents have some college experience. Five parents have not attended
an institution of higher education.
There are six former student-athletes that participated in the study. Joseph is a Samoan
former student from California who graduated with an International Relations degree and is now
a football coach. David is a Samoan former student-athlete who came from Samoa to California
when he was in grade school, graduated with a degree in Public Policy Management and is
currently a firefighter. Mark is a Samoan former student-athlete from Southern California who
graduated with a Sociology degree and had his own personal training business. Gabriel is a
Tongan former student-athlete from Southern California who graduated with a degree in
Sociology and is an Event Manager. Adam is a Hawaiian/Samoan/White former student-athlete
majoring in Sociology from Hawai’i who is playing in the NFL and working on completing his
degree. One parent out of twelve received their Bachelor’s, while four parents had some college
experience and three parents graduated from junior colleges.
There were four Non Polynesian coaches that participated in the study. Coach Michael is
White/Irish, graduated from Loras College and Iowa State with a Bachelor’s and Master’s in
Physical Education, played football and has coached for 26 years. Coach Nathan is White/Irish,
graduated from USC with a degree in Communication, played football and has coached for 17
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 76
years. Coach Samuel is White, graduated from Colorado State with a degree in Social Science,
played football and has coached for 13 years. Coach Timothy is White, graduated from
Tennessee with a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Sport Management and Sport Administration, was a
Track and Field student-athlete and has coached for 13 years.
There were four Polynesian coaches that participated in the study. Coach Ethan is
Samoan, graduated from the University of Southern California (USC) with a degree in History,
played football and has 15 years of coaching experience. Coach Isaac is Samoan, graduated
from Brigham Young University (BYU) with a degree in Recreation Management and Sports
Administration, played football and has 28 years of coaching experience. Coach Peter is
Samoan, graduated from Iowa Wesleyan with a degree in Physical Education with a minor in
Athletics Training, played football and has 13 years of coaching experience. Coach Joseph is
Tongan/Hawaiian, graduated from BYU with a degree in English, played football and has 10
years of coaching experience.
Five Pacific Island Community Leaders were interviewed. Thomas is White/Irish,
graduated from Loyola Marymount and University of Hawai’i, Manoa with a Bachelor’s and
Master’s in History and Geography, played baseball and is on the Board of the organization
called All Islands Getting Along (AIGA). James is Samoan, graduated from Arizona with a
degree in Political Science, played football and is the Executive Director of AIGA. Phillip is
Tongan, graduated from Kansas with a degree in Education, played football, and founded the
organization called Tongan American Youth Foundation. Andrew is Tongan, graduated from
Oregon State with a degree in Sociology and Liberal Studies, played football and volunteers for a
number of organizations. Jonah is Samoan, graduated from UCLA with a degree in History and
is currently working on a Master’s in Asian American Studies, played football, created Pacific
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 77
Islander outreach programs and is on the White House Advisory Council for the Initiative on
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
Results
In response to the research questions, the evidence revealed pervasive themes across all
research questions. Therefore, the results for this study will be presented by theme. The most
significant results emerged in the influence of Athletic Capital and will be presented first.
Second, the importance of Social and Cultural Capital will be discussed. Next, the three general
themes that emerged are presented. The three themes were: family, religion and respect (See
Table III). Initial indications were that current student-athletes would provide the strongest data,
but the former student-athlete group gave insightful interviews which include the comparison of
their collegiate experience in combination with their post collegiate experience. Additionally,
four of the five community leaders were Pacific Islander scholarship football players at one time
and shared their perspective on the experiences in higher education from a former student-athlete
perspective as well as a coach and community leader. These perspectives were similar to those
of the former student-athlete population at this institution.
Table III
Number of times themes occurring during interviews linked to Research Questions
Themes Research Question 1 Research Question 2 Research Question 3
Athletic Capital 8 3 12
Culture and Social
Capital
13 4 87
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 78
Family 10 3 38
Religion 2 0 13
Respect 3 0 29

Athletic Capital
Social and cultural capital introduced by Bourdieu (1977) explained how upbringing and
social connections are used as assets by a student to either negatively or positively impact his or
her institutional experience. Athletic capital as a new concept, takes into account an individual’s
athletic attributes as determined by institutional agents associated with the institution of higher
education attended by the student (Engstrom & Sedlacek, 1991). The student-athlete’s
perception of his own athletic capital could impact his institutional experience.
The measure of athletic capital by coaches is what enables a student-athlete to have
access to an opportunity at an institution of higher education’s sport team and to continue on to a
professional sport’s team. An individual’s performance can be quantified by a specific number
of successful outcomes while at his position. Athletic capital was mentioned most often in the
categories of the NFL, the history of USC Polynesian football players, negative experiences as a
student-athlete and the national exposure and opportunities for a student-athlete.
NFL
Every current student-athlete indicated his intent to enter the NFL directly after his
university football career in his background survey. The anticipation of all prospective and
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 79
current Polynesian student-athletes is the strength of the pipeline from this particular institution
to the NFL.
Polynesian Coaches and Community Leaders referenced how a career in the NFL plays a role in
expectations of the student-athletes and their families. Poly Coach Ethan stated:
From my personal experience, probably not when I was that age, but as a parent very
high. It was more towards means to get into the NFL. They all feel because of our society
the family puts everything onto the athlete to go get that big NFL contract. And they
think that that will pull them all out of, not poverty, because I don’t think I have ever felt
like I was poor. I just felt that my parents and mom took care of everything I need.
Basically they felt that our talents were built for football instead of built for getting a
solid degree that can earn income later in life.

Poly Coach Joseph indicated:
And growing up I was always, I’ve always learned that the easiest way – the best way to
make money is to go to the NFL, right. So last thing I’m going to do is disrupt anything
that’s going to be affecting my chances to go to the league and so football is definitely
going to be number one but afterwards when you take a look back at it and you sit there
and go wow, ‘I’m a coach and that’s great. I appreciate my job that I have now, but man I
had a lot more options that I didn’t even explore because my options – because I was
limited in what I needed to do.’ And it’s always after – you know, after the fact and so
you sit there looking at it going, ‘Crap, I should have had more.’ You know, but and it is
what it is, but I mean I’ve majored in English and I didn’t even – I don’t really care about
English. You know what I mean.

This was also reflected in statements from Poly Coach Peter as follows:
Not really coming from a whole lot and understanding of the importance of the
opportunity you have and not letting that opportunity go to waste. Just reminding them
daily of that opportunity, you know. You know a lot of these kids these days think that,
you know they’re going to go to the NFL and that’s not true. You know it’s not going to
happen for everybody, you know very seldom there’s a very slim…

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 80
Poly Coach Joseph further explained:
And growing up I was always, I’ve always learned that the easiest way – the best way to
make money is to go to the NFL, right. So last thing I’m going to do is disrupt anything
that’s going to be affecting my chances to go to the league and so football is definitely
going to be number one but afterwards when you take a look back at it and you sit there
and go wow, “I’m a coach and that’s great. I appreciate my job that I have now, but man I
had a lot more options that I didn’t even explore because my options – because I was
limited in what I needed to do.” And it’s always after – you know, after the fact and so
you sit there looking at it going, “Crap, I should have had more.” You know, but and it is
what it is, but I mean I’ve majored in English and I didn’t even – I don’t really care about
English. You know what I mean.

As Community Leader Thomas stated:
And then how many of them make it to the NFL? I mean you get guys who, they get up
to go to practice squad. Or they get to go to NFL camp and maybe get on a practice
squad. But from all those kids that are graduating, or eligible to go to the NFL, there’s
very few who make it, very, very, very few. I think it’s the NFL. I think it’s - the younger
kids it’s Troy Polamalu. If you talk to young kids now, they don’t know who Junior Seau
is. And Junior Seau is the greatest Samoan football player ever to play. Based on
statistics and how many pro bowls he’s been to. They maybe kind of know who Seau is
they saw him play. Troy Polamalu is the face of the Polynesian football players and you
kind of know. The Polys, they like, especially the Samoans, they want to let you know
that you’re Samoan or I’m Samoan because when you watch them. Troy Polamalu. He’s
the best example of any Poly. He’s one of the best examples of just a football player
period, first and foremost due to athletic ability, but better because he’s a better human
being. He’s humble; he’s fairly quiet; he’s respectful; he’s insightful; he’s intelligent.

Community Leader Jonah also provided this same insight and stated:
Because, because they come from where they come from a lot is riding on them making it
pro you know, you know they sign one contract they could they could buy a home and
have you know put your whole family up. You know what I mean, so…
Community Leader Andrew added the importance of getting a degree in addition to an NFL
career:
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 81
You know what? Before it’s crazy because it’s like you get a scholarship and a guy said,
“Oh, he’s going to NFL.” You know what I mean? Now they say, “Uh oh, I hope he gets
his degree. Oh yeah. I hope they get the degree because there’s been so many since, you
know, from ‘70s and the ‘80s and the ‘90s and now we’re almost, we’re done with the
2000 with another 2—first decade in the 2000 year. And so yeah, it’s sort of maybe 40
years now and so it’s right now I think it’s like, well you know, we got a better chance to
go pro you know the guy, the kid will make it, on an NFL roster. But I sure hope he gets
his degree before he finds out real quick that he doesn’t make it.

In summary, Community Leaders and the Polynesian Coaches provided feedback about
the importance of the NFL as a goal but not always a realistic one. The main themes about the
NFL that were mentioned: financial situation, family expectations and the importance of getting
a degree along with playing for the NFL. While the expectation of the current student-athlete is
to have a successful NFL career, the Community Leaders and Polynesian Coaches understand
the extreme odds of a long career in the NFL.
Institute’s History of Polynesian Football Players
It is important to note that half of the former and current student-athletes noted that the
reason for attending the institute of higher education was because of its history with Polynesian
football players and the perceived positive experiences at the institution. Notable current and
former Polynesian NFL players with successful careers have attended this institution and the
expectation is that attending this institution will yield a similar outcome.
David a former student-athlete had this to say:
It did. It did. That’s the feel I got when I went to my university. That was another major
thing. Just watching—as a running back down here, I watched all the university students
and running back just anybody that went to my university. It’s as if there was a gateway
into whatever you wanted to do in life, not only NFL but if you wanted to become a
lawyer or a doctor. For me, I became a fireman and that’s all I wanted to do since I was a
kid, so not only to play sports but be a fireman after, a life after sports.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 82
When I first moved here from the island of Western Samoa, I was 9 going on 10 years
old. And growing up especially in Southern California, I lived in Orange County and
there are a lot of alumni around Orange County that are university alumni. So not only do
I see university logo around, I’ve watched games on TV. Back when I grew up, when
Junior Seau played, when I first started watching my university’s football. And so going
up just on the reputation of not only the academic stuff at the university but also the
athletic side of the university that’s the reason why I chose to go to this school.

Another former student-athlete, Paul, explained the importance of having a Polynesian Coach on
staff:
Definitely. Coach Ethan. He was the big reason why I went to the university just having
that comfort zone. But I think if there were administrators who are of Polynesian culture
or heritage it would just motivate us to want to do more than just football. And from my
personal experiences if I saw someone in administrator I would feel happy with it. I
believe I can just [inaudible 35:38]. I think it opens up for motivation and to just inspire
us to be not just athletes. But especially with coaches I think being on recruiting you feel
comfortable. You know that they understand our circumstances whether it be coming
from a big family, our expectations, the way we behave, or they understand the whole
process of going on a mission and things like that, so yeah. Polys impact other people.

This was important for current student-athletes as well. Benjamin talked about continuing the
legacy:
My positive experience being a Tongan on this football team I know that I am, I don’t get
more respect just because I'm a Polynesian player but I feel like since I'm a Polynesian
player I had the more expectations to fulfill from earlier Polynesian players over here at
this school. I feel like there’s more of a tradition or yet more traditionally I feel like I
have on my back carrying it through football carrying it through school. Just being
another Polynesian or Tongan person that can make it through football and school. I can
graduate from college. I feel like having that positive attitude towards everything I feel
like would benefit the Polynesian community and know that Polynesians can do and can
graduate and can make it through football and struggles.
Simon, another current student-athlete had a family connection:
Growing up, my cousin came to school here, which caught my attention. And I kind of
grew on the school as well as when he came here. And so growing up and being in high
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 83
school, I kind of wanted to come here and follow in his footsteps. But in choosing the
institution, my parents were a big influence as well as my family.

Overall, current and former student-athletes were the interviewees who mentioned the
institute’s history of Polynesian football players. The areas of importance mentioned were the
pipeline from the institution to the NFL and the ability to network, the representation of
Polynesians on the coaching staff, the tradition of Polynesians on the team, and former family
members having attended the institution.
Negative Experiences as a Student-Athlete
The comments by current and former student-athletes on negative experiences were more
than double the positive experiences. Engstrom and Sedlacek’s (1991) study determined that
student-athletes were perceived to have extra benefits in the form of academic support and that
they were not as intellectually competitive. The positive experiences mentioned revealed the
student-athletes perceived status as an athlete.
Former student-athlete, Paul stated:
Negative experiences. Maybe just, I think, those only Polynesians that go to USC are
football players and just having that kind of stereotyping. And me, obviously, with my
grades and my personal experience is just being on probation and failing and not applying
myself.
I think those are the negative in the senses that others may perceive us as just jocks.
Polynesians are on the football team and they don’t even get good grades. And I was one
of them.
I think those are the only negative experiences that I had. It was my fault, because again I
wasn’t getting good grades. And so those I think are closely related experiences I could
think of.

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 84
A current student-athlete, Benjamin, indicated:
If I was not a student-athlete and was just a regular student things I feel like will be so
much easier and so much more free time to do more homework than if I would since I
have football, but I mean, I came here to USC, I came for football, so I can’t really
complain or whine about anything, but I mean I just feel like football takes more time
than school would, and I feel like when I wasn’t a student-athlete, I would have more
time to focus on academics and stuff and more participation in student activities or events
around school and stuff like that if I wasn’t a student-athlete.

Another current student-athlete, Luke also emphasized this stating:
If I wasn’t a student-athlete, life would be a whole easier, but it’s not, so I got to do what
I got to do, so I mean, it’s not that I don’t love being a student-athlete. I love being a
student-athlete, but like if I wasn’t a student-athlete, I would do what not a student-athlete
would do, and you know just have fun with stuff like that. But I’d be on top of my
schoolwork a lot more, I guess.
One of things is, I guess I would say is, I wish I knew then what I wish, what I know now
is because I learned a lot of things since I’ve been in college like just how to plan my day
and work better and keep my tasks and getting my tasks accomplished and stuff like that.
I wish I just I knew the skills that I had now in like high school so that I would had a
better time in high school doing work instead of struggling in my senior year trying to get
everything done and also I wish I’ve, I would have worked harder on the football field
because I’m in a lot more better shape now than I ever was. I feel like if, if I would’ve
done a lot more work during high school like on the field and doing work like that I
would have been a lot better.

Joshua, a current student-athlete emphasized:
Some negative experience involved being from my culture. Just we’re bred larger so
people automatically assume you’re a football player even though you might be in a
situation where you’re trying to avoid, avoid that conversation, you just try and go to
store and by something and not be harassed by fan or just somebody wants to talk about
football and then come talk to you about how their son can get recruited and how can
they meet the head coach.

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 85
Current student-athlete – Luke underscored the physical aspect of the Polynesian people:
One advantage is, I think that I have from my background is the genes. Just knowing that
you’re a strong guy and you’re fast and like putting it together was like all the values and
things that you learn from your parents. One disadvantage is, I guess, that we have is the
language barrier between English and Tongan and how hard it is for a Tongan to learn
English. Also to convert to the culture, to the American culture and like because our
country is still, still in like, still third-world type kind of and still like building a better
society and stuff like that.

