We interviewed our 5/6th grade PE teacher, Luis Hernandez. He has experience in female sports due to him being a coach of a few middle school and high school girls teams. Luis has been coaching the girls for a few years now and he gave us some information on how girls sports are treated differently then men’s sports.

Luis told us that immediately after switching to coaching girls teams, he notice a huge fan difference. Boys noticeably had way more fans then girls by a lot. In recent years, it has gotten way better. Recently, our middle school girls volleyball team was coached by Luis when he noticed something. There were so many more fans than before. Our generation is starting to make a difference that is becoming noticeable. Our volleyball team did really well and our fans did great to support them. If we keep the fans numbers going up, we will make a change.

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On Friday, March 4th 2022, Henry, Nazir, and I interviewed a former NBA Hall of Famer and All-Star, Chris Bosh. Chris Bosh had 11 out of his 13 seasons as an all-star showing just how good he was. He played for the Toronto Raptors and with and the Miami Heat with well known NBA stars Dwayne Wade and LeBron James. We interviewed him due to his knowledge of what the basketball industry is like behind the scenes. Him having a big role in the NBA gave him knowledge of what its like off camera that he shared with us/

One thing we heard from Chris Bosh was how it felt to be a Hall of Famer. He stated it gave him a lot of respect and recognition. He also stated he believed people will start making big changes to sexism in sports in coming years. Lastly he thinks the wage gap will change due to our generation wanting to make a change. Overall, this was an outstanding interview and everyone that was there was so really excited to meet him. We got to say our thanks and that we enjoyed watching him play in the NBA.

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On Friday, February 25th, Henry, Nazir, and I interviewed well known agent, Leonard Armato. Leonard Armato founded Management Plus Enterprises, and has been working for equal pay for men and women in sports. He was a great interviewee due to his knowledge of the sports industry and experience working for change in the gender pay gap. His most well known accomplishment in sports is how he started the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour. This was the first Beach Volleyball League and Tournament. This is so prominent in the gender pay gap because he made sure that prize money was equal for men and women. This was really revolutionary for making a change in the pay gap.

Something we, as a group, learned about in this interview was how if you want to make a change, you can’t let anything stop you. Mr. Armato really proved this because in the start of his career, people didn’t believe in him so he convinced them to not pay him for a month and then decide if they wanted to keep him as an agent. Also, even though the gender pay gap wasn’t recognized as much, Leonard still decided to make the pay equal in volleyball. This shows how if we put our mind to something, we can do it.

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We met with Felisa Israel, who worked as the entertainment manager for the Phoenix Mercury for more than twenty years, a successful entrepreneur, and a huge inspiration for many young females around the nation. We asked her several questions and she hit the bullseye.
We learned a lot, such as how difficult it is to be female in a male dominated industry. Also, we learned how even though she had no experience in working in the sports industry, she took the job with Phoenix Mercury and became one of the most successful women in the sports industry. She made a change in how people view hip-hop by having the Mercury dance team dance to hip-hop and dress like rappers. People began to love this and without her, I don’t know where the dance/music industry in sports would be today.

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Today, my group presented an overview presentation on our SJ topic. I think we did really well as a group and we worked very hard. We talked a lot about the statistics of the pay gaps and how drastic they are. Something I learned was how “Stephen Curry makes 262,000 for every 2 quarters he plays in a NBA game while the highest paid WNBA player Taurasi Diana gets paid 222,000.” This really shocked me and a lot of others in the class. Something else that shocked me was how WNBA auto corrects to NBA.

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