Introduction
Across the country, millions of students participate in dozens of interscholastic sports at thousands of different schools. The management of all these programs lands at the meat of the athletic director at the majority of schools.
The role of athletic director varies from school to school and from state to state. Schools can offer just a few sports to dozens of sports, with some AD’s being part-time teachers and head coaches; compared to other AD’s being full-time administrators that do not teach, and have multiple assistant AD’s that also aid them. This analysis will focus on the general athletic director, while also highlighting special cases. The scope also differs by the range of grades that an AD is responsible for. A
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majority of AD’s are high school only, while some oversee middle school, and even some elementary sports in addition to the high school programs. The analysis was compiled using published articles, interviews done by myself and other classmates, and the NIAAA guidelines and other job descriptions created. Position Summary The day-to-day happenings of an AD varies based on the seasons. The duties of an athletic director can be broken up into many categories, including administrative duties, scheduling/facility management, public relations, and human resources. Administrative Duties • Oversee all aspects of the athletic department, generally, the athletic director is responsible for all athletic programs within the high school.
• Work with board of education and superintendent in creating the athletic budget.
• Oversee the entire athletic budget, and approve all athletic purchases.
• Maintain records/files for all student athletes. This includes athletic physicals, ImPACT tests, eligibility, and fees.
• Attend all sectional and state AD meetings. Also attend sectional meetings for each sports, at which new policies are developed and schedules are made.
• Ensure all athletes are eligible according to the state policies, and that all state policies are being followed.
• Manage the distribution, inventory, return, and recertification of all athletic equipment.
• Oversee the school’s injury management system, which can include overseeing an athletic trainer, or contracting out with other health care professionals. Also ensuring that all coaches follow correct channels before an athlete returns to play, and that there is constant communication between medical professionals, coaches, athletes, and parents.
Schedule/Facility
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Management • Schedule all practices and contests. Be aware of gym/ice/field availability, as well as other happenings within the school district. All contest schedules must also adhere to district and state guidelines. • Coordinate the schedule of all offseason programs, ensuring that all sports coordinate with each other. This also includes managing the school’s strength and conditioning program. • Work with the school’s transportation service to arrange transportation to all away contests. May also need to arrange transportation for home events and practices. • Arrange/hire workers for all events. This can include hiring officials, score keepers, announcers, ticket takers, concession workers, venue supervisors, and custodians. • Attend and supervise most home contests. Supervising can include venue set-up, hosting the visiting team/teams, hosting the officials, and aiding in any conflicts. • Manage the maintenance of all facilities used by the school, and work on upgrading the school’s facilities. • Manage any tournaments hosted by the school. Public Relations • Coordinate fundraising with booster clubs, making sure all policies are being followed during fundraising efforts. • Monitor all social media sites for athletic programs. • Coordinate the schedule of pre-season parent meetings and post-season award banquets. • Assist coaches with conflicts, always following chain of command with all conflicts. • Work hand-in-hand with the board of education when enforcing current policy and implementing new policies. Human Resources • Hire/retain/evaluate all head and assistant coaches. • Delegate tasks to assistant/middle school AD’s, head coaches, athletic trainers, and other support staff. • Arrange and provide professional development for all coaches. • Maintain records for coaches, including licensure, CPR and first aid training, and concussion training. The timing and load of tasks is dependent on the season. The AD’s workload can be increased if inclement weather forces the postponement of games. The beginning and ending of seasons are also loaded up, compounded by one season starting at the same time that another season concludes. Job Requirements Every school has unique requirements for their AD’s. Nearly all athletic directors are required to have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree and teaching and coaching experience. Most schools require that the athletic director is a certified teacher, and may even require the AD to teach some classes. Schools prefer advanced coursework in athletic administration, as well as NIAAA certification, but tend to not require those certifications. Schools will look for some sort of leadership experience in schools. That could include serving as a head coach, department chair, assistant AD, or dean of students. Principals have stated that they will value experience over an advanced degree, as the majority of principals surveyed found an advanced degree non-essential (Schneider & Stier, 2001). Athletic directors must be willing to put in long hours, while managing a stressful position. Overseeing multiple programs at a time, while managing several events a week, in addition to handling conflicts can be a high stress environment that successful AD’s must navigate through. Education Despite advanced degrees not being a part of an AD’s job requirements, many forms of professional development and advanced degrees exist. There exist many degree programs in sport managements, both at the undergrad and graduate level, including Ohio’s MAA program. The NIAAA has three certification levels, starting at an RAA (registered athletic administrator), a CAA (certified athletic administrator) and moving all the way to being a CMAA (certified master athletic administrator). A RAA is a position that allows an athletic administrator receive professional development through the NIAAA, while not yet having the experience. A RAA must have completed the first two LTI courses. A CAA must have two years’ experience as an athletic administrator before receive certification. Lastly, a CMAA must have completed 7 of the 11 LTI courses. (NIAAA, 2013) There is also constant professional development. There are local, state, and national conventions in athletic administration. These opportunities also lead to networking, a key trait in being a successful athletic administrator. With interscholastic sports being reliant on other athletic programs, building relationships with other AD’s is a vital area of professional development. Despite these levels of education being available, a national survey of principals did question the need of advanced education for athletic administrators. Only 53.6% of principals felt a master’s degree was important or essential. Of that percent, only slightly over 40% saw the need for athletic-specific coursework (Schneider & Stier, 2001). Reporting Structure/Evaluation The basic reporting structure of the athletic director goes from AD to superintendent to the board of education.