Former student-athlete - Gabriel
Yeah. And a lot of times I’m coming straight from workout so I’m wearing my sweats or
something, just because I’m changing and going straight to class. So sometimes students
feel—like you could feel that they’re—I don’t want to say star struck. But they’re like,
“Oh, you play football. That’s cool.” And then on the other end sometimes they got
paired up in groups for group projects. And then you could tell that the student was
sitting there looking at me like I was just a dumb jock, thinking going later to play
football. And sometimes it’d be harder to work with because they assumed that I didn’t
want to do my part, that I was trying to just coast by and let them do all the work.
Yeah, yeah. But yeah, with those students you can definitely feel it a lot of times in the
beginning. Once I started to work with them and they realized what I was about and how
I was, they definitely reacted different. And a lot of times it’s funny because they’d have
all these misconceptions about football players. And a lot of times I’d sit down and talk
to them, and I’d tell them the type of schedule we went through. A lot of them assumed
that we got it easy. We only wanted to take the easy classes, and we had all these tutors
that were paid for and all these different things. And they got to know me and I
explained the type of schedule we had in season and off season. I think their view of
student-athletes would change by the end of the project once they got to know really what
we’re about and how we work and the type of stuff we had to do all the time.
Yes, I mean I’m not going to lie. A lot of times I felt like—you know, because I didn’t
like the way a lot of people looked at student-athletes. A lot of them thought, “They’re
just here to play sports. They don’t do anything in the classroom and all that.” A lot of
times it really would offend me because if you look at the amount of time that student-
athletes put into their sport along with academics, it’s almost like working two full-time
jobs at the same time.
So I guess for me, I wanted to break down that barrier whenever I felt people had it. Let
them know we are student-athletes, and it’s not as easy as you think it is, with the
workouts and the film sessions and the practices and the meetings, on top of trying to
keep your school work up and your standing up.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 86

The recurring topics mentioned in regard to negative experiences were the feeling of
battling a stereotype of not being academically competent, being noticed for an athletic
physicality, the lack of available free time and not having enough time to balance athletics and
academics and the struggle with English as a Second Language issues.
National Exposure and Opportunities – Status
Former student-athletes, Community Leaders and a Polynesian Coach made observations
about the experiences being affiliated with a ranked, well known football program and the
opportunities that were part of that experience. The expectation of attending this particular
institution is that there is a pipeline to the NFL with the national exposure and the reputation of
networking even outside of the athletic opportunities.
Former student-athlete – Adam weighed in on the institution’s notoriety:
Being on a top football team that’s one just being on stages every week and playing on
TV which is something I always dreamed about, coming from a small island like Maui
and being able to play with, train with, and meeting just real big time people, the head
coach for one, getting coached by the assistant coach, an NFL legend. His dad was
boxing legend and just networking, the amazing networking that USC offers.
The only negative thing I can think of is four years here and not winning a national
championship. That’s the only negative thing I can think of. All my friends and coaching
staff and everything, it was just amazing to me.

Community Leader - James
Well, from experience I know it definitely opens windows as to opportunity. Especially
out there when it is all said and done on the field—It gives us an opportunity to go out
and be able to operate in the working world. So I know that verbatim: it just kind of being
a teacher and dealing with non-profits, it definitely opens doors and equips us as far as
knowing exactly what we got to do after our playing days.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 87
Former student-athlete - David
Absolutely. Absolutely. For me, I’m just feeling happy. They say football is a game of
life. And so I went through my ups and downs as a student and as an athlete. So that
helped me to be prepared to become a fireman. In my profession of being a fireman
trying to get into the fire department for myself, there were about 8,000 to 10,000
applicants that applied for 24 positions in Long Beach. So those aren’t good numbers. So
what we have to do—institution taught me was that for me I had to build my resume. So
that’s exactly what I did. I started with my resume. And I tried to prepare myself so when
I am presented with opportunity to talk in front of the panel I can rely back on my
experience on my resume and talk about everything, not in the way that I can brag, but
just so I can stack the chips. So this is what I did to prepare to become a fireman. And
that’s what USC taught me, the hard work as an athlete and the hard work as a student.
Nothing comes easy. But if you put the hard work and the time, you can accomplish
anything.

Community Leader - Thomas
It’s definitely status. “My son plays for so and so; my nephew, my grandson,” whatever,
but you can see it just at the high school level. You go to a high school game and people
have jerseys and shirts made up with “This is my kid.” And for some, high school
football it’s the pinnacle. If they get to college: that’s like they may be think they hit the
jackpot.
But, early February we will have probably a hundred to, easily a hundred to two hundred
Poly kids signed for the D1 to D12A schools. And they, you’ll have a bunch of them who
won’t show up in August because they weren’t qualifiers. And then down the road four or
five years, will they have finished their eligibility, let alone their degree? You know, so
what is - you see guys that finished up their eligibility but they’re still a year and a half
away from a degree, which - that means that academics is not first, you know.
And I understand the rigors. But with the families, some of them get it, but I think more
of them, they don’t get it. That it’s about playing football instead of saying this
scholarship is worth anywhere from $30,000 to $50,000 a year, or maybe $60,000 a year,
and what does that equal out to, over four or five years.

Community Leader - James
It’s a way out. For the kids back on the rock, it’s a meal ticket. For the kids in Hawaii,
same thing. I mean everywhere across the continental U.S. and down throughout the
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 88
south pacific region: it’s a meal ticket for us. I know for a fact that my parents wouldn’t
have been able to afford a college education. And it’s a good way for us to utilize our
God-given talent and at the same time be able to use that as a vehicle to take care of our
academic endeavors.

Community Leader - James
You know that’s a good question. Depending on the kid and whether or not he
understands the magnitude of what he has received as far as an education that will
determine whether or not he’s going to be successful or he’s going to take advantage of
getting a degree: a B.A., a Master’s and probably taking some doctorate work. Because I
know several Polynesian kids that have come away out of their five years of the college
experience with a Master’s. Now those are the kids that right when they come into the
system, they’re focused. They know exactly what they got to do. So it’s A-B-C, 1- 2-3.
And before you know it, here comes a kid: he’s already ready to hit the world with his
Master’s. Opposed to those, you know those of us who just took a couple classes here and
there and really didn’t take full advantage of the opportunity. So I think it is based on
how focused the kid is within the Polynesian community and those that kind of help him
evolve through the process.

Community Leader - Andrew
Exactly you know and you’re being fed sort of you know the, the – you’re, you’re almost
a professional on some levels and especially if you’re a really really good kid, you know
what I mean? A good football player there you know and I think that’s what really kind
of tests whether this kid gets through or whether they get stuck there you know.
The kids they get through, some of them may get through because of their faith, because
they tend to be you know very rooted in their religion. Other kids you know who aren’t
grounded, who may you know have gotten involved in some gang activity before they
came just kind of don’t know how to shake it and then you know unfortunately just
succumb to it.
And they were indulged here you know. Walk around like the giants around campus you
know and everyone scared of them of course and so. So it could be a positive thing if, if
they’re grounded and they’re ready to accept it.
If the, if they’re – if they’re really appreciating sort of the changes and the ability to kind
of be free from societal influences like neighborhood violence, like you know maybe
some broken homes, you know things like that.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 89
Lack of resources in their homes, lack of basic things like food and things like that you
know. If they’re able to take it the right way you know it’s a great thing for them but if
they’re, they’re emotionally immature and overly indulged then I can see it getting really
bad, well I’ve seen it get really bad.

Poly Coach - Isaac
Well, from the family background, it’s the most important thing because it’s probably
why a lot of them have migrated off the islands to go to the states, you know, to Hawaii
because it’s closer to the various parts of the country. Look at Guam. The sole purpose
is to provide the opportunity for the kid to get an education. It’s like when leaving
Samoa, the main goal was for them to get an opportunity where their son could come and
get an education.
And least I know from the kid in Samoa—I’m pretty sure it’s all over, like in Tonga and
various places—they are willing to send their kids anywhere across the country if they
have an opportunity of having a scholarship to pay for their schooling. Their goal is
driven by academics.

The significant themes relevant to national exposure and opportunities were the ability to
network and work with prominent people in the sport of football, post-NFL opportunities
available in the working world, the perception of the pipeline to the NFL, and a way for a
Polynesian person to leave the islands and make his way to the United States.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 90
Discussion Athletic Capital
The importance of perceived athletic capital affects the decisions about pursuing a career
in the NFL, which institution a student-athlete attends and how a student-athlete and others
around them view the ability to utilize their athletic worth to attain financial goals and athletic
notoriety. The chance to achieve prominence and have a successful career in the NFL is the
ultimate goal when a student-athlete decides to attend a particular institution with a pipeline to
the NFL. The perception is that an institution with an established history of Polynesian student-
athletes and a Polynesian coach has a greater chance to attract the attention of incoming
Polynesian student-athletes.
Polynesian Culture
The strength of the Pacific Islander culture is one that is a blend of family, religion and
respect. This particular population follows a set of cultural standards that rely on the
epistemology of each generation. While each Pacific Islander group may have variations in
some cultural aspects, all groups universally hold family, religion and respect as the core values
that unify the bond between the groups. Current student-athletes, Community Leaders and a
Position Coach commented on how Polynesian students differ from other students.
A current student-athlete, Simon, talked about the characteristics of Polynesian student-athletes:
I think that the Polynesian student-athletes differ from other athletes on our team because
we’re kind of come in and people kind of see us like kind of we have like a standard to
stand up to keep up with other Polynesian athletes that come in. Have high reputation of
being hardworking athletes and are willing to do whatever it takes to make their selves
better and to help the team. For cultural background references, I think the other athletes
feel that we have more of a leader role, say on the team, and a better way of or a more
effective way of getting, you know, guys ready for games and stuff in the locker room
and just getting the guys’ minds right. We just hold a high standard of, you know, just
being well prepared for games and for helping guys out on and off the field.

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 91
Benjamin, a current student-athlete, mentioned how Polynesian student-athletes lack
understanding of navigating through the academic institution:
I would say Polynesian players don’t really have as much information as a regular person
would just because I would say ‘cuz from the outside or from being more outside, I guess
we don’t really have that much knowledge of what is really going on quite yet, but I
mean… That’s it.

Benjamin, a current student-athlete, also discussed the heritage of being a Polynesian student-
athlete and the responsibility to uphold:
My positive experience being a Tongan on this football team I know that I am, I don’t get
more respect just because I'm a Polynesian player but I feel like since I'm a Polynesian
player I had the more expectations to fulfill from earlier Polynesian players over here at
this institution. I feel like there’s more of a tradition or yet more traditionally I feel like I
have on my back carrying it through football carrying it through school. Just being
another Polynesian or Tongan person that can make it through football and school. I can
graduate from college. I feel like having that positive attitude towards everything I feel
like would benefit the Polynesian community and know that Polynesians can do and can
graduate and can make it through football and struggles.

A Current student-athlete, Daniel, discussed respect as a big value of the Polynesian culture:
The values from Polynesian cultures, a big value in my culture, the Tongan culture is
respect. It is shown through the family, religion, and in every-day life. It’s a big part of
my life. When I was back home with my parents, there is always respect. Another big
cultural effect on me is, yeah, treating women with respect. In a Tongan culture, women
are held to the utmost respect. We, we don’t have the, we don’t have the same morals like
in the US where women are discriminated because they are women.
In the Tongan culture, women have the same opportunities as men. We’ve had a woman
leader once, Queen Salote, and she was basically the ruler of Tonga for certain amount of
years and she really enforced that, and that’s why we have a lot of respect for women. So
under everything, respect is one of the most important Polynesian morals in the ways of
life.

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 92
Matthew, another current student-athlete, reinforced the value of respect:
I think respect is the main trait that binds the Polynesian values together. Polynesian
values, the first, there’s no one and two but they go hand in hand is God, Religion and
Family. Nothing comes between, above those two. School comes after that, because
we’re all told, go to school is just as important as to get an education and then I would
say, athletics comes last because that’s really, it’s nothing big deal to us, we is just do it.
With those values, I guess that’s how we are. That’s what our foundation is based on and
that’s why, you know, it’s going to be kind of hard leaving home because you get so
attached to your family and your religious life, sharing with your family and it’s hard to
break free from that, to pursue school and your athletics. But over the next two
generations, I’m pretty, I’ll guarantee you’ll see a lot more Tongans and Samoans in our
nations’ prestigious academic and athletic institutions.
Daniel, a current student-athlete, continued his discussion on respect:
The Polynesian student-athlete is different from any other athlete because of the way that
we were raised. The more that we learned respect especially the Polynesian culture. We
have a rich culture and that we kind of incorporate that to everyday activities that we do.
And, I don’t know, it’s just, we’re more, the Polynesian student-athletes are more sound,
and we are more disciplined in any other ethnicity or race.

Current student-athlete, Matthew, compared the Polynesian ethnicity with other ethnicities:
As Daniel said, we are different than any other student-athlete because we are the
minority. We’re in the middle of everything and in the world that we lived in is white or
black and over here, the blacks sit at one table and the white sits at the other side of the
table but the Polynesian, they can sit with the blacks and then got to the whites and they
keep going back and forth.
But we, we’re minority. We have no place but then when there are the few of us, we all
tend to gravitate towards each other because only we know how to, we all know how to
treat each other with respect. We know that there are certain boundaries not to cross with
each other and joking around. We know that we can, it’s guaranteed that we have each
other’s back no matter what and that’s not guarantee with any other student- athlete. But
only besides Polynesians. Our, the family culture we just treat each other as family. I
think God and our culture are our main things and a lot of people, it’s money and
themselves are the, their main values in life.

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 93
Simon, a current student-athlete, discussed family as another big value:
The big value actually is family. Family in Polynesian cultures is very valued and
respecting your elders because family’s the biggest part in the Polynesian culture because
that’s really all you have coming from an island and stuff. You know, you take care of
your parents and growing up, you know, when they get old. Your parents take care of
you. And it’s kind of just like a cycle, you know, just making sure that everyone is being
taken care of.
Kids, you know, grow up and then even like in the 20s or 30s, they’re still living with
their parents. But their parents, you know, just always want to take care of their kids
because, you know, one day, that they’ll take care of them. And they want to teach them
the family values that your family’s the main thing besides God, and that you always
want to take care of your family first and make sure that everyone’s taken care of before
you take care of yourself and your family. So family’s the biggest culture perspective on
Polynesians.

A Community Leader, Thomas, talked about the frustration of having a Polynesian student-
athlete do poorly at an institution and hurt the chances of future Polynesian student-athletes to be
given an opportunity at the institution:
But the second thing and the most disappointing thing that we see is when we help kids
get coached up or get looked at is they go to a program that maybe didn’t have a lot of
Polys and they act the fool. They get in trouble and then they bounce out of the program.
And the programs say, “You know what, we know what we’re dealing with when we
recruit black kids or white kids. We know how to deal with it. But we kind of took a shot
on this couple of Polynesian kids and they didn’t work out. They closed the door for
future kids until maybe a new coaching staff comes in. But then on the flip side, you see
Polys go and do a great job and there’s only one, or two or three kids at our program and
then it opens a pipeline for other kids.

Thomas, community leader, spoke about the importance of family to the Polynesian student-
athlete:
Well, I mean, family is everything to these kids. The Polynesians are different than
typical western culture where “me” and “I” is first. Family is first. And if they’re really
from the islands, it’s family, extended family, village, type of thing but the name that’s
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 94
on the back above their numbers is very important than they want to represent that.
Repeat the question I want to hear what else say.

A Community Leader, Phillip, spoke about the importance of Polynesian institutional agents:
Absolutely. Obviously the ideal situation is to have more people who look like them.
Who talk like them, who understand where they’re coming from, who know the
differences in cultures. Growing up in Hawaii it’s all about Obama, right? So on and so
forth. Someone may not understand that someone of high ranking from a particular
culture passes away, how important it is for that child or for that particular individual to
be present, maybe not to have to go through the whole deal but at least to be present. And
the type of pressure culturally that’s put on some of these kids shoulders to participate in
some of these life events that come up.

