Coaches’ Perspectives of a Negative Informal Role: The ‘Cancer’ within Sport Teams

Roles are the pattern of behaviors expected of individuals in a given social situation. The general purpose of the present study was to gain an understanding of the negative informal role of the cancer (i.e., an athlete who expresses negative emotions that spread destructively throughout a team) within sport groups. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with Canadian intercollegiate coaches to determine perceptions of the characteristics, emergence, consequences, and management of the cancer. Verification interviews supported the classification and interpretation of information obtained from the initial data collection. The responses from the coaches demonstrate the importance of the cancer in relation to group functioning and contribute to our understanding theoretically and also in relation to practice.