Most AD’s work in conjunction with the high school principal, and are on an even “level” with the high school principal. Generally, the AD is evaluated by the superintendent.
Below the AD is the head-coach, followed by all assistant coaches going in the chair of command within their specific program (e.g. varsity assistant, head JV, assistant JV, junior high). (NIAAA, p.19, 2013) In most instances, the AD evaluates the head coach, and then approves the head coach’s evaluation of the rest of their staff.
Following this chain of command is vital for any athletic program. All conflict resolution must go through the head coach, then the athletic director, then superintendent, and lastly with the board of education. Each additional level is only taken if the previous level did not resolve the conflict. If this chain is broken, trust is lost between the levels, and power is authority is take away from the “skipped” party.
Success
Factors There are multiple traits that a successful AD must have. A strong AD must be organized and task-oriented. Managing a department with multiple athletic programs means there is always multiple tasks every day, and not everything fits into a perfect puzzle. A successful AD must be organized, as scheduling, budgeting, and record keeping can be disastrous if there is no order. Communication is another vital trait. With everything from conflict resolution, scheduling, and budgeting, a lack of clear communication can be disastrous and lead to unnecessary problems. For AD’s that can clearly state what is meant to be said, their job becomes significantly easier. Patience and professionalism is another trait held by successful athletic directors. When interviewing my own AD, she indicated that the most difficult part of her job was dealing with disgruntled parents. She stressed being patient while also remaining professional with parents. She said that remaining calm and professional with parents will usually de-escalate any problem. While staying calm, it is also vital to stay professional by always backing the coach (provided they broke no laws nor put the athlete in danger) and not bending your own values to make a disgruntled parent happy. As long as the AD stays firm and professional, the conflict will be resolved, and there will also be a reputation that the AD is fair, but cannot be pushed around (M.Krause, personal communication, May 22, 2017). Another AD stressed the importance of not stressing the small things when dealing with conflicts. Instead, stressing the need to have a sense of humor and laugh stuff off (Cvengros, 2017). Compensation/Job Outlook From the US Bureau of Labor statistics, the median salary for a high school athletic director is $90,410, with a projected growth of 6% through 2024 ("Athletic Director: Job Description and Career Information", 2015). Despite the rosy picture that the Bureau of Labor statistics paints, the outlook is not perfect moving forward. With schools consistently stressed to reduce spending, some athletic directors have found themselves on the chopping block (Baker, 2012). For some that have kept their jobs, their position as AD has been reduced, with their workload being increased. Many AD’s have found more teaching or administrating responsibilities put on their shoulders, with many becoming school disciplinarians in addition to maintaining the full-time position of athletic director. This has led to increased burnout among AD’s, and more turnover (Kalahar, 2011). Conclusion There is not a one-size-fits-all job description for athletic director. Some AD’s cover grades 4-12, while others only focus on high school. Some AD’s teach 4 classes and coach two sports, some serve as an assistant principal, while others our full-time AD’s that do not teach nor coach, and have two assistant AD’s. All these scenarios while also varying by the amount of sports a school offers. Some schools may only offer six or seven sports, while other schools offer over twenty varsity sports. Constant is the fact that the position of athletic director is an exhausting position, yet can be rewarding as well. An athletic director can expect to spend 80+ hours a week at times, managing conflicts, rescheduling and managing events, and attending countless meetings. Despite all of this, an athletic director can revel in student-athletes’ success, knowing they laid the foundation for success to occur.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is an organization that some universities are a part of, but not recommended to join. It is a non-profit association that regulates athletics of institutions, conferences, organizations, and individuals. It organizes the athletic programs of colleges and universities in the United States. It is designed to help prolong the lifelong success of college athletes. There are 1,121 college and universities, 99 conferences, and 39 affiliated organizations. There are over 460,000 athletes that make up the 19,000 teams that participated in over 54,000 competitions each year. My SWOT analysis will identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing the association, when it comes to its daily business, finances, and rules and regulations of this organization.
