Determinants of Sports Participation in Extramural Competitions by Athletes in Tertiary Institutions in Ekiti State, Nigeria

This study investigated the determinants of sports participation in extramural competition by athletes in tertiary institutions in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Descriptive research design of the survey type was used for this study. The population of the study comprised all athletes in 5 private and 4 public tertiary institutions in Ekiti State. The research is descriptive because it is concerned with the collection of data for the purpose of describing and interpreting existing condition on practice, beliefs, and attitude regarding athletes’ participation in sporting activities. The choice of this design is aimed at collecting data on and observing in systematic manner, the characteristics, feature of facts about determining factor to sports participation by athletes in tertiary institutions in Ekiti State. Therefore, this design is considered appropriate for this study. The sample of this study comprised 300 athletes selected from tertiary institutions in Ekiti State. Proportional stratified random sampling technique was used to select 3 publics institutions and 1 private institution in Ekiti State while simple random sampling technique was used to select athletes from each institution which comprised 125 Ekiti State University athletes, 75 Federal Polytechnic athletes, 50 College of Education athletes and 50 Afe Babalola University Athletes, making a total of 300 athletes selected altogether. A questionnaire developed by the researcher titled ‘Athletes Sports Participation Questionnaire (ASPQ)’ was used to elicit information for the study. The questionnaire is made up of four (4) sections, A, B, C and D. Section A was used to collect bio data of respondents (to include age, level, Department, Faculty and name of institution). Section B addressed participation level of the respondents in extramural sports competitions such frequency of participation in the last 4 years and the type of sporting events performed. Section C was used to measure the level of availability of standard sports facilities such as soccer field, basketball court, volleyball court, handball court, hockey pitch, badminton court, athletic track, athletic field, swimming pool, cricket pitch and tennis courts. To determine the respondents view in this section, ordinal scale of ‘available and not-available responses were used. Section D was designed to address determinant of participation variables such as provision of incentives by institutions. To determine the respondents’ views in this section D, four points likert scale type of responses raging from Strongly Agree (SA) 4 points, Agree (A) 3 points, Disagree (D) 2 points and Strongly Disagree (SD) 1 point was specified against each item. In order to ensure face and content validity of the instrument, a draft copy of the instrument was presented to experts in sports administration as well as Tests, Measurement and Evaluation for criticism, correction and modification. The copy of corrected and modified version of the instrument was prepared for final use. The reliability of the instrument was ascertained through pilot study, which involved 20 copies of the instrument administered on the respondents in Federal University Oye which is not part of the selected institutions. The internal consistency (or reliability) of the instrument was established. This was done by test-retest procedure in which the version of the instrument was administered on the earlier selected sample. At the interval of two weeks, the same instrument was re-administered on the same set of respondents. The scores of the two tests (i.e. test and re-test) were correlated using Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Analysis and the reliability coefficients of 0.67 was obtained. This was adjudged to be high enough for the study. Specifically, this study examined the level of participation in extramural sports by athletes in tertiary institutions in Ekiti State; determined the extent to which availability of sports facilities improve participation in extramural sports by athletes in tertiary institutions in Ekiti State and determined the extent to which availability of coaches improve participation in extramural sports by athletes in tertiary institutions in Ekiti State. The findings of the result also shown that availabiity of standard facilities accounted for about 2.4% (R2 ×100) of the proportion of variability in sports participation by athletes.Thus, availability of facilities significantly determine sports participation by athletes in tertiary institutions in Ekiti State. The findings of the result also indicates that attitude of coaches only account for 0.6% (R2 ×100) of the proportion of variability in sports participation by athletes. Therefore, attitude of coaches is not a significant determinant of participation in extramuralsports by athletes in tertiary institutions in Ekiti state. The findings of the result further showed that Attitude of coaches explained not less than 7.6% (R2 ×100) of the proportion of variability in sports participation by athletes. Thus, availability of coaches significantly determined sports participation in extramural sports by athletes in tertiary institutions in Ekiti State. Based on the findings of this study, it was concluded that the available facilities in tertiary institutions in Ekiti State are basketball court, tennis courts, volley ball court, soccer field, athletic track, hand ball court, athletic field and badminton court while swimming pool, hockey pitch, cricket pitch and gymnasium were less available facilities; it was also concluded that, availability of standard facilities, availability of coaches, parental influence and peer influence determines participation in extramural sports by athletes. It was further concluded that, attitude of coaches, provision of sports incentives and lecturers’ attitude to sports that could be expected to determine participation in sports by athletes are not sufficient condition for participation in extramural competitions in tertiary institutions. No single tertiary institution stand the better chance to participate more than the other because the condition of facilities and equipment are almost the same. Therefore, it was recommended based on the findings of the study that Sports coaches should be encouraged to develop attitude that conform with the rules and regulation guiding their professsion. This will enable them to inculcate the spirit of sportmanship in atheltes during their training period and also Sports week should be offically launched in all tertiary institutions to encouraged athletes mass participation in sports. Sports Participation Taskforce should be authorised by the institutions to ensure compliance from the lecturers who usually engage student during sports lecture free periods.