Students will don their soccer uniforms and sneakers and warm-up before taking to the stage — not the field — in the upcoming Oberlin Theater Association production The Wolves. For plays and films about sports, actors often take on the persona of an athlete, regardless of whether they have previous athletic experience. This requires intense physical preparation and devotion to learning the craft of the sport that they hope to portray. The play’s nine characters are all members o...

If you are familiar with my previous sports columns, then you are well aware that I am a huge fan of Tottenham Hotspur winger Son Heung-min — in spite of my die-hard allegiance to Arsenal FC. My affinity for Son is controversial, to say the least, but makes sense given my own South Korean identity. As a Korean-American viewer, it is exciting to watch a Korean athlete succeed on the pitch. But in some ways, his success is equally as disheartening due to the negative — and racist — attention it receives. On January 14, Tottenham launched an investigation after a fan tweeted that other Tottenham fans had acted “hideous[ly]” during a match, directing racist comments and chants toward their very own K...

Following weeks of hype and buildup, the highly-anticipated soccer game that was supposed to take place in Argentina Saturday, Nov. 24, was canceled after hooliganism took the stage. The two teams are the River Plate and Boca Juniors, and together they make up quite possibly the most divisive social force in all of Argentina — although both hail from Buenos Aires, approximately 70 percent of the entire nation supports either River or Boca. The two teams have competed against one another numerous times throughout their 105-year rivalry, but never in a championship match. Saturday was to be their first, as they battled for the trophy of the Copa Libertadores, the most prestigious club competition in South Ame...

One of the first times I hung out with the soccer team outside of practice, we listened to music with the n-word in it. We were mostly silent when the word was sung, but a few still looked me in the eye and said it. There was clear tension in the moment, but it was most likely soon forgotten by my teammates. It clearly stuck with me, since I am writing about it in this article. It was awkward, and I was not sure how to react. In that moment, I decided the easiest solution would be to ignore it altogether. I had only known my teammates for a few days, and I did not think it was worth making a scene. As one of the only minorities on the team — and the only one in the room at the time — I was not sure where I could...