In the article "Social functions of high school athletics in the United States: a historical and comparative analysis" the main subject the author compares is the differences in the athletic systems in the United States and the Netherlands.  In the USA the majority of competitive athletics and recreation for people under the age of 18, takes place in the school system, such as high schools, prep schools, and even junior high school.  In contrast, in the Netherlands the high majority of competitive sports take place in private clubs and programs.  As far as education and athletics go in the Netherlands, it is mainly kept recreational.  For example the physical education that takes place in the Netherlands in the school system, is strictly recreational.  They play games and interact with each other on a fairly non competitive basis.  In the states however, it is a completely different story.  This article focus's on high school sports, more specifically football, in Texas.  These schools recruit student athletes to come and play for their high school and are forced to remain in school in order to play sports.  The football players on the team at these high schools are considered the popular kids, while holding the highest reputation.  The athletes are forced to keep their marks up in school or no matter how valuable they are to the team, they will be kept out of action.  This system seems to be a very effective one as it keeps kids out of violence and crime and in school until graduation day, and in many cases, onto a post secondary education to play football at a major university.  It also keeps the young athletes in premier health and fitness.  Compared to the Netherlands, the funding and money involved in athletics in the USA is substantially higher.  The Netherlands sticks to the school system whereas the high schools in the States provides vast funding for many things to take place for these sports.  

             Community Development has been defined in a few different ways.  One idea is that it is a group of individuals coming together to reach a common goal.  It also says that it involves people building relationships trying to accomplish something.  It takes all kinds of different people to create a successful community and in this article many examples relate exactly to these ideas.  Every Friday night, these teams have a pep rally with cheerleaders and various inspirational speeches with thousands of people there in order to create school spirit and a unique atmosphere to kick start the game.  Students, teachers, and even principals get together all with one common goal and one thing to do for the night, cheer for their team.  All sorts of people, all with different beliefs, all come together to defend the pride and colours of their team.  Usually there is a mascot and thousands of people equipped with jerseys and face paint to cheer.  This relates exactly to community development as people of all different backgrounds, religions, races, values, interests and beliefs, all coming together as one to enjoy the night and hope for a win.  The teams will usually play in Stadiums holding upwards of 20,000 people and on most Fridays nights, there isn't an empty seat.


Below are a couple of  videos showing some high school students preparing for a pep rally before their teams football game.  To me these examples clearly display examples of community development as large groups of people are coming together as one.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o94cOuDU_zM


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xwjv8dRASMk






Reference:


Stokvis, R. (2009). Social functions of high school athletics in the united states: a historical and comparative analysis. Sport in Society , 12(9), Retrieved from http://library.mtroyal.ca:2058/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=112&sid=cf0c5b6f-fba4-4cf6-a69e-50a23a278c09%40sessionmgr114&vid=6