With the contemporary scandals that currently characterize university-sanctioned athletics and student athlete participants, this study is aimed at using Joanne Kathleen Rowling’s Harry Potter series, as exemplary of young adult literature, as a gateway for academic achievement and investment among student athletes. This endeavor will operate under the assumption that reading and writing are the basis of academic dexterity. Many student athletes make an ideal group for analysis, not because they function as an outlier academic group. Rather, they exemplify students who utilize college as a vehicle independent of academics. Student athletes do not elect to attend their college of choice because of a desire to work with certain faculty members or a hankering to wear school colors. Instead, they see college as the natural next-step in their athletic careers. This thesis asserts that reading and writing are not currently relatable fields of study for many student athletes because they do not feel they can "play" in their academic arenas in the same way they do on the ball field. This study intends to make plain that this is due to a lack of investment in college as a practicable and practical skill; in essence, student athletes cannot "play" college the way they so adeptly "play" their sports. The utilization of Harry and his cohorts in children’s/adolescent literature is a means by which college athletes can re-access reading as a skill necessary to perform well beyond the turf.