A non-Polynesian position coach, Michael, spoke about a Polynesian student-athlete’s
scholarship opportunity:
I ... it would be my belief through working with them that it would, it’s viewed a little bit
as like a badge of honor, you know. That getting an athletic scholarship is one of the
biggest accomplishments that ha ever happened in that family. Okay. And I do know that
culturally, you know, they’re more family-oriented, more family-driven that problems of
one person are family problems, successes of one person are family successes. You know
what I mean?

In sum, some of the themes that resonate through the Polynesian culture are the
importance to uphold the values of respect, the importance of family and how the foundation of
religion encompasses everything. Earning an athletic scholarship is a big accomplishment in the
Polynesian culture. The Polynesian student-athlete feels that there is honor in representing the
community and his family. Respect and family are other core values of importance to
Polynesians. Having institutional agents of Polynesian descent or who those who understand the
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 95
culture is an important part of providing a supportive environment for the Polynesian student-
athlete.
Geographical Cultural Differences
There are cultural differences that shape the individual depending if the student-athlete is
from the Pacific Island countries like Samoa or Tonga, from the state of Hawai’i or the
continental United States (mainland). There are cultural differences that define each of these
groups similar to those immigrants who have come to the United States in immigration waves.
In addition, there are transitional differences to the institute of higher education. For those who
immigrate to the United States there is cultural assimilation and also the language barrier.
Isaac, a Polynesian Coach, speaks about the differences between student-athletes coming from
different geographical locations:
I think what the different scenarios are, I think, because the differences between the
Polynesian experience in the academic or in a university setting or college setting is
different for a kid from let’s say directly from Samoa than it would be from Hawaii and
the West Coast where the kids were raised. It depends on where they’re raised at.
Because when they’re raised on the state side obviously there’s a more very, a western
culture influences, you know, as opposed to the kids who are coming directly from the
island.

I base this solely on kids that I know that come from Samoa. There’s a huge
difference in the differences, you know, because they’re not as cultured, westernized as
the ones who are raised here in the states.

Yeah, I think that the cultural background, the stronger culture, Polynesian
cultural background in the kids from Samoa that I’ve seen than in the ones that are from
California or from Hawaii for that matter. The slight differences from the different areas
that they come from.

Phillip, a Community Leader, discusses the importance of culture and blending in:
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 96
Well, I think that like anything else if the student-athletes are able to embrace diversity
and the sharing of cultures, I think the Polynesian community and culture as a whole has
a lot to offer and share with other cultures. It could definitely be reciprocal, you know.
But with regards to the Polynesian community being such a small community and such a
mixed community that it could bring a lot of its communal lifestyles. I think there’s no
perfect community in society. Where a place like the United States it’s a melting pot you
get to pick and choose the best of the best from each community. I think the challenge is
how do you get more challenges? How do you create a positive marriage between two
cultures or three cultures or not?
I think one of the biggest challenges I know even for myself (speaking from personal
experience) even some of the kids I mentor right now is that how do you kind of balance
that middle ground, not being too Samoan or too Tongan or not being too American?
That’s kind of why I named my organization the Tongan American Youth Foundation.
Because I think as a culture not only do you have to hold tight to our culture and our
language, but we also have to embrace the Americanist of why are we even in this
country? Do you know what I mean?

Phillip speaks about his experience straddling two cultures:
Growing up for me both my parents spoke to us in Tongan, and it just seemed like
everything was Tonga. And so they put a lot of pressure on kids to continue being
Tongans, speak Tonga and all that kind of stuff. But I reach out a lot to the parents, I say,
“If you want your kid to excel and assimilate in American society you have to make some
change and adjustments yourself as parents.”
That has been the hardest thing for me working with the community has not been selling
the dream because the dream is even why we’re in this country. The hardest part is being
-- selling being the fact that as we progress and as we move forward as a culture, you’re
going to change. And change is difficult a lot of times.
Especially I have found the hardest thing to change more than anything is the mindset.
You can be Tongan and American at the same time. And it’s not the same for every
individual. You can be Samoan and American. I often get ridiculed for coming back to
the community and sounding like you’re white. It’s not really being white … that’s just
who you are. I’ve defined being Tongan American as being the best possible human
being you can be and living a good life.

Jonah, a Community Leader, talked about the student-athletes being from a low socioeconomic
status:
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 97
Well, I mean positively it takes a lot of these kids particularly Polynesian kids out of the
environments that they come from and most of which are pretty low income you know
statistically speaking a lot of these kids come from really low-income communities.
You know even if they come from the islands, they tend to come from the – you know
from the, the low income you know like the, the projects places like that. Isaac,
Polynesian Coach compares interactions with student-athletes from different
geographical locations:
From the states: I tend to remind the kids of their cultural backgrounds because some of
them tend to forget because to me they’re more westernized. They’re more watered
down in their cultural backgrounds. The ones from Samoa: I usually tell them to hold on
to their cultural value but they need to learn how to not to fuse the two cultures, the
biggest part of it is learning how things are accepted in the states compared to what was
allowed or perceived back there, and the way they were raised.

The only thing that’s important for them, I try to remember is from a sense of respect on
how they view things. But when they transition to a university at that point, things are a
lot different than the way they were raised.

David, a former student-athlete, explains his experience as an immigrant:
That it might be to the fact that they probably were stereotyping me as a typical jock or a
Polynesian jock because we have that reputation growing up. I mean just like for myself,
English is my second language. And so it’s harder for me when I went to school because
when we come back home to the household, my mom tried to make me speak Samoan so
that we don’t lose that part of my culture. So a lot of people don’t understand that you
also don’t speak English 100 percent of the time. When we come to my household—my
mom wouldn’t allow us to speak English when we got back to the house so that we don’t
lose that. And I’m thankful for that. I’m most thankful because the kids that grow up here
don’t know that language part of it. They know the Samoan culture, they call it Faa
Samoa, so yeah.

Position Coach, Michael, compared the Polynesian culture to the Native American culture:
Well, to be honest with you, I mean if you look at culturally at the history and movement
of people, Pacific Islanders are related more directly to Native Americans. I mean that’s
who—that’s their culture.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 98

Community Leader, Thomas talks about the differences of academic ability based on where the
student came from:
I think it - I think it really varies by generation and by family. You’re going to get first
generation people who totally get it. And then you have third gen - we have Samoans in
Hawaii, for instance, they’ve been here since the ‘50s. They’ve had many of the
opportunities. I would say as a generalization, the ones who I think get it the best are the
people of roots in Independent Samoa, also known as Western Samoa and/or who are
from Tonga because Tonga has the highest literacy rate in the world. Education is very
important in Tonga. Not to say that their kids get it done in the United States necessarily.
But I would say, as a generalization, that Polys who are coming out of certain types of
neighborhoods were, regardless of race, they’re all - there’s a lot of people have a hard
time getting to the next level academically. They get held back. But you see kids who are
from Independent Samoa or parents who are straight from there, education is very big
because they’re coming out of a commonwealth education system. Yeah. American
Samoa, Hawaii, public schools, Carson, Long Beach, Tacoma, Seattle, so you know. So
the jury’s still out.

Simon, a current student-athlete gives his perspective of being coached:
I think that the Polynesian student-athletes differ from other athletes on our team because
we’re kind of come in and people kind of see us like kind of we have like a standard to
stand up to keep up with other Polynesian athletes that come in. Have high reputation of
being hardworking athletes and are willing to do whatever it takes to make their selves
better and to help the team. For cultural background references, I think the other athletes
feel that we have more of a leader role, say on the team, and a better way of or a more
effective way of getting, you know, guys ready for games and stuff in the locker room
and just getting the guys’ minds right. We just hold a high standard of, you know, just
being well prepared for games and for helping guys out on and off the field.
Andrew, a Community Leader, discusses coaching a Polynesian student-athlete:
Much, I mean ... if anything, coachable. Very, very coachable. And it’s just, you know, a
Polynesian kid is a good soldier. You know and so you always want ... and the coaches
are like that. They like people, they—coaches are used with other people, they like
people being around the people around them. That’s who they like. And so if you would
have somebody and you tell a kid do this and do that, the Polynesian kid will do all he
can.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 99

Jonah, another Community Leader, mentions the traits of a Polynesian student-athlete:
The work ethic at times you know it comes through, the humility and a lot of that I think
is what makes them really coaches’ favorites you know these kids will – they’ll do
anything, you know what I mean? If they have to do, they pretty much will do it, you
know.

Joseph, a Polynesian Coach, discusses the organizational culture at his institution:
Well athletics it’s a weird deal, because – you know, Polynesian players, this is my point
of view as a coach, Polynesian players just they’ll, they’ll work their ass off for you –
you know, but at the same time they got to trust you and love you and so – you know
how that is, but I don’t see a huge difference between any of the players and that’s maybe
just because our whole and I’ll be honest with you, our whole team and our whole
program that the head coach has set is built around a family atmosphere around the
Polynesian community. So it’s, the culture is like – you know, we – you know how it is,
aunty this and uncle that, right. So the whole team basically follows the same pattern.
We’re all Ohana here – you know, so and I think that’s maybe a little different than other
places but there’s no emphasis on Polynesians and white and black and I think it’s – I
think all the experiences they have are pretty much the same because we get all our guys
to the same – how do you say it? The same expectations. They all have to be the same
way. So I don’t see any difference with it and I don’t coach my guys differently but so I
will say that would be pretty much the same.

Joseph, talks about Polynesian values:
Family is the main one. Family I think is the main value that I think was going to be huge
which is why I think there’s a lot of success in Polynesian players being on a football
team. Very unselfish, just the fact that they’re very unselfish and always willing to help,
but more than anything so welcoming. Open arms just accepting everyone and just a
feeling of unity. You know wherever you go if you bring a Polynesian player in the USC,
they’re going to drift towards their family and people that are a lot like them but like you
said there always seem like there’s more, it’s because it’s just warmth and kindness it
just, becomes infectious. You know what I mean, like people buy into and they recognize
that then they start doing it. We have – I have a good friend of mine who was very stingy,
never shared anything. Hanged out with some Polynesians for a couple of weeks and now
the guy has opened his, he’s open, he’s very giving and willing to share with everyone –
you know, but it’s because everybody, that’s what the Polynesian culture does. They give
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 100
you everything – you know and they don’t expect anything in return but that’s just how it
works. There’s no, there’s no value in who owes what this and that – it’s just more about
being family and taking care of each other.

Joseph adds more about coaching Polynesian student-athletes:
I would say just like what I talked about. Just family atmosphere bringing that unselfish
desire, just right away you don’t have to teach teamwork, you don’t have to teach
someone being self-fish that they’re willing to help out and sacrifice – you know, so you
have a guy that comes in and not only do you – you don’t have to teach him how to
sacrifice, that’s his whole life he’s lived. He’s lived his whole life sacrificing and being
giving being accepting and built around family and at the same time they got their ass
beat when they’re younger so their tough – you know, they’re used to tough love and
hard coaching and someone yelling at them and then just nothings’ easy – you know what
I mean? So they weren’t pampered growing up and so you can take a guy like that who is
loving and sacrifices and is willing to give you everything and at the same time you can
rip his ass and get on him about not doing things right and he’ll respond the right way.
He’s not going to put his head down and sulk or cry or hold it against you. The best thing
about Polynesians, is I’ve seen Polynesian’s fight and get in a complete fist fight and be
best friends for the rest of their lives – you know and it’s because it’s one of the weird
things where you respect each other – you just, you respect how each other you grew up
and you can love each other the same way. So that’s the one thing that I think is huge,
that it’s not seen throughout programs, it’s just something that you just feel.

Peter, Polynesian Coach, discusses the Polynesian values:
I think the biggest thing is respect. Respect and just family. I think that rubs off on other
players and other athletes. You know with me being here as a Polynesian coach I think it
just helps the other athletes seeing how the Polynesian kids respect their elders and I
think it just helps the transition of the other coaches coming in, you know the Caucasian,
African-American kids seeing that.

The respect that they’re giving us and I think this helps, it helps us too as well. You know
they see that respect and you know they just kind of follow suit with everybody else.

Timothy, a Position Coach, talked about the Polynesian student-athlete and work ethic:
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 101
Not a lot of differences. I think one thing is maybe I could see Polynesian athletes put a
little more heart and pride into their overall work ethic. They’re very prideful of that,
very prideful of respecting coaches and wanting to, you know, do a very good job for the
work that they do. And they want to, I’m just saying that they’re very prideful in making
sure that they’re doing a really good job of being, you know, just doing little things and
discipline and character and toughness and things like that.
I said I think the biggest, if, you know, if any differences it’s just the amount of pride and
I say determination they have. They seem to have a stronger pride and determination to
do the best they can be, you know, and just that overall mindset is in my opinion very,
very important to them.

Simon, a current student-athlete, talks about motivating other students:
Pre-game, at practices, help guys stay motivated during practice. I know that guys tend
to, you know, some days it’s just kind of hard to keep motivated during practice and
stuff. Guys just kind of going through the motions but even myself included. I find
myself doing that sometimes but after having the role, you know, of motivating guys a
lot, they kind of take the effort to help motivate me which helps motivate them and then
just makes practice and film and anything just a better environment of getting better as a
student-athlete.

Current student-athlete, Benjamin, discusses the Polynesian student-athletes work ethic:
I would also like to say that Polynesian players are different from any other player, not to
say that other players don’t work as hard but I feel like if you would ask a Polynesian
player to do something, they would do it with no questions asked, and that’s just a
respective standpoint that every Polynesian player has. I feel like they are more
disciplined and more respective of the coaches or the person who’s telling them what to
do than a regular person would be just because I feel that they will talk back more and
they or whine or complain more than a Polynesian player would be.

There are three geographical cultural differences mentioned in the interviews. Students who
come from the Polynesian islands are perceived to have a stronger tie to the Polynesian culture
and those students from Hawai’i are also thought to have closer ties to the Polynesian culture.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 102
Students from the continental U.S. are thought to be the most westernized and are believed by
the community leaders and Polynesian coaches to have a diluted understanding of the Polynesian
culture compared to the other two types of students. Community leaders and Polynesian coaches
counsel Polynesian students to remember their cultural upbringing and foundation. It is also
challenging for the Polynesian student to straddle the western and Polynesian cultures
successfully.
Polynesian coaches and former student-athletes who immigrated to the U.S. spoke about
the difficulty of working through the language barriers while trying to assimilate to the western
culture. The struggle was to learn the English language at school, while communicating in the
Polynesian language at home.
Culturally, the Polynesian student-athlete does have the same work ethic no matter which
geographical location they are from. Both Polynesian and non-Polynesian coaches talk about the
work ethic of the Polynesian students and their willingness to work as hard and to the best of
their ability giving them the reputation of being a very coachable group. Polynesian students feel
that work ethic and respecting the coaches can provide a role model for other student-athletes to
follow.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 103
Respect
Respect encompasses a variety of dimensions. There is respect for elders, self, family,
others and the respect others give back to the individual. In the Pacific Islander culture, respect
would be considered a form of capital as discussed in Bourdieu’s (1977) social and cultural
capital theory. Younger people show respect for elders by not speaking out of turn and listening
rather than speaking. Lipka’s (1991) study talks about the cultural norms of different ethnicities
and how institutional agents should learn to recognize how a trait for one culture is an attribute
rather than a negative. For example, when a Pacific Islander student-athlete, especially a
freshman or sophomore, does not verbally participate in class, this would be a form of respect for
the professor and other students who may be elders. Bourdieu and Passeron (1977) indicate that
cultural capital and academic achievement are linked to a student’s SES and ability to effectively
communicate in an institutional setting. The Pacific Islander student who listens first rather than
participate may at first do poorly in class participation, but as they learn the academic language
and begin to participate, may do so having mastered a language competence. Engstrom and
Sedlacek’s (1991) study on negative attitudes and prejudice of student-athletes supports that a
student may detect a lack of respect of his academic abilities by institutional agents in the form
of professors and other students based on negative stereotypical beliefs of student-athletes.
Relevant to respect and family upbringing Pacific Islander students have indicated that being
taught respect for parents, elders and authority figures are not always reflected in the upbringing
of other cultures.