In a growing trend that reaches to all corners of the athletic world, coaches are being forced to cope with the added stress of disgruntled parents. More and more they are required to defend personal coaching styles and philosophies, uphold team decisions and go head to head with angry, and sometimes violent parents. The pressure has gotten to the point where coaches all over the country are quitting or being forced out of their jobs by groups of parents. High school athletics should be about learning and having fun, and when parents cross the line between cheerleader and ringleader everyone suffers.
Athletic Director Description- Schedules all athletic contests and scholastic bowl matches, practice times and locations for elementary, middle, and high schools. Collaborates with the maintenance department to ensure that athletic grounds and facilities are properly maintained. Serves as the primary school division decision-maker for all athletic events. Collaborates with the community and school booster organizations to ensure that morale and support for athletics is high at all times. Purchases all necessary equipment for athletic departments within the funds allotted. Must have excellent communication skills and be able to effectively develop partnerships. Coordinates and participates in preparation for athletic and extracurricular activities.
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.
By law, every school district is required to have a Title IX coordinator. A Title IX coordinator serves as the compliance officer and is responsible for keeping current with Title IX issues and being on the lookout for issues that may break the law; to make sure that things like sports and classes are fair to all genders. It has now been in place for a generation a...
Since the 1972 conception of Title IX of the Education Amendments, the number of women participating in intercollegiate athletics has increased five-fold, from fewer than 30,000, to more 150,000 in 2001. However, more than 400 men’s athletics teams have been dismantled since Title IX, the law forbidding sex discrimination at institutions receiving federal funds, became law. Some would say this is due, in part, to Title IX enforcement standards like proportionality. Proportionality requires that an institution’s athletic population must be of an equal ratio to its general student body. Among some of the 400-plus teams dismantled by Title IX are several former Colorado State University teams including wrestling, baseball, gymnastics, men’s swimming and diving, and men’s tennis. CSU student athletes no longer sport the opportunity of participating in these activities at the NCAA Division I level, and the days of the student body rooting for their ram teams are gone, possibly forever. Now the search is on to find a solution to the problems associated with Title IX if, indeed, a solution is ultimately necessary.
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...
Game Administration Introduction National University Athletic Affiliation (NCAA) is one of the biggest and fruitful non-benefit sports association engaged with the direction of the competitors. What's more, the NCAA is associated with the course of action of the athletic projects in colleges and universities in Canada and Joined States. The achievement of the NCAA since its arrangement in 1906 has been ascribed to the way it runs its operations. This angle is proved by its hierarchical structure and administration, the tenets and consistency measures it has embraced and the impact it has towards the university sports business. Likewise, an examination of the operations of the NCAA has been talked about in the paper.
Athletic Trainers play a crucial part in today’s professional sports. They also help on lower levels of sports in high school, and college level teams. The job of an athletic trainer is simple yet very important, they are charged with treating, and preventing injuries. A trainer does this by developing therapies to reduce pain, and improve mobility (“Athletic Trainer Salaries”). They have to stand for long periods of time, work well with athletes of different sizes, move or carry equipment around, good mobility and communication skills to give instructions (“Athletic Trainer, Healthcare Program”). These trainers serve as a crucial part of an athlete getting back into their sport. Athletic trainers usually work under the direction of a physician, so they are like the Doctor’s healing hands in action.
This scholarly journal written by Eric Sobocinski is a very informal piece explaining the meaning of intercollegiate sports in America as well as the current state of intercollegiate athletes. He goes on to write about the history of sports such as the Greeks ideals and how they can help to transform intercollegiate athletics. He concludes by giving his recommendations for reform.
An athletic director has many responsibilities organizing events, setting an example for students, but also faculty. According to Cylkowski (1988), “The collegiate athletic director must also be a fund raiser, a politician, and a personnel administrator” (p. 29). A collegiate athletic director has to know what he is going to face in the present, and future. Though, sometimes his actions can have a great effect of the situation. There will be times when a decision will have to be made and others around you will not appreciate the decision being the correct move, but the action
First I’ll start off with what I think it means to be an athletic director. It is someone that administrates institutions, like colleges and universities, as well as in high schools and middle schools. They are the ones who oversees the work of coaches and related staff involved in any part
INTRODUCTION Imagine spending 40 hours a week on practicing for the next big game and having to study for finals. Then after that trying to find a way to be financially stable. But, how exactly does a student athlete become financially stable when all their time is spent on athletics or academics with no time at all work. This is why the NCAA should find a way to compensate these same student athletes for their time and increase graduation rates. Instead of punishing student athletes who are trying to find a way to support themselves by accepting money from school boosters, the schools should try to help the students.