When traveling to a sporting event, no one ever thinks about what happens behind the curtains in order for a sporting event to happen. Much work and many hours are put into making sure that everything is perfect and organized for sporting events all around the world. This is the job for an Athletic Director (AD). Athletic Directing is the coordination and overlook of all athletic programs at public and private universities and also high schools.
History and Background
In 1905, when the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) was formed in the United States, its purpose was to address violence in intercollegiate football. Also during this time, college administrators formed the actual position of athletic directing. This position
…show more content…
was formed to professionally run institutions’ athletic programs. After World War II, the NCAA really focused on recruiting athletes to colleges and dealt with many financial aid issues. This was important because athletics really blossomed in the 20th Century. Athletic directors became important in the growth of collegiate athletes. Decades later in 1965 the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) was created to service the needs for athletic directors all over the United States. After the NACDA was created it gave the idea to create the Council of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators. This council was created to increase opportunities for women in intercollegiate athletics (Encyclopedia of Careers and Vocational Guidance. 14th ed.) Requirements to Obtain Career There are several ways of education when it comes to becoming an athletic director. Many middle school and high school-level athletics directors went to college to become a teacher or coach. After years of that occupation these individuals would go back to school to receive a Master’s Degree in Athletic Administration or sports management (Angst). In a recent interview, Athletic Director Todd Galownia stated that it is preferred to get a college degree in education and continue education for athletic directing. This is a significant choice for middle and high school-level athletics directors. Most schools are looking for an education degree to also be a part time teacher or assistant principal for cutback issues. In doing this, athletic directors have the opportunity to work with kids and be in the environment before jumping into the job. Furthermore, if after being an athletic director for a few years does not seem like a good fit for a person, they have an occupation to fall back on (Personal interview, 2 October 2014.) People who go to college specifically for athletic directing usually graduate with a sports management degree. These individuals typically pursue jobs at a college level (Angst) Job Position Description Having natural and proper skills are very important for this job. Being able to plan and organize sporting events is a key skill to have for this career. It is unprofessional to make a school look unorganized and dysfunctional. Being able to speak and write clear information to all employees and community is another key skill. If sporting events and information are not organized properly then things get very chaotic. (Encyclopedia of Careers and Vocational Guidance. 14th ed.) An athletic director’s daily duty on an average workday is usually prepping for sporting events in an office.
A daily routine would be preparing budgets for coach’s salary and sporting events. Also taking care of bussing schedules for team travel, equipment (if needed), and facility upkeep (Athletic Director: Job Description and Career Information) Athletic Directors in the high school level could have other duties during the day. For example a lot of smaller schools also make the athletic director an assistant principal. Students come to the office to be dealt with if in trouble, or have issues on a problem. (Galownia, Todd. Personal interview. 2 October 2014.) Coaches will come into the office to talk about sporting events or ask any questions they need answered During after school hours AD’s will be at the fields or in the gym preparing for a sporting event. For instance, for a basketball game AD’s have to prepare the bleachers for fans, set up the opposing and home team chairs, set up the score board table and sound system, and prepare the admissions gate. Then after the game it is the athletic directors job to put away everything and take down what they set up beforehand. In order to do this job, be prepared to work a normal school day, but also working long hours after school and getting home …show more content…
late. At a high school level a normal salary for an Athletic Director is about 50,000-80,000 dollars a year, depending on how big the school is. For a college level an annual salary is just over 100,000 dollars a year. Benefits from this job include health insurance, paid vacations, and sick leave. (3) Job Reflection and Outlook An outlook of being an athletic director is a challenging job that requires long hard hours of work.
Athletic directors put in on average forty hours of work in a week. These hours include ten hour days, and also weekends. By saying that it is important to know that it is time consuming, and could easily be in the way of having a family (Encyclopedia of Careers and Vocational Guidance. 14th ed.) On the other hand, benefits of having this job is being able to work with many different coaches, and having special relationships with athletes and becoming a good role model for them. Also being able to sit front row at every sporting event and cheer on the athletes as they compete. These are the kinds of thing that would come into consideration when wanted to become an
AD. The job market for becoming an athletic director is fairly stiff. The U.S. Department of Labor predicts that athletic directing will grow as fast as the average for all occupations through this year. (Encyclopedia of Careers and Vocational Guidance. 14th ed.) The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) states that jobs for athletic directing were expected to increase by 19 percent between 2010 and 2020. (Athletic Director: Job Description and Career Information) Most people who take this job for a school or college are usually there as a life-long career. A way to find opportunities for athletic directing is going to the checking school websites and seeking for job positions. Networking is another great way to find a job opportunity. Many times athletic directing can open up when the person retires, or when a director loses his/her job by not fulfilling their job duties and the sports programs fail. (Paulownia, Todd. Personal interview. 2 October 2014.) Athletic directing is important and necessary for our society because it organizes athletics in school and universities. Sports are important all over the United States and athletic directors are the main reasons schools are successful in athletics. I believe this would be a good career for me, because sports are what I love. Being able to make a career planning sporting events for student athletes would be the life for me.
The few cons of a career as an athletic director are that you may have an erratic work schedule, may have heavy workloads at the beginning of sports seasons, and you have to be skilled in a variety of areas such as finances, management, and coaching. Why I am Suited for this Career? I have a sports background because of my sports participation in golf, baseball, basketball, football, and soccer. I took a sports management class my senior year in high school.