Matthew, a current student-athlete, compared the Polynesian view of respect with those of other
cultures:
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 104
Oh, I hate my transition into the school because I was leaving my family and my church
behind. The people that I grew up with. Tongan people, it’s hard to come to the real
world and adjust to a life where respect and honor are not the number one thing with the
people and respecting each other and honoring their parents are not the number one thing
with a lot of people in the world.

Joshua, a current student-athlete, discussed the Polynesian way of respectful communication:

Polynesian culture is all about respect. One major thing that I’ve noticed is and I know
for a fact that in Samoan and Tongan culture, when you talk to royalty or to the king and
queen, you speak to them at different tongue. You don’t talk to them like you would to
your neighbor. It’s completely different, it’s not language but just better, it’s more
respectful, more eloquent and I know that for a fact that’s the way it is in both cultures.
And one thing I’ve seen here at USC is that, when people have miscommunications with
our coaches or they get angry at coaches or coach is angry at them, a lot of it is just
miscommunications because of some people here do not, were not raised in the certain
way to talk to elders, and certain way they don’t know how to approach them, they will
talk to them with slang that they do not understand, and just in a demeanor and harsh
accent that to me looks, seems really disrespectful and is what causes them havoc when,
when they start to get angry and there’s friction between them and a coach because they
have to teach, change the way that they talk.

Thomas, Community Leader, talked about the Polynesian cultural norm of respect:

Respect because if you don’t show respect, you are going to get asasa, if you’re Samoan,
or whatever the Tongan word is for a slap. They can handle being told what to do and
knowing their way and knowing their place.
I had a college professor who was Maori and he said, “You know, in Polynesian culture,
he’s like we were meant and told to sit there and keep our mouth shut. And then one day
they’ll ask us what are our opinions are, when we’re older. But, we show respect.” And
that’s - they respect, the family.

Isaac, a Polynesian Coach, tied in family and religion to the Polynesian culture:

Family, in respect. It’s a family first. It’s a sincere respect for elders. It’s, culturally, it’s
a lot different. I speak in general terms when I say from the African-American
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 105
background: that’s unfortunately different family; it’s predominantly raised by a single
parent and mostly by the mothers and the grandmothers, which is unfortunate I think. But
that’s what you see quite a bit of. And, you know, their ties is more particular to the
maternal upbringing.
The Polynesian kids, they have a strong sense of family because of the culture value that
they’re taught from a community standpoint, religious standpoint and the gospel
standpoint which is still very strong. It’s strong in both cases, but it’s more family
oriented in the basis of respect and their Christianity. This carries them all the way
through.

A Polynesian Coach, Peter, spoke about the Polynesian values as an example to students of other
ethnicities:
I think the biggest thing is respect. Respect and just family. I think that rubs off on other
players and other athletes. You know with me being here as a Polynesian coach I think it
just helps the other athletes seeing how the Polynesian kids respect their elders and I
think it just helps the transition of the other coaches coming in, you know the Caucasian,
Africa-American kids seeing that. The respect that they’re giving us and I think this
helps, it helps us too as well. You know they see that respect and you know they just kind
of follow suit with everybody else.

Respect is valued in the Polynesian culture and there is an expectation that someone from
the Polynesian culture will understand the levels of respect expected from children to elders.
The Polynesian student-athlete upholds what he is taught in his culture in the athletic setting.
There is respectful communication to coaches, each other and to professors. Polynesian students
are therefore in some respects is seen as role models who give their all and do not talk back.
Respect emerged reflecting the importance of respect for parents/family and women. Daniel, a
current student-athlete, compared Polynesian values with Western culture and spoke about
women and their status in the community:
The values from Polynesian cultures, a big value in my culture, the Tongan culture is
respect. It is shown through the family, religion, and in every-day life. It’s a big part of
my life. When I was back home with my parents, there is always respect. Another big
cultural effect on me is, yeah, treating women with respect. In a Tongan culture, women
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 106
are held to the utmost respect. We, we don’t have the, we don’t have the same morals like
in the US where women are discriminated because they are women.
In the Tongan culture, women have the same opportunities as men. We’ve had a woman
leader once, Queen Salote and she was basically the ruler of Tonga for certain amount of
years and she really enforced that, and that’s why we have a lot of respect for women. So
under everything, respect is one of the most important Polynesian morals in the ways of
life.

Luke, a current student-athlete, reinforced the Polynesian value of respect especially for women:
I guess one of the values that we have in the Polynesian culture is respect. Respecting one
another and respecting everyone that you meet. Just respecting every single person that
you come across and showing that you respect them. And also, our Tongan Culture from
where I come from is we have to show respect to all the women no matter what. Like,
women always get the best respect and I guess we like to we do not want to lose that
value when we come out here to the States and we try to like show it to our younger ones
and try to keep the value strong and keep it going.

David, a former student-athlete, spoke about the perpetuation of values for each generation:
Yeah. We’re different I think—I guess I can speak for only myself because I’m
Samoan—I think we stand out because I think it’s that Polynesian way that we always try
to bring everybody in; teachers, family, friends, coaches. We treat everybody like family.
And so I think that’s what sets us apart from other students, people that are non-
Polynesian. It’s not to say that they don’t have that same sense, but for us growing up as a
Polynesian that’s what taught at a young age. I teach my nephews every day at 2, 6, and
10 since day one that you always had to share. It’s not about yourself; unselfish, humble
attitude, the respect that we are born, and at the same time the discipline part of it to
respect elders and to strive to make your dad, your grandpa, and your family proud of
you. So when everything is set and done, they can say that I’m proud to be related to so
and so.

Mark, another former student-athlete, talked about actions representing not only yourself but the
family:
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 107
Pretty much the whole basis you can put on a nutshell. Everything just all comes down to
respect, pretty much respect everyone. Respect your mother and father. Respect yourself.
And anything that you do pretty much just respect whatever it is you’re doing. And by
respecting everything, you do it to the best of your capabilities. Pretty much you don’t do
anything that will embarrass yourself or your family. So you always want to do
everything to the best of your capabilities because you know you’re not only representing
yourself. You represent your family. And it goes true with the Polynesian people because
we are such big families. And a lot of people they look at us as fortunate people when we
do good.

Adam, a former student-athlete, supported the Polynesian value of representing the family with
actions:
Everyone really keeps to themselves, real quiet, humble. We try especially in sports, I
mean we try hard. Everything is about representing. That’s in every culture, though, but
relating us to Polynesians. When a family turns a TV on and you just want to make them
proud. The difference is just the emotion that you can put everything into it in everything
you do and you don’t want to be an embarrassment to your family.
Respect and honor and just being trustworthy. When they put you in a big opportunity,
they look forward to you taking full advantage of it and counting on you to take care of
your family so.

The importance of representing their family and not bringing shame to the
community were mentioned. Humility and learning the levels of respect are values taught from
the beginning of a Polynesian child’s upbringing. The Tongan student-athletes specifically
mentioned that women were especially respected but the Samoan student-athlete made no
mention of women in particular.
Respect – not talking out of turn
Children in the Pacific Islander home are taught to respect their elders and to listen. A
child who spoke without being addressed was seen as being disrespectful and as talking back to
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 108
the elders. When the student attends an institution of higher education, class participation and
communication are valued in the academic setting as well as by the coaches. Pacific Islander
students must be coached to actively participate in class discussions and to engage verbally with
the coaches and teammates in their sport.
Ethan, a Polynesian Coach, talked about mentoring student-athletes from the Polynesian culture:
Yes, I do. I also try to give back to the Polynesian culture in terms of when I spot a young
student-athlete that I try to encourage them in terms of loving their family and asking for
help in their academic environment. Don’t be shy, because we’re very proud culture and
it’s okay to ask questions and why and don’t take it personal.
The other thing is that we’re also big physically, so people kind of feel they’re
intimidated by us just by sight instead of getting to know us. So learn to control your
passion, your emotion, and try to be the best person and not to ever embarrass your
family name and the culture that you’re from.

Another Polynesian Coach, Peter, talked about interaction in the Polynesian home:
I think, you know a lot of them, the situation across the board; I think financially just
economically those are more of the situations that the Polynesian kids can relate to as far
as you can compare to the other cultures. I really don’t see other than that just the
language barrier for some of those kids that are coming from overseas and traveling here
with English being a true second language for them.
And I think another part of it too is our culture. I don’t think it’s, you know in the
Polynesian culture I think its most of the kids aren’t really outspoken in their homes. I
think it’s, you know over the years it’s becoming more and more where kids are starting
to express themselves. I know when I was growing up it was more so than when your
parents talked to you and what not if you said anything back it was considered talking
back.
So you kind of shelled everything inside and weren’t used to expressing your feelings or
talking. I think more and more these days kids are being able to express their opinions. So
I’m not going to say the culture’s changing. I think parents are starting to realize that
outside the homes that kids need to learn how to communicate and speak on their own. I
don’t know if that makes sense or not.

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 109
Joshua, a current student-athlete, reinforced the idea of communication in the Polynesian home:
I wish I had better interpersonal skills, I’m not very good in communicating when I first
got here, well I’m getting better now. Because usually, I think I had bad skills because I
just usually did what I was told and I didn’t ever question authority, when you come to
college, that’s what you’re told and required to do, required to fight the power and to
think, think critically about, about everything and to not think about the norm but to think
outside of the box.

Joseph, a former student-athlete, supported the Polynesian value of not questioning authority:
As far as, I think, this might be leaning into your culture question, but I think the culture
may have hurt me in a sense that when you grow up in the Polynesian culture, the elder is
always right. You never question anything versus - but once you get to an institution of
higher learning, you’re supposed to challenge, critically think, and challenge thoughts. I
felt like maybe, I really wasn’t prepared to do that because of the culture, because of
always submitting to the elder.

David, another former student-athlete, also talked about respecting elders and emphasized not
questioning authority figures:
One advantage was the respect. You always respect your elders and your authority
figures. So I think that translates over to as a football player who respect our cultures so
what they say is pretty much—I mean we’re going to follow. If not, you’re going to have
to tell the parents and then mom and dad is going to come in and will likely spank you if
you’re not going to learn. You’re going to learn if they hit you in your head. So that’s one
of the advantages.”
One of the disadvantages is that coming from a culture that we respect the elders, you
respect your elder, the authorities above you, your teachers. We tend to forget that when
we go to college it’s the chance for us to reach out and just think outside of the box, just
take a chance and kind of—what’s the word—kind of question or kind of come up with
your own ideas apart from the norm. I’m just trying to think of the word. To be more
creative, to be more innovative, and more thinking on your feet as an individual as
opposed to thinking like we grow up. We grow up thinking as a family because it’s not
always about yourself. You’re thinking about the next person. I’m sorry. I don’t know
how to explain it.

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 110
A non-Pacific Islander coach may see the Pacific Islander student and mistake the
student’s respectful silence as uncommunicative or disengaged.
Michael, a Position Coach, talks about the lack of initiative of a Polynesian student-athlete:
What I would say is ... that they’re generally very passive personalities. They’re not by
nature aggressive people or ... I have to fight to find the right word. I don’t want to say
not competitive but you know, they’re passive. They’re ... you feel like you’re always
having to jumpstart the motor, you know. “Come on, let’s get going. This is important.

Being taught to respect elders and not talking out of turn can also work against a Polynesian
student-athlete in a classroom setting or in his or her sport. In the classroom setting or in their
sport, not speaking up can be seen as not participating or not engaged. Parents are now seeing
that cultivating communication in the family can help the student outside the home. Not having
questioned authority prior to entering an institution of higher education could limit the
experiences in group settings with individuals taught from an early age to always question
authority.
Respect – showing respect for institutional agents – example to other students
Benjamin, a current student-athlete, talked about discipline:
I would also like to say that Polynesian players are different from any other player, not to
say that other players don’t work as hard but I feel like if you would ask a Polynesian
player to do something, they would do it with no questions asked, and that’s just a
respective standpoint that every Polynesian player has. I feel like they are more
disciplined and more respective of the coaches or the person who’s telling them what to
do than a regular person would be just because I feel that they will talk back more and
they or whine or complain more than a Polynesian player would be.

David, a former student-athlete, spoke about the cultural norm of respecting elders:
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 111
One advantage was the respect. You always respect your elders and your authority
figures. So I think that translates over to as a football player who respect our cultures so
what they say is pretty much—I mean we’re going to follow. If not, you’re going to have
to tell the parents and then mom and dad is going to come in and will likely spank you if
you’re not going to learn. You’re going to learn if they hit you in your head. So that’s one
of the advantages.

Another former student-athlete, Gabriel, reemphasized the cultural importance of respect:
I would say probably one of things about the culture that I didn’t mention before is
probably respect. That’s something that’s very big in our culture, and we’re taught from
when we’re young. And I think that’s one of the biggest advantages that we have as
Polynesians coming into the institution and into sports because you’re very respectful
towards your coaches. They’re like your leaders. A lot of times as a student-athlete you
may not agree with what your coach is saying or what they may have you do. But you
just kind of suck it up and do it because he’s your leader and that’s what he wants you to
do. And then at the same time when you play, it helps because you want to earn that
respect from your opponent. You want to earn that respect from your teammates. So you
work hard. You play hard. You want to give respect, and you want to get respect. And I
think that translates into everything they do when they play.

The Polynesian student-athlete is seen as a role model because of his work ethic, respect
of coaches and not questioning authority. In addition to giving respect, the Polynesian student-
athlete also expects that respect will be given to him in return.
In sum, the Polynesian culture values respect and children are taught from the beginning
that elders and authority figures are to be respected and to not to talk out of turn or to express
opinions without being asked. On the negative side, because Polynesian students are not taught
to speak up in the home they find it difficult to communicate at an institution of higher education
where class participation and speaking ones opinions are valued and expected. A coach has
indicated that the lack of participation is seen as passive and not disengaged. Other coaches did
not see the lack of verbal participation as passive but as a sign of respect. This is an example
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 112
where the student must learn to straddle both the Polynesian and Western cultures and learn
which action to use in different situations.
Family
The choice to come to this institution that was influenced by family or being close or
relatives was mentioned by five out of six former student-athletes. Five out of six current
student-athletes also stated that their reasons for coming to this institution were because of
family, relatives or proximity to either. Lareau (1987) notes that in certain cultures family
support and following the progress of the student’s academic progress is considered important.
Research by Roscigno and Ainsworth-Darnell (1999) reinforces that the background and
experiences within the family have implications on the academic achievement of a student. As
postured by Bourdieu’s (1977) cultural and social capital, an institution with a dominant class
and ethnicity may value the norms and attitudes of that SES or culture.
The choice to leave the institution based on a student’s perceived athletic capital may be
determined by his chance to support the family with a professional football player’s salary. The
proximity to family and Polynesian legacy were important.
Daniel, a current student-athlete, explained about his transition as a student from another
country:
My transition there was really hard for me because I’m from a different country. In terms
of living by myself, that was a hard transition. Just being able to leave my whole family,
move to the States and then move again was a really hard transition for me. I didn’t take
really well to the move and here at USC, it’s hard because usually when I go back home,
my parents were always there to give me advice and stuff like that but here, in the
institution, you have to make your own decisions because you’re by yourself, you’re an
independent. It was a really hard transition for me and I’m sure it is for everybody else
that comes to college.
Daniel, current-athlete, talked about the institution’s history of Polynesian players:
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 113
I was recruited by USC and a bunch of other schools but I don’t know, it’s just like
something about USC was closer to home. A lot of great Polynesian players have played
here so it wasn’t you know like a hard decision for me to commit here to USC.

