At What Price: Playing With Injury by Spencer Mumford.

At What Price: Playing with Injury

So this is a long time coming. I created this documentary my senior year at Rollins College 15'. My major was Critical Media and Cultural Studies with an emphasis in sports culture.

I can't tell you how long this video took. The process started in January 2015 but the idea started a year before that. I worked very hard on this and I'm extremely proud. I used Auto-Ethnography as my research tool to make this documentary. A year later there are things I would have changed and done differently. This was an extremely emotional project at an emotional time (playing my last year of college baseball, family, and re-examining a lot of emotions from when I was a kid).

I am challenging the professionalization of youth sports and how the media portrays unrealistic expectations when playing with injuries to our youth. For those who don't know I had Labrum Surgery as a 16 year old. I also had another labrum surgery at 18 after re-tearing it. I played with a lot of pain as kid and it was not because of my parents. I did not want to be viewed as a "girl" or "wussy" in my teammates or coaches eyes. The culture of sports taught me to suck it up and keep playing, which is necessary when it is your job, but maybe not when I was 14 years old and couldn't pick up my shoulder after pitching.

I ask parents and coaches to examine the media being pushed across to your kids and the culture that surrounds them.

Thank you to Peter Nicoletto and Gabi Viljoen for being vulnerable and allowing your self to be shown on camera. Both of these people are amazing and do not blame their parents. Thank you for using story telling to help push my point across.
Enjoy.