Coordinates and supervises men=s basketball, golf, baseball, men=s and women=s tennis programs working directly with the Head Coach; supervises the administration of all other varsity programs through the Associate Athletic Director for Internal Operations.
Snyder, E. (2013). Student-Athlete Participation in Intercollegiate Athletic Decision-Making: Inclusion through Different Domains of Governance. The Sport Journal. Retrieved from http://thesportjournal.org/article/student-athlete-participation-in-intercollegiate-athletic-decision-making-inclusion-through-different-domains-of-governance/.
In the early years of collegiate athletics the only sport that enforced a governing body for rules and eligibility was rowing. Years later along with a handful other sports, football had created its own governing body in 1876 named the IFA. The purpose of the Intercollegiate Football Association was to create eligibility and game guidelines for institutions partaking in football. On account of regulation and eligibility not being enforced well, there was a lot of illegal recruitment a...
The NCAA is an organization that was established in 1906 to administer intercollegiate athletics. It enforces the rules for various sports and the eligibility criteria for athletes. The NCAA supervises athletic contests for about 80 national championships in about 20 sports per year. The NCAA has gone through some structural changes throughout the years. When the organization first started it had every team and conference on equal levels. It took a while but finally there was some long overdue changes made.
Being and athletic trainer is a great and hardworking career. That involves meeting new people, dealing with different challenge each day, Also it has moderate schooling. Meeting new people is one of the many ways being an athletic trainer is very rewarding. One of the many examples is assisting and caring others. Why is because no one is going to come to athletic trainer if they are not going to assisted them or care for them.
The behaviors of the athletic management staff can affect the team performance and temperance. This has been evident in the case scandal of the Baylor university basketball team. However, there is a great need for those in leadership of the universities to evaluate constantly the behaviors of the staff concerned with various games in the school. This will make such cases to be evaded and when problems occur, they can be timely handled.
Siegel, D. "The Union of Athletics with Educational Institutions.” Athletics and Education. Science Smith Education, n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2014.
The many jobs the athletic director has, another one is making budgets for the team sports. They are also in charge of ra...
The average division 1 football player devotes 43.3 hours per week to their sport giving them 3.3 hours more than a typical American work week. With those statistics, I think it’s safe to say that being a collegiate athlete requires more than a full time job. Trying to keep up with homework and attendance in class poses many challenges especially when the NCAA requires students to miss class for championship games, televised games, or other events that bring in revenue for the school. ...
...ified by hundreds of principals, superintendents, and school board members. There are many concerns about the safety, training, organization, philosophy, communications, and general management in coaching. According to the California High School Coaching Education and Training Program as stated in the Coaching Education Legislature Assembly Bill No. 2741, “It is a conservative estimate that at least 25,000 coaches annually need training and an orientation just to meet current coaching regulations contained in Title 5 of the California Code of Regulations, including basic safety and CPR requirements.” That is why course techniques of coaching specific sports are necessary for a persons not trained and certified as a physical education teachers because they need to understand the basic philosophy and principles of athletics in education, know the health related aspects of athletics, and the techniques used to coach a specific sport. With every coach there are the little pieces of the game…strategy of offense and defense, practice/game planning, or scouting, but to get the whole picture they need to know the basic philosophy and principles, health aspects, and the obvious techniques.
Due to the extensive training and serious commitment that is associated with college sports, many athletes end their athletic journey in high school. However, from each high school, there is a handful of athletes who decide to attend a NCAA Division I college. Founded in 1910, the National Collegiate Athletic Association is a non profit organization that regulates and aids thousands of student-athletes across the United States, providing them with opportunities at a collegiate level. This organization operates under a three-division system, setting separate rules for Division I, Division II, and Division III colleges. For example, under the NCAA, Division I and II schools are allowed to offer athletic scholarships
College sports were not always the greatly admired and successful attractions that they are today. They were first created in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries by students who needed some physical activity to liven their plain and serious lives. During this time period, sports activities were solely intra-collegiate and the main competitions were between each grade level (Flowers, 2009). With the new class rivalries came a sense of community that students needed to direct their attention away from strictly educational activities. However, in the nineteenth century, the addition of new academic studies, electives, and professional courses began to break apart the singular class unity that sports created. Intra-collegiate sports transformed into intercollegiate sports after the Industrial Revolution and invention of the railroad allowed sports t...
When you think of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA), what comes to most minds are? A organization that was formed in early 1900’s as what know as a Intercollegiate Athletic Association that draws up competition and eligibility rules for football and other college sports. The NCAA adopted back in around the early 1920’s to conduct its first national championship event, the National College Track and Field Championship, and extended into collegiate competition in other sports. The NCAA functions as a legislative administrative authority for men’s and women’s athletics.
Sports psychology is the study of how psychology influences sports, athletic performance, exercise and physical activity. Some sports psychologists work with professional athletes and coaches to improve performance and increase motivation. Other professionals use exercise and sports to enhance people’s lives and well-being. While finding ways to help athletes is certainly an important part of sports psychology, the application of exercise and physical activity for improving the lives of non-athletes is also a major focus.