Joshua, another current student-athlete, mentioned the institution’s proximity to his family:
I came to this institution because it was my closest option to home because I’m from
Hawaii. My other option was in Michigan or in Ohio, far away from home, the food I
know and the people I know. I also came here because I have relative nearby both from
my Polynesian side and my white side and also my grandfather came to school here. It
was a good family tradition.

Simon, a current student-athlete, reinforced the tradition of Polynesian players at the institution:
Growing up, my cousin came to school here, which caught my attention. And I kind of
grew on the school as well as when he came here. And so growing up and being in high
school, I kind of wanted to come here and follow in his footsteps. But in choosing the
institution, my parents were a big influence as well as my family.
Another current student-athlete, Benjamin’s decision to attend the institution was based on being
close to his family:
Well, what helped make my decision to come here to this institution, would have to say
friends and family, location of where this school is placed here in Southern California,
just all the ties between who’s been here before at this institution like all the alumni, all
the networking, ability you’ll be able to have when you go here at this school. Plus my
parents were a big influence also because I didn’t want to go far away from them either.

Joseph, a former student-athlete, spoke about staying close to family:
Yeah. My process of deciding on this institution was basically a family process. I talked
to my parents and my brothers, and I always wanted to stay close to home. So that was a
big thing, being Samoan, being Polynesian, you’re always kind of close to your family. I
just knew I wasn’t going to go too far, so that was one of the main reasons I came to this
school.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 114

Former student-athlete, David, talked about deciding to attend the institution because of his
mother:
My mom had a huge influence in my decision in going to this institution. I grew up in an
area down in Orange County. She wanted me to stay close to the family. So there were
other institutions like Ohio State, teams in the East Coast where I did go visit and took
my—official visit.

Mark, a former student-athlete, explained his decision to attend the institution close to home:
But if it wasn’t for my mother because my mom was sick. And so I really didn’t want to
go out of state to go to school. So I just decided to stay in town and go to this institution,
which ended up to be a good choice.

Former student-athlete, Gabriel’s decision to attend the institution was being close to family:
Oh, how I decided to come? For me, it really came down to first the schools that offered
the scholarships, and it came down to this and actually Cal Berkeley. And I decided to
come to this school and the reason I decided to come to this school is, one: it was close to
home. My parents helped me come to that decision just based on the academics of the
school. It was a well known school and very good academically. And just being able to
play close to home in front of my parents was a big factor for it. So my parents and
myself, I guess.

The decision to attend the institution was frequently made because of proximity to the
student-athlete’s family and being close to the Polynesian community. Some students followed
older family members to the institution. Another consideration to attend an institution close to
home was the chance the family had to attend practices and games.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 115
Family support and structure were major influences. James, a current student-athlete, explained
about family structure:
I think the family structure is probably the most, I would say the most important thing
because it keeps you grounded. And you already know that you have a supporting cast
whether it’s uncle, aunt, grandma, Mom, Dad, brother. The family structure is probably
the most powerful thing. I mean I can even go to the East Coast: I see a Samoan or
Polynesian or Tongan I look at him and he looks at me and “You Samoan or Tongan”
and the next couple of sentences it’s like “Okay, let’s go get something to eat.” You don’t
know the guy and all of a sudden you’re best friends. So I think the family structure is
probably the most important thing that Polynesians can come away with and say “Hey
this is one thing that we can say, this is the meat and potatoes of who we are.

Isaac, a Polynesian Coach, discusses forging a relationship with the family:
Family and their faith, first and foremost. They will tend to put their trust in the first
person that they come encounter with. That’s why the relationship for a kid coming from
Samoa to any coach that he meets, the family will put their trust and that’s a life-long
bond. And hopefully that guy doesn’t steer him down the wrong path for the wrong
reason. As opposed to a kid who is raised in California or stateside: I mean some of
them are street smart and they can see the difference between the two.

Current student-athlete, Daniel, talks about values:
I don’t believe that there are disadvantages coming from our culture. I’m proud of my
culture so I would always look at it in the positive way. The advantages of coming from
the Tongan culture are the family values, the family life style, I’ve seen a lot of problems
here in the US with different family members in different cultures, but when it’s, when it
comes down to a Polynesian family, they will have the same problems but we know how
to fix it more than the any other culture I would say.

Another current student-athlete, Simon, reinforces the comment by Daniel on the importance of
family:
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 116
The big value actually is family. Family in Polynesian cultures is very valued and
respecting your elders because family’s the biggest part in the Polynesian culture because
that’s really all you have coming from an island and stuff. You know, you take care of
your parents and growing up, you know, when they get old. Your parents take care of
you. And it’s kind of just like a cycle, you know, just making sure that everyone is being
taken care of.
Kids, you know, grow up and then even like in the 20s or 30s, they’re still living with
their parents. But their parents, you know, just always want to take care of their kids
because, you know, one day, that they’ll take care of them. And they want to teach them
the family values that your family’s the main thing besides God, and that you always
want to take care of your family first and make sure that everyone’s taken care of before
you take care of yourself and your family. So family’s the biggest culture perspective on
Polynesians.

David, a former student-athlete, reminisced about his initial experience at the institution:
Transition. I want to say I just turned 18 when I went as a freshman. I don’t know if
culture shock is the right word. But going from living at home with your family, your
brothers and sisters, having the support group, and then switching down from Orange
County to San Diego area so going from there and having to live in the South Central
area, right in the heart of LA and having to deal with just life itself, having to pay bills,
having to study without having the support group I had at home. So when I went to the
institution provided me with that support group.

Mark, another former student-athlete, discusses how Polynesians stick together:
I may sound biased, but I know my people obviously better than anyone. But this is a
sense of bonding and sense of family that is different between Polynesians and everyone
else. We’re shorter in numbers especially when you go at elite colleges and stuff like that.
You only have a few. Some you only got one. So when you have two or three, they know
how fortunate they are to be in this situation. I know that when I was here, I was lucky
enough to have more than a handful of Polynesians. But we all knew that were lucky to
be part of something good. So we all stayed together. We was a family within a family.
So we always hang out. We always did everything together pretty much. Without those
brothers, it would have been;—like I said, it would have been a different experience if I
didn’t have a lot of those buddies here.

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 117
Former student-athlete, Gabriel, mentions the negative part of family obligations:
Negative things about the culture, I would say it would be the family. At the same time—
it’s a big support, but at the same time it can be a big distraction. There are times when a
lot of my family would—they would see me at a family function and they— “Haven’t
seen you in a long time. Why won’t you come by and hang out? Why won’t you come by
and kick it?” You love your family and you want to hang out with them. But there’s a lot
of things they were doing I didn’t want to get into and would just take away from what I
was trying to do academically and athletically. They can be a big support, but then at the
same time they can be the ones that end up holding our people back.

Former student-athlete, Adam, talks about the general demeanor of Polynesian student-athletes:
Everyone really keeps to themselves, real quiet, humble. We try especially in sports, I
mean we try hard. Everything is about representing. That’s in every culture, though, but
relating us to Polynesians. When a family turns a TV on and you just want to make them
proud. The difference is just the emotion that you can put everything into it in everything
you do and you don’t want to be an embarrassment to your family.
Respect and honor and just being trustworthy. When they put you in a big opportunity,
they look forward to you taking full advantage of it and counting on you to take care of
your family so.

Overall, the Polynesian family structure and basic value system are very similar within
the different Polynesian groups. Because of the similarities of values in Polynesian culture,
Polynesian student-athletes tend to gravitate towards each other, especially when the student-
athlete has left the support of his family and friends for the first time. Loyalty is also very
important to the Polynesian culture. Once a coach recruits a student-athlete the family will be
loyal to the coach because a lifetime commitment has been made. Conversely, the family can
also impose responsibilities of requiring a time commitment that the student-athlete can find
difficult to maintain.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 118
Religion
Culturally, religion is an integral part of the Pacific Islander’s value set. Every Pacific
Islander family belongs to a church and many of the social interactions occur with members of
that group. God or religion was mentioned by at least two people in each group type interviewed
as an important part of the Pacific Islander culture. Institutional agents are represented in the
form of religious leaders or members of the churches that the family of the student-athlete is
affiliated with.
Institutional Agents reflected an impact of religion in the community. Community Leader,
Thomas, talks about the importance of religion to the Polynesian community:
And I think an extremely important component of respect and family is the church,
whatever their church is, whether they’re local Tahiki or Latter Day Saints or Seventh
Day Adventist, or Catholic, or Methodist, Wesleyana.
The church is the centerpiece of their communities in America, whether it’s in Carson or
in West Valley, Utah, or Kalihi, Honolulu or Laie or, whatever. The church is where most
Polys go and interact and that’s a big part of their social world. And they’re pretty strong
people of faith. The respect, they always talk about respect and humility and they got
more positive attributes than negative attributes. It’s just when they start switching from
the bigger group to the ‘I’ where issues happen.

James, a Community Leader, reinforces the importance of religion to the Polynesian student-
athletes:
Well, Polynesian student-athletes for one: they are spiritually based. I don’t care what
Polynesian you come across, that Polynesian belongs to some church. And with that
being pretty much the focal point, you know for a fact that everything revolves around
the church especially in the Polynesian community. It can be a Mormon Church, a
London Missionary Society, a Seventh Day Adventist, Catholic, but families belong to a
church. And knowing that you have that foundation, everything else pretty much takes
care of itself.

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 119
Another Community Leader, Phillip, supported the importance of religion to the Polynesian
community:
You and I both know we try to stay away from religion and politics in any conversation.
But the key to unlocking a lot of the challenges for the young people in this country is
having faith-based leaders on board. The challenge is if they’re going to get on board
they’re going to have to lose a little bit of their power. And so that’s a whole different
topic. We could on and on about that whole issue of how … and it happens in all cultures
but in small island communities being a faith-based leader is more powerful than being a
chief. I have bumped heads with a lot of faith-based organizations that I have dealt with.
Then I’ve run across some guys who are super willing to participate and willing to do
whatever it takes to help the community.
Oh yeah, oh yeah. I think that there’s one frustration that I have as a community leader
and dealing with a lot of the issues is a lot of the Pacific Island communities, especially
the Tonga, community, Samoans is if you don’t get signed off by a faith-based leader
then you’re not legitimate. You’re not going to get full on support from the rest of the
congregation or from the rest of the community. And if you challenge those faith-based
leaders, now you’re going to hell. And you’re going to be condemned to … you’re not a
true believer or whatever, whatever excuse they use when it comes up.

Community Leader, Phillip, discusses the interaction of the different religions within the
Polynesian community:
Yeah, there’s a lot of segregation within the community. You have the Mormon kids
wanting to deal with other Mormons and the Methodist kids and things like that. So that’s
definitely a challenge. We’ve been able to navigate pretty cool with it. Now that they
realize that we’re legitimate and we are not trying to make money off the community or
taking power away from them. We’re actually trying to make them become more
powerful in one sense by making the community stronger.

Matthew, current student-athlete, talked about the transition to the institution:
Oh, I hate my transition into the school because I was leaving my family and my church
behind. The people that I grew up with. Tongan people, it’s hard to come to the real
world and adjust to a life where respect and honor are not the number one thing with the
people and respecting each other and honoring their parents are not the number one thing
with a lot of people in the world.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 120

Community Leader, James, supported the values of religion and family:
I think the faith and the family part is huge. I think for a lot of kids--I know with my own
personal experience going all the way to Kansas—that’s what kind became my
motivation, my family and my faith. That was all I really had while I was over there,
coming from humble beginnings, you know.

Matthew, a current student-athlete stated:
I think respect is the main trait that binds the Polynesian values together. Polynesian
values, the first, there’s no one and two but they go hand in hand is God, Religion and
Family. Nothing comes between, above those two. School comes after that, because
we’re all told, go to school is just as important as to get an education and then I would
say, athletics comes last because that’s really, it’s nothing big deal to us, we is just do it.
With those values, I guess that’s how we are. That’s what our foundation is based on and
that’s why, you know, it’s going to be kind of hard leaving home because you get so
attached to your family and your religious life, sharing with your family and it’s hard to
break free from that, to pursue school and your athletics. But over the next two
generations, I’m pretty, I’ll guarantee you’ll see a lot more Tongans and Samoans in our
nations’ prestigious academic and athletic institutions.

Paul, a former student-athlete, supports the idea of religion and the importance in the Polynesian
community:
Well, they value God and family and just always everything for a purpose. Especially
with Polynesians and especially with Samoans growing up in the church. Everything is
about God and family and then school. I think these are the most important values. And
then after that, everything kind of just follows as far as being responsible and being
accountable to your family, to your heritage, to your religion. Representing yourself in
the best way, but most of all to the most Holy God. I think most especially amongst
Polynesians they value most because that’s what’s in our foundation is and that’s where
we would have learned and developed.

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 121
Every Polynesian family belongs to a church and all the leaders of that church are the
institutional agents that are involved in support of the family and the student-athlete. Faith based
community leaders are very important in the Polynesian community and hold a lot of power.
Community groups need the support or endorsement of faith based leaders in order to secure the
involvement of the Polynesian community.
The impact of religion was revealed in the family setting. Matthew, a current student-athlete
spoke about leaving his family to attend the institution:
Oh, I hate my transition into the school because I was leaving my family and my church
behind. The people that I grew up with. Tongan people, it’s hard to come to the real
world and adjust to a life where respect and honor are not the number one thing with the
people and respecting each other and honoring their parents are not the number one thing
with a lot of people in the world.
Matthew continued to expand on what he means about Polynesian values:
I think respect is the main trait that binds the Polynesian values together. Polynesian
values, the first, there’s no one and two but they go hand in hand is God, Religion and
Family. Nothing comes between, above those two. School comes after that, because
we’re all told, go to school is just as important as to get an education and then I would
say, athletics comes last because that’s really, it’s nothing big deal to us, we is just do it.
With those values, I guess that’s how we are. That’s what our foundation is based on and
that’s why, you know, it’s going to be kind of hard leaving home because you get so
attached to your family and your religious life, sharing with your family and it’s hard to
break free from that, to pursue school and your athletics. But over the next two
generations, I’m pretty sure, I’ll guarantee you’ll see a lot more Tongans and Samoans in
our nations’ prestigious academic and athletic institutions

Community Leader Phillip talked about what was important when moving away from home:
I think the faith and the family part is huge. I think for a lot of kids--I know with my own
personal experience going all the way to Kansas—that’s what kind became my
motivation, my family and my faith. That was all I really had while I was over there,
coming from humble beginnings, you know.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 122
Former student-athlete Paul explained how religion plays a part in a Polynesian family:
Well, they value God and family and just always everything for a purpose. Especially
with Polynesians and especially with Samoans growing up in the church. Everything is
about God and family and then school. I think these are the most important values. And
then after that, everything kind of just follows as far as being responsible and being
accountable to your family, to your heritage, to your religion. Representing yourself in
the best way, but most of all to the most Holy God. I think most especially amongst
Polynesians they value most because that’s what’s in our foundation is and that’s where
we would have learned and developed.

