PLAYING BEYOND COMPETITION: SPORTS CULTURE, IDENTITY, AND MEANING-MAKING AMONG STUDENT-ATHLETES

Abstract

This study explored how student-athletes in a Philippine state college construct sports culture, identity, and meaning-making as they navigate collegiate sport within public higher education. Using a qualitative phenomenological design, purposive sampling recruited ten officially recognized varsity student-athletes (n = 10) who had represented their institution in sanctioned intercollegiate competitions, specifically the Mindanao Association of State Tertiary Schools (MASTS) Games and/or the State Colleges and Universities Athletic Association (SCUAA) Games. Data were generated through semi-structured, face-to-face interviews conducted in private campus venues and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Findings indicate that sport is experienced not as leisure but as an institutionalized practice embedded in academic and administrative systems. Across accounts, four integrative patterns were evident: (1) sport as structured institutional responsibility, characterized by obligatory training, attendance, and role expectations comparable to academic requirements; (2) academic–athletic management as continuous negotiation under time constraints, self-initiated coping, and recurring physical and mental fatigue; (3) institutional rules and administrative structures as shaping discipline through monitoring and compliance while amplifying pressure via performance-driven expectations; and (4) representation as a public institutional role, where athletes frame participation as carrying the college’s name, sharing collective responsibility for outcomes, and contributing to institutional pride and visibility. Overall, the study positions collegiate sport in state colleges as a regulated cultural space where student-athletes learn accountability, negotiate competing demands, and enact institutional identity, underscoring the need for clearer academic support mechanisms and governance practices that balance discipline with student well-being.