The recruit

This piece explores the possibilities of poetic representation within qualitative research on sport and exercise and subsequently engages with ongoing scholarly debates on representation, form, validity and methodology. The representation within this piece is part of a larger project which seeks to better understand women’s experiences as recruited athletes within the US intercollegiate sports system. To create this particular poetic representation, I utilised narratives gathered through small group interviews with seven women who were recruited to play Division I basketball in the US. Presenting portions of their stories and voices via a series of six poems demonstrates writing as a method of enquiry as well as the ways in which different types of representations allow one to access the embodied and emotional components of sport and exercise experiences.