Since the family church is such an integral part of a Polynesian student-athlete’s support
system and life it is difficult for the student-athlete to be separated from both his family and
church. The Polynesian individual has spoken about the importance of God first, then the
family, followed by everything else. Being away from home also serves as being a motivator to
be accountable and to make the family and community proud while they are experiencing
independence.
Religion was referenced as a source of strength of character. Andrew, Community Leader,
discusses how religion grounds the Polynesian student-athlete:
Exactly you know and you’re being fed sort of you know the, the – you’re, you’re almost
a professional on some levels and especially if you’re a really really good kid, you know
what I mean? A good football player there you know and I think that’s what really kind
of tests whether this kid gets through or whether they get stuck there you know.
The kids they get through, some of them may get through because of their faith, because
they tend to be you know very rooted in their religion. Other kids you know who aren’t
grounded, who may you know have gotten involved in some gang activity before they
came just kind of don’t know how to shake it and then you know unfortunately just
succumb to it.
And they were indulged here you know. Walk around like the giants around campus you
know and everyone scared of them of course and so. So it could be a positive thing if, if
they’re grounded and they’re ready to accept it.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 123
If the, if they’re – if they’re really appreciating sort of the changes and the ability to kind
of be free from societal influences like neighborhood violence, like you know maybe
some broken homes, you know things like that.
Lack of resources in their homes, lack of basic things like food and things like that you
know. If they’re able to take it the right way you know it’s a great thing for them but if
they’re, they’re emotionally immature and overly indulged then I can see it getting really
bad, well I’ve seen it get really bad.

Ethan, Polynesian Coach, reinforces the idea of embracing a culture:
I think the one thing I would always say to them is be true to their culture. That it’s okay
to be yourself and be in your culture. And don’t try to be some other culture or don’t try
to be someone else.
The other is I believe that the one thing about Polynesian culture is their faith. I think if
they stay true to their faith and practice their faith daily, I think they’ll be fine.

Polynesian Coach, Isaac speaks about values:
The Polynesian kids, they have a strong sense of family because of the culture value that
they’re taught from a community standpoint, religious standpoint and the gospel
standpoint which is still very strong. It’s strong in both cases, but it’s more family
oriented in the basis of respect and their Christianity. This carries them all the way
through.

The religious foundation that the student-athlete has keeps the student grounded.
Keeping true to their roots and practicing their faith aids to strengthen the core value system of
the students and keep them on the right path. Religion is a cultural value that also reinforces a
strong sense of family and community.

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 124
Summary
There were four significant findings in this study. Two related to Athletic Capital and
two relevant to social and cultural capital. The first finding suggests that the NFL plays an
important part of an individual’s decision to attend a specific institution. The second finding was
connected to the NFL, through the decision to attend an institution based on the national
exposure that an individual perceives he may receive by attending that institution and the
historical success other Polynesian student-athletes have had by attending that particular
institution. The third finding was how the Polynesian culture had a strong influence on the
student-athletes’ identities and the lens they used in approaching their experience in the higher
education setting and their relationships with institutional agents. The fourth finding was when
the Community Leaders and Coaches described the differences of the student-athletes who were
raised in the island nations compared to those from the continental United States.
Additionally, respect, family and religion were three significant themes that emerged
from the data. Respect emerged as a theme under social and cultural capital with indicators
suggesting the relationship of family upbringing, the importance of family hierarchy and not
talking out of turn or without having earned the right to speak out. Family was an indicator
related to athletic capital that played a part in an individual’s decision to attend the institution
because of the proximity to family, the Polynesian legacy and the chance for the ability for
family and community support. Religion also under social and cultural capital was the final
indicator suggesting the importance of faith based institutional agents and the value the
Polynesian community places on faith as the foundation of family and to strengthen and
individual’s character.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 125
Chapter 5
Discussion
In most research on Asians and Pacific Islanders, the populations are aggregated which
results in an inaccurate depiction of the educational achievement of the individual ethnicities.
The importance of understanding the differences that exist across these ethnicities is critical to
determining what services or programs are needed to support a specific population. This
knowledge may help ensure the success of individuals from specific ethnicities in attaining a
college degree. The purpose of this study is to determine how culture and ethnicity influence the
institutional experiences of Pacific Islander scholarship football student-athletes at a
predominately White, west coast institution. This study examined cultural and social capital
factor in a student’s institutional experience as well as his ability to navigate an institution of
higher education.
The three research questions which guided this study were:
1) What are the perceptions of Pacific Islander scholarship football student-athletes
regarding their institutional experiences and types of support they received?
2) Do Pacific Islander scholarship football student-athletes feel this institutional support
helped meet their developmental needs?
3) In what ways did these institutional agents influence the development of these Pacific
Islander scholarship football student-athletes?
Interviews were conducted with five different groups. The groups interviewed were: six
current student-athletes, six former student-athletes, four Polynesian coaches, four non-
Polynesian coaches and five Polynesian community leaders. Background forms were completed
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 126
by all those interviewed. Current student-athletes were interviewed by panel but all other
interviews were conducted one on one either by phone or in person. Once interviews were
completed and transcribed, the data was then sorted by theme and relevance to theory.

Summary of the Findings
In response to the research questions, there were five findings in the areas of: athletic
capital, social and cultural capital, and themes of respect, family and religion. The first finding
emphasized athletic capital, specifically the importance of the opportunity for a career in the
NFL which was reflected by the legacy of Polynesian football players at the institution and the
expected national exposure by being at the institution. An important indicator was the influence
of negative institutional experiences of a student-athlete. The second finding employed social
and cultural capital, demonstrates the influence of the Polynesian culture, the contrast of
geographical origin, and institutional agents through leadership by example are important.
Third, respect emerged as important in three areas: the foundation of family upbringing,
hierarchical respect, and the cultural examples of respect. The fourth finding is that family
proves most relevant when considering the proximity to the student-athlete, the family legacy to
the institution, and support by immediate and extended family members. Finally, religion was a
key factor, which was revealed through interactions with religious leaders as institutional agents,
the integration of religion into family life, and as a foundation from the home which strengthens
an individual’s character.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 127
Athletic Capital
The first finding demonstrates the importance of the opportunity for a career in the NFL,
which was reflected by the legacy of Polynesian football players at the institution and the
expected national exposure by being at the institution. The opportunity for an NFL career was
very important. All current student-athletes spoke of their intention to compete in the NFL. In
contrast, the Polynesian Coaches and Community Leaders understand the NFL goal but
realistically try to communicate the importance of getting a degree while working toward an
NFL career. This was coupled with the expected national exposure in being at the institution.
Statistically the NFL Players Association (2013) reports that out of the high school seniors that
play football, only .2% will make it to the NFL. The community support is pivotal in keeping the
athlete focused on the importance of academics (www.nflplayers.com). Continuing a tradition of
Polynesian football players at an institution was mentioned by current and former student-
athletes, as well as Polynesian coaches and community leaders as one of the reasons a student-
athlete decides to attend a particular institution. Another reason the legacy of Polynesian
student-athletes continued at the institution was having a Polynesian coach on staff according to
current and former student-athletes. Polynesian coaches also mentioned that when asked about
recruiting Polynesian students having an institutional agent or Polynesian coach would help.
One Polynesian coach also indicated that a Polynesian community support would help. Over the
past ten years, this particular institution has had a range of between five to nine Polynesian
scholarship student-athletes on the football team. It is interesting to note that when there were
two to three Polynesian coaches there were only five or six Polynesian student-athletes. During
a five-year period with no Polynesian coach there were between seven to nine Polynesian
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 128
student-athletes. Following the period without any Polynesian coaches when the institution had
one Polynesian coach the institution had between seven or eight Polynesian student-athletes.
This suggests at this particular institution the combination of the history of Polynesian
football players, the pipeline to the NFL, and national exposure and proximity to family were
enough to recruit a Polynesian student-athlete to the institution in absence of a Polynesian coach.
Like El Shahawy’s (1999) study, the factors above in combination create a perception that by
attending the institution the student will acquire the needed athletic capital to go to the NFL.
Negative athletic capital was experienced by some of the student-athletes. Several
students mentioned that physically they were so much bigger than the rest of the student-athletes
it was easy to be noticed as an athlete. The schedule of a student-athlete also had the students
coming straight from post-practice showers wearing sweats or warm ups eliciting feelings by the
student-athletes of being labeled as a dumb jock. Frequently, the student-athletes worked to
dispel the dumb jock stereotype by explaining the rigorous schedule they must maintain. As the
student-athlete was able to pull his weight during a group project he felt that the other students
saw student-athletes in a positive light. Another negative point the students reported was the
difficulty of balancing athletics, academics and any type of social life. These experiences reflect
the complex dynamics student-athletes face while engaged in the classroom, which could impact
the decision to continue the tradition to attend the university. The Engstrom and Sedlacek (1999)
study noted that student-athletes were more likely to be scrutinized by non-athlete students for
either positive or negative actions in comparison to non-athlete students.
The storied history of football of the institution reflects the athletic capital that draws
student-athletes to the school. According to the Associated Press (2012), this institution is at the
top of most frequently ranked teams. Additionally, this institution is often on the list of school’s
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 129
ranked No. 1. During the time there were no Polynesian coaches on staff the institution was
ranked highly consistently. The athletic capital of the institution may have contributed to the
higher number of Polynesian football student-athletes. This institution has a high number of
NFL drafts, so the anticipated pipeline and exposure from this institution means that the athletic
capital in being part of the football program is high. This could also mean that a student-athlete
could mistakenly assume that his individual athletic capital is higher than the collective athletic
team and institutional capital.
Social and Cultural Capital
The second finding from the lens of social and cultural capital demonstrates the influence
of the Polynesian culture through family and community, how the geographical differences may
play a part in the values of the student-athlete and the strong characteristic of the institutional
agents through leadership by example. The Polynesian coaches and community leaders remind
the Polynesian student-athletes to stick true to their culture, which is built on the foundation of
religion, family and respect. The student-athletes also mention the responsibility to represent the
Polynesian community and the family with the opportunity they have been given to get a degree
and potential NFL careers.
There are geographical cultural differences mentioned by the Polynesian coaches,
community leaders and student-athletes who came from Samoa or Tonga. The three
geographical areas that students come from are the continental U.S. (mainland), Hawai’i and
either Tonga or Samoa. The students from the mainland are more assimilated to the American
culture and melting pot. The students from Hawai’i have more of a Polynesian background
because that state’s culture is based on the Polynesian culture. The students from Tonga and
Samoa are more steeped in the Polynesian culture from the islands. A student from any of these
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 130
areas could still be a first generation college student and also be an English as a Second
Language student if the Tongan or Samoan is used as the first language at home. A Polynesian
coach and a student-athlete both mentioned the difficulty in navigating through academics
because of their weak understanding of the English language.
Polynesian and non-Polynesian coaches mentioned the nature of the Polynesian student-
athlete as very coachable, someone who will try his hardest and be an example to the other
student-athletes. The Polynesian football student-athletes lead by example by working to the
best of their abilities, doing as they are told and giving respect to their coaches. Stanton-Salazar
(1997) discussed the ability of the student to decode the institution’s culture system and also to
recognize those institutional agents that were likely to provide support to successfully navigate
through the institution. . In addition, if the student did not feel supported or understood, he
would most likely transfer to another institution where the cultural needs were being met
(Bartolome, 1998).
Respect
The third finding of respect emerged as important in three areas: the foundation of
family upbringing, hierarchical respect, and the cultural examples of respect. These three
indicators reflected the heart of the Polynesian culture. The first indicator of family upbringing
served as the foundation where respect was taught at an early age. Second, respect was to be
shown to elders, parents, and women for Tongans. The third indicator of not talking out of turn
was of particular importance and it is better to listen and think, then to voice an opinion because
there will come a time that the individual will be given their turn. Respect was also to be shown
to others and a level of respect was to be expected in return. Family upbringing and not talking
out of turn go hand in hand. It was in the family that the foundation of respect was laid. Elders
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 131
were to be respected and children were taught not to talk back, but instead to listen and not voice
an opinion. Former and current student-athletes felt that their cultural upbringing of not voicing
an opinion was a setback when attending classes based on class participation. Polynesian
coaches have acknowledged that parents have begun to see that their children need to be taught
how to respectfully voice an opinion in order for the child to be prepared for academics and
competing in the classroom with other more vocal cultures. A current student-athlete mentioned
that he felt he lacked interpersonal skills because of doing what he was told to do without
question.
All Polynesian cultures speak about the respect given to elders, parents and authority
figures like coaches and teachers. What was unique that was disclosed during the interviews was
that in the Tongan culture women were expected to receive an extra measure of respect. In
Tonga, women are particularly revered and it was noted by a current student-athlete that women
in the Western culture experienced some discrimination. Dumais (2002) considered habitus as a
way that individuals saw themselves as a part of society. Polynesian student-athletes habitus
emphasizes respect for authority figures and people they have come in contact with have shaped
the interactions with coaches, professors and teammates.
Family
The finding of family as key to the student experience was influenced by the institution’s
proximity to the family and the family support. The decision that a Polynesian student-athlete
makes about choosing an institution is determined to a high degree by the proximity to family.
Current and former student-athletes have said that their decision to attend the institution was not
only based on athletic capital but also because they would be close to their families. The
decision to be close to the family was so family members could attend practices and games on a
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 132
regular basis. Also, it was comforting for all family members in case support was needed by the
student or by the family.
Being close to the Polynesian community also gives a measure of support. A Polynesian
coach indicated that not only did Polynesians lend support to their own family but there was also
support to other Polynesians. A community member mentioned that when he was a student-
athlete meeting another Polynesian student-athlete the cultural epistemology of what was
important was understood and they both felt that they could already be comfortable with one
another. Literature that indicates family support and proximity to institution is important was
discussed in the study by Dovidio, Gaetner, Niemann and Snider (2001). Additionally, Tinto’s
(2003) study revealed that students of similar cultural backgrounds gravitate towards each other.
Religion
The last finding, demonstrates religion was an integral part of the Polynesian culture
which enhanced student-athlete success. Religion was important in that religious leaders served
as institutional agents, religion was an important part of the family and religion helped with
character building. Religious leaders hold a lot of power in the community and decisions are
made upon the advice of these institutional agents. A community leader said that when he was
developing his youth foundation, he first had to approach the religious leaders of the community
to gain their support. Without the support of the religious leaders the community would not have
bought into his foundation or what he wanted to accomplish with the Polynesian youth.
Every Polynesian coach and community leader mentioned the importance of religion in
family and in the culture. Additionally, every former and current student-athlete mentioned
religion at some point of the interview as an integral part of the family. When the Polynesian
coach and the community leaders mentored Polynesian student-athletes their advice was always
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 133
to remember their culture and stick close to their roots. The religious foundation would give the
Polynesian student-athlete the strength of character to represent the Polynesian community while
attending the institution. A student said that in the hierarchy of what was important in the
Polynesian culture was that religion comes first and then family in the Polynesian culture
followed by everything else. The religious leaders of the Polynesian community would be
considered by Stanton-Salazar (1997) to be the institutional agents providing guidance to the
family and the student-athlete prior to, during and after higher education attendance.
Implications for Practice
There are three implications for practice which are relevant to the findings of this study.
The first pertains to the recruitment of Polynesians to an athletic program. Understanding what
the Polynesian family considers important and what will help the Polynesian student-athlete
navigate through the institution to obtain a degree and successfully transition to the NFL.
Second, emphasis is needed for the academic and athletic program needs of these students. The
institution will need to utilize institutional agents to provide the necessary support in all areas:
athletics, academics and socially integrating into an institution of higher education. In the end,
balance is required in the area of athletic capital. The insight of former student-athletes currently
in the NFL and pursuing other career avenues could give the prospective and current student-
athletes relevant information on what to expect in the transition to college and to a career.
Regarding the recruitment of Polynesians to an institution, the findings from this study
suggests the prospective student-athlete takes into account the legacy of Polynesian student-
athletes at that particular institution, family input, proximity to family, the ability of family
members to attend games, whether there is an institutional agent that is Polynesian, and the
proven pipeline to the NFL.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 134
Additionally, in support of such a unique population, an institutional agent who is
Polynesian or who understands the Polynesian culture would aid in the support of a Polynesian
student-athletes experience in an institute of higher education. Only someone with an
understanding of the Polynesian culture and/or who understands the importance of family,
religion and respect to this student-athlete group would be able to serve as a mentor or someone
these individuals could relate to. Since the Polynesian student-athlete population is mainly first
generation college students it is important to provide support in order to foster successful student
development progress. Second, the recruiting institution should provide support to enhance the
academic and athletic success of students that do come to the institution.
The current and former student-athletes from this institution did feel that their needs of
academic support were being met and that the professors were fair and easy to work with. It was
only with students that there was any negative stereotyping felt by student-athletes.
If the institution does not have an institutional agent that understands the Polynesian
culture, this population may no longer attend an institution of higher education known to have a
Polynesian legacy. Those Polynesian student-athletes who did attend the institute could
assimilate to the institution if the school culture was one that supported the values important to
the Polynesian culture.
The Polynesian student-athletes for the most part believe that their professors and other
students gave them a favorable experience. However, in some cases the student-athletes felt that
there was a need to dispel negative stereotypes about student-athletes. Polynesian student-
athletes attributed their success in academics to the academic support system (tutors and learning
specialists) in place for the student-athletes and feel that without the support they may not have
been as successful in navigating or competing in the classroom.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 135
Finally, balancing Athletic Capital is important. Every current student-athlete indicated
that his goal was to make it to the NFL. With the relatively low amount of student-athletes that
make it to the NFL and are able to sustain a career once they make it, it would seem that there
should be an educational piece on alternatives to the NFL. This would address challenges if the
goal of entering the NFL is not achieved. Another educational focus would include
understanding post NFL career or retirement factors.
Recommendations for Research
There are four recommendations for research which follow. First, to include additional
institutions in the study is needed. This would give a broader perspective and differences by
region or institution could be discovered. Replicating this study as a longitudinal study is
recommended as well. Third, include interviews with Polynesian professional football players.
Accessing Polynesian professional football players could shed light on gaps in providing student
development opportunities to help prepare student-athletes for their successful transition to the
NFL. Finally, interview non-Polynesian football players to get a perspective from teammates of
and compare the perceptions of the Polynesian student-athlete to that of their teammates.
One way to determine if the findings at a particular institute are unique would be to
conduct the data collection at other institutions for comparison. The difficulty in doing this is the
Internal Review Board process which hindered this study by not being able to conduct research
at a nearby campus without the collaboration of a professor at that institution. By being able to
conduct similar studies at other institutions it could be determined how other factors affected the
experience of the student-athletes at the other institutions. Some factors could be: the number of
Polynesian student-athletes at the institution, Polynesian institutional agents, proximity of family
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 136
members to the student-athletes, and the legacy of Polynesian student-athletes at that particular
institution.
The difficulty in data collection using interviews over a short period of time is the
possibility that this is could be a limited understanding of the Polynesian student information. If
a longitudinal study was done, a more in-depth collection of data could be studied and the
student development process may yield additional information as the student may assimilate to
the culture of the institution or his athletic program. This could also confirm the importance of
family, religion and respect.
Interviews should be conducted with Polynesian professional football players in order to
gain a more complete insight of the experience in professional football and the transition from
collegiate athletics to professional football. With the relative number of Polynesian football
players in the NFL to any other ethnicity, as much information should be gathered for additional
studies and if any other factors could determine what it is about this population that factor in to
their high numbers by ethnicity in the NFL.
It would be interesting to see how the other football players view their Polynesian
teammates and if the perceptions of culture by other football players reinforce the themes that
emerged from the interviews with the Polynesian football players. Validating their values and
challenges as seen by others can provide insights into providing adequate support for these
student-athletes to enhance academic and athletic success.
Conclusions
Despite the report of the television show 60 minutes that the parents of a Samoan boy is
56 times more likely to send their son to play in the NFL there are no statistics to back that up.
At present time there are reportedly 33 Polynesians in the NFL (Tongans, Samoans and
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 137
Hawaiians). Feedback from Polynesian NFL players would serve to determine if the transition
from the collegiate ranks adequately prepares these individuals to compete and excel at the next
level. Most recently, there has been an increase of Polynesians in the limelight with the suicide
of Junior Seau and the social media situation with Manti Te’o of Notre Dame. Therefore, the
relatively small number of Polynesians at any academic institution is a concern. Given the small
number of Polynesian scholarship football players at the college level, compared to the high
numbers of White and Blacks on a team, there is an inherent responsibility to ensure the well-
being and success of this unique population.

