Hinderaker, Amorette N.2025-04-282025-04-282024-05-07https://repository.tcu.edu/handle/116099117/67023Less than 6% of high school athletes continue to compete at the collegiate level. Far fewer advance to compete at the professional level. This study applies a narrative lens to examine the identity formation processes that ex-athletes experience post-exit from the vocation of competitive athletics. Results highlighted how former competitive athletes used the experience of commodification as a primary sensemaking tool for understanding their inevitable exit. The effects of this commodification extend beyond participation within any one organization. Findings suggest that prolonged participation in a vocation underlined by commodification subsumes the VAS experienced during other stages of identity development. That exposure to commodification breaks down other pillars of social identity which leaves individuals with an inability to antenarrate themselves into a future that is removed from the vocation that has commodified them. Finally, the reification of vocational structures tied to totalistic membership has this presence of commodification built into it.Format: OnlineenCommunicationOrganization theoryAthleticsText