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 138
Appendix A – Current Student-Athletes
Research Questions
1. What are the perceptions of Pacific Islander scholarship football student-athletes
regarding their institutional experiences and types of support they received?
2. Do Pacific Islander scholarship football student-athletes feel this institutional support
helped meet their developmental needs?
3. In what ways did these institutional agents influence the development of these Pacific
Islander scholarship football student-athletes?
Section A – Background Information (Paper Survey)
1,3 A1. What is your ethnicity?
A2. Where did you grow up and what was the ethnic make up in your high school?
On your football team?
A3. How many people were in your family’s household while you were growing up
and who are they?
A4. What are your parent’s backgrounds?? (For example – see below for additional
questions if answers are too short or don’t have enough information.)What are the occupations of
your parents/guardians? What is the educational background of your parents/guardians?
A5. What are your career plans?
A6. What position do you play on the football team?.
A7. Who do you hang out with on the team?
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 139
A8 What is their ethnicity?
1,3 A9. What is your major?
1,2,3 A10. How did you select your major?
1,2,3 A11. Do you plan on graduating?
Panel Interview
Section B – Institution
B1. Explain how you decided to come to this institution and who helped you make
that decision.
1,2,3 B2. What kinds of positive experiences have you had at this institution?
What kinds of negative experiences have you had at this institution?
1,2,3 B3. What have been your experiences with your professors?
1,2,3 B4. What have been your experiences with students in your classes?
1,2,3 B5. Explain your transition to this institution?
Section C – Athletics
1,2,3 C1. Describe your experience on the football team and your relationships with your
teammates.
1,2,3 C2. If you were not a student-athlete how do you think your experience at this
institution would be different?
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 140
1 C3. What would you tell an incoming Polynesian student-athlete to help in their
transition to this institution?
1,2,3 C4. Explain how the Polynesian student-athletes are different from the other student-
athletes.
Section D – Culture
D1. What are the values from the Polynesian culture?
1 D2. In what ways do you feel that you have an advantage or disadvantage coming
from your cultural background?
1,2,3 D3. Give examples of the types of knowledge or skills that would have helped you at
this institution?
1,2,3 D4. What kinds of positive experiences have you had that you think were based on
culture?
1,2,3 D5. What kinds of negative experiences have you had that you think were based on
your culture?
D6. What sports or extracurricular activities are valued by the Polynesian community?
Any difference for women and men?

One-on-one interview
Section E – Follow Up Questions
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 141
Section F – Further Follow Up Questions
Will you ask if they feel any effects of discrimination because of their ethnicity? And how that
discrimination compares to what they think others on the team experience?
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 142
Appendix B – Former Student-Athletes (Paper Survey)

Section A – Background Information
A1. What is your ethnicity?
A2. Where did you grow up and what was the ethnic make up in your high school?
On your football team?
A3. How many people are in your family’s household while you were growing up and
who are they?
A4. What are your parent’s backgrounds?? (For example – see below for additional
questions if answers are too short or don’t have enough information.)What are the occupations of
your parents/guardians? What is the educational background of your parents/guardians?
A5. What position did you play on the football team?
1,3 A6. What was your major?
1,2,3 A7. How did you select your major?
1,2,3 A8. Did you graduate?
1,2,3 If you did not – why? Do you have plans to earn your degree?
2,3 A9. What are you doing now?

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 143
One-on-one interview
Section B – Institution
B1. Explain how you decided to come to this institution and who helped you make
that decision.
1,2,3 B2. What kinds of positive experiences did you have at this institution?
1,2,3 What kinds of negative experiences did you have at this institution?
1,3 B3. What were your experiences with your professors?
1,3 B4. What were your experiences with students in your classes?
1,2,3 B5. Explain your transition to this institution?
1,2,3 B6. How do you feel with the institutional experiences that you had, prepared you for
your current situation?
Why or why not?
Section C – Athletics
1 C1. Describe your experience on the football team and your relationships with your
teammates.
1 C2. If you were not a student-athlete how do you think your experience at this
institution would be different?
1 C3 What would you tell an incoming Polynesian student-athlete to help in their
transition to this institution?
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 144
1 C4 Explain how the Polynesian student-athletes are different from the other student-
athletes.
Section D – Culture
D1. What are the values from the Polynesian culture?
1 D2. In what ways do you feel that you have an advantage or disadvantage coming
from your cultural background?
1,2,3 D3. Give examples of the types of knowledge or skills that would have helped you at
this institution?
1,2,3 D4. What kinds of positive experiences have you had that you think was based on
culture?
1,2,3 D5. What kinds of negative experiences have you had that you think was based on
your culture?
D6. What sports or extracurricular activities are valued by the Polynesian community?
Any differences for women and men?

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 145
Appendix C – Pacific Islander Coaches
One-on-one interview
Section A – Background Information
A1. What is your ethnicity?
A2. What institution did you attend?
A3. Were you a student-athlete?
A4. What was your major?
A5. Did you graduate?
If so, what year? If not, why not?
A5. How long have you been coaching?
Section B – Institution
3 B1. In your opinion, how does an institution create positive or negative experiences
for a student-athlete?
1,2,3 B2. What were some of the experiences that were communicated to you by the
student-athletes on their academic experiences both positive and negative?
3 B3. How does the Polynesian community view the importance of earning a college
degree?

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 146
Section C – Athletics
1,2,3 C1. Describe the situations you saw experienced by the Polynesian student-athletes in
comparison to the other student-athletes.
1 C2. Explain how the Polynesian student-athletes are different from the other student-
athletes.
1 C3. What would you tell an incoming Polynesian student-athlete to help in their
transition to an institution?
Section D – Culture
D1. What are the values from the Polynesian culture?
D2. Do you currently interact with many Polynesian student-athletes/professionals?
1,2,3 D3. How does the Polynesian culture play a role in the student-athletes experience in
an institution of higher education?
D4. What sports or extracurricular activities are valued by the Polynesian community?
Any difference for women and men?
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 147
Appendix D – Pacific Islander Community Leaders
One-on-one interview
Section A – Background Information
A1. What is your ethnicity?
3 A2. What is your role in the Polynesian community?
3 A3. Did you attend an institution of higher education?
3 A4. Did you graduate?
If so, what year? If not, why not?
3 A4. How long have you been in your position within the organization that you belong
to and how did you end up there?
2,3 A5. Were you a student-athlete, a professional athlete or a coach?
Section B – Institution
1,2,3 B1. In your opinion, how does an institution of higher education create positive or
negative experiences for a student-athlete?
1,2,3 B2. What were some of the experiences that were communicated to you by the
student-athletes on their academic experiences both positive and negative?
3 B3. Does the Polynesian community feel that it is important for a student-athlete to
earn a degree once they attend an institution of higher education?

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 148
Section C – Athletics
3 C1. How does earning an athletic scholarship viewed by the Polynesian community?
1 C2. Explain how the Polynesian student-athletes are different from the other student-
athletes.
1,2 C3. What would you tell an incoming Polynesian student-athlete to help in their
transition to an institution?
Section D – Culture
D1. What are the values from the Polynesian culture?
D2. Do you currently interact with many Polynesian student-athletes/professionals?
1,2,3 D3. How does the Polynesian culture play a role in the student-athletes experience in
an institution of higher education?
D4. What sports or extracurricular activities are valued by the Polynesian community?
Any differences for women and men?
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 149
Appendix E - Research Questions Linked to Theory
1
Perceptions of PI students institutional experiences and
support
2 Institutional support and developmental needs
3 Institutional agents influence the development
Questions A Background
Questions B Institution
Questions C Athletics
Questions D Culture

1 2 3 1 2 3
Current Former
Backgroun
d A1 A1
A2 A2
A3 A3
A4 A4
A5 X X A5
A6 A6 X X
A7 A7 X X X
A8 A8 X X X
A9 X X A9 X X
A10 X X X B1
A11 X X X B2 X X X
Institution B1 X B3 X X
B2 X X X B4 X X
B3 X X X B5 X X X
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 150
B4 X X X C1 X X X
B5 X X X C2 X X X
Athletics C1 X X X C3 X X X
C2 X X X C4 X X X
C3 X D1
C4 X X X D2 X
Culture D1 D3 X X X
D2 X D4 X X X
D3 X X X D5 X X X
D4 X X X D6
D5 X X X
D6

1 2 3 1 2 3
Coaches Community
A1 A1
A2 A2 X X
A3 A3 X X
A4 A4 X X
A5 A5 X X
B1 X B1 X X X
B2 X X X B2 X X X
B3 X B3 X
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 151
C1 X X X C1 X X X
C2 X C2 X X X
C3 X C3 X X X
` D1 D1
D2 D2
D3 X X X D3 X X X
D4 D4

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 152
Appendix F – Current Student-Athletes
Questions – Theoretical Framework
Social and Cultural Capital Questions
A B C D
Cultural and Social Capital 1,2,3,4,5,7,8,9,10,11 1,2,3,4,5 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4,5,6
Athletic Capital 2,5,6,8,9,10,11 1,2,3,4,5 2,3,4 1,2,3,4,5

Student Development

Ethnic and Cultural Identity 1,2,3,4,7,8, 1,2,3,4,5 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4,5,6
PI Institutional Experience 1,2,3,4,5,8,9,10,11 1,2,3,4,5 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4,5
Student-athlete Development 1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9,10 2,3,4,5 1,2,3,4 2,3,4,5

Student-athlete Institutional
Experience 1,2,5,8 1,2,3,4,5 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4,5
Environmental Factors 1,2,3,5,6,7,8 2,3,4,5 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4,5
Injured Student-athlete Experience 5,7 2,3,4,5 1,2,3 2,3

A Background Information
B Institution
C Athletics
D Culture

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 153
Appendix G – Former Student-Athletes

Social and Cultural Capital Questions
A B C D
Cultural and Social Capital 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 1,2,3,4,5,6 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4,5,6
Athletic Capital 2,5,6,7,8,9 1,2,3,4,5,6 2,3,4 1,2,3,4,5

Student Development

Ethnic and Cultural Identity 1,2,3,4,8 1,2,3,4,5,6 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4,5,6
PI Institutional Experience 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9 1,2,3,4,5,6 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4,5
Student-athlete Development 1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9 2,3,4,5,6 1,2,3,4 2,3,4,5

Student-athlete Institutional
Experience 1,2,8 1,2,3,4,5,6 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4,5
Environmental Factors 1,2,3,5,8,9 2,3,4,5,6 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4,5
Injured Student-athlete Experience 8,9 2,3,4,5,6 1,2,3 2,3

A Background Information
B Institution
C Athletics
D Culture
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 154
Appendix H – Pacific-Islander Coaches
Questions – Theoretical Framework
Social and Cultural Capital Questions
A B C D
Cultural and Social Capital 1,2,3,4,5,6 1,2,3 1,2,3 1,2,3,4
Athletic Capital 3,4,5,6 1,2,3 1,2,3 1,2,3,4

Student Development

Ethnic and Cultural Identity 1,2,3,5,6 1,2,3 1,2,3 1,2,3,4
PI Institutional Experience 1,2,3,4,5,6 1,2,3 1,2,3 1,2,3,4
Student-athlete Development 1,3,4,5,6 1,2,3 1,2,3 2,3,4

Student-athlete Institutional
Experience 1,3,5,6 1,2,3 1,2,3 1,2,3,4
Environmental Factors 1,2,3,5,6 1,2 1,2,3 1,2,3,4

Injured Student-athlete
Experience 3,5 1,2,3 1,2,3 2,4

A Background Information
B Institution
C Athletics
D Culture

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 155
Appendix I – Pacific-Islander Community Leaders
Questions – Theoretical Framework
Social and Cultural Capital Questions
A B C D
Cultural and Social Capital 1,2,3,4,5,6 1,2,3 1,2,3 1,2,3,4
Athletic Capital 2,3,4,5,6 1,2,3 1,2,3 1,2,3,4

Student Development

Ethnic and Cultural Identity 1,2,3,4,5,6 1,2,3 1,2,3 1,2,3,4
PI Institutional Experience 1,2,3,4,5,6 1,2,3 1,2,3 1,2,3,4
Student-athlete Development 1,2,3,4,5 1,2,3 1,2,3 2,3,4

Student-athlete Institutional
Experience 1,2,3,4,5 1,2,3 1,2,3 1,2,3,4
Environmental Factors 1,2,3,4,5 1,2,3 1,2,3 1,2,3,4

Injured Student-athlete
Experience 3,4,5 1,2,3 1,2,3 2,4

A Background Information
B Institution
C Athletics
D Culture

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 156
Appendix J - Theoretical Framework
A Capital: Cultural and Social and Athletic
B Student Development

A Background
B Institution
C Athletics
D Culture

1 Capital: Social and Cultural and Athletic
2 Social and Cultural Capital – higher education
3 Cultural Capital
4 Institutional Agents
5 Athletic Capital

6 Student Development
7 Ethnic and Cultural identity
8 Pacific Islander institutional experience
9 Student-athlete development
10 Student-athlete institutional experience
11 Environmental factors
12 Injured student-athlete experience

A B A B
Current Former
Background A1 3 7 A1 X
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 157
A2 3 7 A2 X
A3 3 7 A3 X
A4 3 7 A4 X
A5 5 6 A5 X
A6 5 A6 X
A7 1 7 A7 X
A8 7 A8 X X
A9 6 A9 X X
A10 1 6 B1 X
A11 1 6 B2 X X
Institution B1 1 B3 X X
B2 4 6 B4 X X
B3 4 6 B5 X X
B4 1 6 C1 X X
B5 1 6 C2 X X
Athletics C1 5 10 C3 X X
C2 5 10 C4 X X
C3 1 6 D1 X
C4 1 6 D2 X X
Culture D1 3 D3 X X
D2 3 8 D4 X
D3 1 6 D5 X
D4 1 6 D6 X
D5 1 6
D6 1 7

A B A B
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 158
Coaches Community
A1 X A1 X
A2 X A2 X
A3 X A3 X X
A4 X X A4 X X
A5 X X A5 X X
B1 X X B1 X X
B2 X X B2 X X
B3 X B3 X X
C1 X X C1 X
C2 X X C2 X X
C3 X X C3 X X
D1 X D1 X
D2 X D2 X
D3 X X D3 X X
D4 X D4 X

PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 159
References
Allen, B. A., & Boykin, A. W. (1992). African-American children and the educational process:
alleviating the cultural discontinuity through the prescriptive pedagogy. School
Psychology Review, 21(4), 586-596.
Asakawa, K. (2001). Family socialization practices and their effects on the internalization of
educational values for Asian and White American adolescents. Applied Developmental
Science, 5(3), 184-194.
Astin, A. W. (1984). Student involvement: a developmental theory for higher education. Journal
of College Student Personnel, 25, 297-308.
Au, K. H., & Carroll, J. H. (1997). Improving literacy achievement through a constructivist
approach: the KEEP demonstration classroom project. Elementary School Journal,
97(3), 203-221.
Au, K. H., & Kawakami, A. J. (1991). Culture and ownership: schooling of minority students.
Childhood Education, 67(5), 280-284.
Bartolome, L. I. (1998). The misteaching of academic discourses: the politics in the classroom.
In (Ed.), Understanding Academic Discourses (pp. 1-15). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Bensimon, E. M. (2004). The diversity scorecard. Change, , 45-52.
Boggs, S. T. (1985). Speaking relating and learning. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Company.
Bourdieu, P. (1977). Cultural reproduction and social reproduction. In J. Karabel & A.H. Halsey
(Eds.), Power and ideology in education (pp. 487-511). New York: Oxford University
Press.
Bourdieu, P. (Ed.). (1977). Power and ideology in education. New York: Oxford University
Press.
Broughton, E., & Neyer, M. (2001). Advising and counseling student-athletes. New Directions
for Student Services, 93, 47-53.
Chartrand, J. M., & Lent, R. W. (1987). Sports counseling: enhancing the development of the
student-athlete. Journal of Counseling and Development, 66(4), 164-167.
Chickering, A. W. (1969). Education and identity. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Clark, R. E., & Estes, F. (2002). Motivation gaps: belief is (almost) everything. In (Ed.),
Turning research into results (pp. 79-101). Atlanta, GA: CEP Press.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 160
Clark, R. E., & Estes, F. (2002). Organizational gaps: alignment, culture and change. In (Ed.),
Turning research into results (pp. 113-124). Atlanta, GA: CEP Press.
Cresswell, J. W. (1998). Qualitative inquiryand research design: choosing among five
traditions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc..
Creswell, J. W. (2003). Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods
approaches (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc..
Cummins, J. (1986). Empowering minority students: a framework for intervention. Harvard
Educational Review, 56(1), 18-36.
Dovidio, J. F., Gaertner, S. L., Niemann, Y. F., & Snider, K. (2001). Racial, ethnic, and cultural
differences in responding to distinctiveness and discrimination on campus: stigma and
common group identity. Journal of Social Issues, 57(1), 167-188.
Dumais, S. A. (2002). Cultural capital, gender and school success: the role of habitus. Sociology
of Education, 75(1), 44-69.
Eaton, M. J., & Dembo, M. H. (1996, April). Difference in motivational beliefs of Asian
American and Non-Asian students. Paper presented at the meeting of the American
Educational Research Association. New York, NY.
El Shahawy, M. (1999). Identifying predictors that may lead college football underclassmen
players to leave school early for the National Football League. Unpublished doctoral
dissertation, The Florida State University.
Engstrom, C. M., & Sedlacek, W. E. (1991). A study of prejudice toward university student-
athletes. Journal of Counseling & Development, 70, 189-193.
Feezell, R. M. (2001). The game of life: college sports and educational values/beer and
circus/intercollegiate athletics and the american university. Academe Washington, 87(5),
90-92.
Fink, A., & Kosecoff, J. (1998). How to conduct surveys (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Publishing, Inc..
Harris, L. L. (2003). Integrating and analyzing the psychosocial and stage theories to challenge
the development of the injured collegiate athlete. National Athletic Trainers' Association,
38, 75-82.
Howard-Hamilton, M. F., & Sina, J. A. (2001). How college affects student-athletes. New
Directions for Student Services, (93), 35-45.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 161
John-Steiner, V., & Mahn, H. (1996). Sociocultural approaches to learning and development: a
Vygotskian framework. Educational Psychologist, 31, 191-206.
Kamehameha Schools. (n.d.). Philosophy of Education. In Kamehameha Schools (). Retrieved
November 10, 2003, from Philosophy of Education Web Site: http://www.ksbe.edu
Kelly, M. (1981). Some thoughts on education in traditional Hawaiian society. In (Ed.), To
teach the children (pp. 4-15). Honolulu, HI: Bishop Museum.
Kubler-Ross, E. (1991). On death and dying. New York: Macmillan.
Lamont, M., & Lareau, A. (1988). Cultural capital: allusions, gaps and glissandos in recent
theoretical developments. Sociological Theory, 6(2), 153-168.
Lareau, A. (1987). Social class differences in family-school relationships: the importance of
cultural capital. Sociology of Education, 60(April), 73-85.
Lareau, A., & Horvat, E. M. (1999). Momentst of social inclusion and exclusion race, class, and
cultural capital. Sociology of Education, 72(1), 37-53.
Lipka, J. (1991). Toward a culturally based pedagogy: a case of one Yup'ik Eskimo teacher.
Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 22(3), 203-223.
Miller, P. S., & Kerr, G. (2002). The athletic, academic and social experiences of intercollegiate
student-athletes. Journal of Sport Behavior, 25(4), 346-367.
Murphy, G. M., Petitpas, A. J., & Brewer, B. W. (1996). Identity foreclosure, athletic identity,
and career maturity in intercollegiate athletes. The Sport Psychologist, 10(3), 239-246.
National Collegiate Athletic Association. (2005). Division I Facts. In Division I Facts. Retrieved
April 25, 2006, from NCAA Web Site: http://www.ncaa.org
National Football League. (2013). NFL HOPEFUL FAQs. Retrieved April 1, 2013, from the
NFL Web Site: www.nflplayers.com/About-us/FAQs/NFL-Hopeful-FAQs/
Nishimoto, P. A. (1997). Touchdowns and term papers: telescoping the college student-athlete
culture. College Student Affairs Journal, 16(2), 96-103.
Ogbu, J. U., & Simons, H. D. (1998). Voluntary and involuntary minorities: a cultural-
ecological theory of school performance with some implications for education.
Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 29(2), 155-188.
Parham, W. D. (1993). The intercollegiate athlete. The counseling psychologist, 21(3), 411-429.
Petitpas, A., & Champagne, D. E. (1988). Developmental programming for intercollegiate
athletes. Journal of College Student Development, 29(5), 454-460.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 162
Rhatigan, J. J. (1984). Serving two masters: the plight of the college student-athlete. In A.
Shriberg & F.R. Brodzinski (Eds.), Rethinking services for college athletics: new
directions for student services (p. ). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Rhatigan, J. J. (Ed.). (1984). Rethinking services for college athletics: new directions for student
services. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Roscigno, V. J., & Ainsworth-Darnell, J. W. (1999). Race, cultural capital, and educational
resources: persistent inequalities and achievement returns. Sociology of Education,
72(3), 158-178.
Ryan, F. J. (1989). Participation in intercollegiate athletics: affective outcomes. Journal of
College Student Development, 30(2), 122-128.
Simons, H. D., Van Rheenen, D., & Covington, M. V. (1999). Academic motivation and the
student-athlete. Journal of College Student Development, 40(2), 151-162.
Simpson, J. C. (2001). Segregated by subject: racial differences in the factors influencing
academic major between European Americans, Asian Americans, and African, Hispanic
and Native Americans. The Journal of Higher Education, 72(1), 63-100.
Smallman, E., Sowa, C. J., & Young, B. D. (1991). Ethnic and gender differences in student-
athletes' responses to stressful life events. Journal of College Student Development, 32,
230-235.
Snyder, P. L. (1996). Comparative levels of expressed academic motivation among Anglo and
African American university student-athletes. Journal of Black Studies, 26(6), 651-667.
Sowa, C. J., & Gressard, C. F. (1983). Athletic participation: its relationship to student
development. Journal of College Student Personnel, 24(3), 236-239.
Stanton-Salazar, R. D. (1997). A social capital framework for understanding the socialization of
racial minority children and youths. Harvard Educational Review, 67(1), 1-40.
Stanton-Salazar, R. D., Vasquez, O. A., & Mehan, H. (2000). Engineering academic success
through institutional support. In S. Gregory (Ed.), The academic achievement of minority
students (pp. 213-247). Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
Tierney, W. G. (1999). Models of minority college-going and retention: cultural integrity versus
cultural suicide. The Journal of Negro Education, 68(1), 80-91.
Tinto, V. (1987). Leaving college: rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition. Chicago:
The University of Chicago Press.
PACIFIC ISLANDER FOOTBALL PLAYERS 163
Torres, V. (2003). Influences on ethnic development of Latino college students in the first two
years of college. Journal of college student development, , .
Trochim, W. M. (2001). research methonds knowledge base (2nd ed.). Cincinnati, OH: Atomic
Dog Publishing.
U.S. Census. (2000). Asians and Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders. In (). Retrieved
March 27, 2006, from U.S. Census Web Site: http://www.census.gov
Upthegrove, T. R., Roscigno, V. J., & Charles, C. Z. (1999). Big money collegiate sports: racial
concentration, contradictory pressures, and academic performance. Social Science
Quarterly, 80(4), 718-737.
Whitner, P. A., & Myers, R. C. (1986). Academics and an athlete. Journal of Higher Education,
57(6), 659-672.
Wolniak, G. C., Pierson, C. T., & Pascarella, E. T. (2001). Effects of intercollegiate athletic
participation on male orientations toward learning. Journal of College Student
Development, 42(6), 604-624.
Wright, E. K. (2003). Education for the nation: forging indigenous Hawaiian identity in higher
education. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles.

Abstract (if available)

Abstract This study applies the theories of social and cultural capital and introduces athletic capital in order to gain an understanding of Polynesian scholarship football players and their experiences at an institution of higher education. Additionally, theories of student identity development and student-athlete development are also utilized to gain a broader perspective of this student-athlete population. The purpose of the study was to determine how social and cultural capital are linked to the experiences of Polynesian scholarship student-athletes and if athletic capital was involved. Using a qualitative approach, interviews with current student-athletes, former student-athletes, Polynesian football coaches, non-Polynesian coaches, and Polynesian community leaders, the data was collected, transcribed and then sorted by theme and relevancy to the theories used in this study. Findings from this study suggest that athletic, social and cultural capital does play a part in the experience of the Polynesian scholarship football player at this institution. Themes of respect, family and religion emerged as an integral part of the student’s culture. This study gives a better understanding of the Polynesian scholarship football player and how athletic capital plays a part in the institutional experience and the decision to possibly leave for the opportunity to compete in the NFL.

Linked assets

University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Conceptually similar

PDF

The impact of cultural capital on advancement via individual determination students from two southern California high schools

PDF

The perceived importance coaches have on student-athletes' academic performance

PDF

Walking away from the game: a phenomenological study on student-athletes career transition

PDF

Career development of Black male revenue generating student-athletes within an environment of anti-Black racism

PDF

Community college transfer student involvement experiences at a selective, private four-year university

PDF

Physical aggression in higher education: student-athletes’ perceptions and reporting behaviors

PDF

Raising cultural self-efficacy among faculty and staff of a private native Hawaiian school system

PDF

Engagement of staff within student-athlete academic services

PDF

Innovative social support systems and the recruitment and retention of international students in U.S. higher education

PDF

Latino/a college student-athletes: Influences on recruitment, enrollment and degree completion

PDF

Students with disabilities experience in higher education online courses: an exploratory study of self-efficacy, use of assistive technologies and mobile media

PDF

The impact of globalization and multinational corporations on higher education in Costa Rica and implications for educational leaders

PDF

Exploring the undergraduate Latina/o experience: a case study of academically successful students at a research institution

PDF

Community college transfer student involvement experiences at a selective, private four-year university

PDF

Evaluating the effects of diversity courses and student diversity experiences on undergraduate students' democratic values at a private urban research institution

PDF

An evaluation of the contribution of athletic counselors to the academic success of student-athletes at the California community colleges

PDF

Exploring the academic success of black male former student-athletes and their experiences with academic support upon re-entry to college

PDF

Examining the experiences of high school counselors when advising student athletes on the NCAA college going process

PDF

Federal loan borrowing in community colleges: examining the decision making processes of non‐traditional community college students

PDF

Creating a climate for innovation in education: Reframing structure, culture, and leadership practices

Asset Metadata

Creator Morita, Monica K. (author)

Core Title A study of Pacific Islander scholarship football players and their institutional experience in higher education

School Rossier School of Education

Degree Doctor of Education

Degree Program Education (Leadership)

Publication Date 12/11/2013

Defense Date 12/09/2013

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag athletic capital,cultural capital,Football,Higher education,OAI-PMH Harvest,Pacific Islander student-athletes,Polynesian student-athletes,revenue sports,social capital

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Picus, Lawrence O. (committee chair), Chow, Norm (committee member), Garcia, Pedro (committee member), Sundt, Melora (committee member)

Creator Email mmorita@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c3-358394

Unique identifier UC11295400

Identifier etd-MoritaMoni-2217.pdf (filename),usctheses-c3-358394 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-MoritaMoni-2217.pdf

Dmrecord 358394

Document Type Dissertation

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Morita, Monica K.

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA