Two In One Athletic Directors
Ashley Prince
Sam Houston State University
One of the main reasons as to why I want to be an athletic director is to be more connected with not only the athletes but the coaches and parents as well. Growing up being the oldest I have always had to be the more mature person and had to be a role model for my sister. With that I had to grow leadership skills and that is the biggest role of an athletic director.
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
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of the athletic program. They have the skills of planning and organizing, knowledge of legal liability, public relations, oral and written communication, and skills in staffing and hiring. There is a difference in the education department when it comes to requirements and wants. While highschool and middles athletic directors are asked if they hold a bachelor’s degree in related fields, the collegiate level athletic directors are required to have a bachelor’s degree as of 2011. (School 2015) A graduate degree isn’t required but is strongly encouraged in the collegiate level. In graduate school many get a master’s degree in sports managements or education with a sport administration emphasis; you might take courses in facility and event management, legal and ethical issues, fiscal management, leadership skills and problem solving. Some other wants for highschool and middle athletic director is having a teaching certificate. Internships, extracurricular activities, side coaching and teaching is highly preferred. Getting your master’s degree has a required course work of a internship. A lot of student get their internships through college athletic departments, state stadium parks, recreational fields, and so on. Most internships are yearlong help build your hands-on experience and build contacts in the field. Also improve your communication, analytical thinking, and problem-solving and decision-making skills. A lot of schools and institutions look at how many years you have previously coached and taught. Some extracurricular activities that could help you in the long run could possibly be from being an athlete yourself throughout highschool and college, being a team manager, an athletic trainer, graduate assistant coaches, and helping in the sports information department. For the non-athletes through those highschool and college years, you could get involved through the school paper being the writer for the sports section, just kindly talking to your teachers and coaches, or helping the outside community with coaching little league, helping administrate the leagues, and just volunteering in the sports related field. (School 2015) The path as to becoming an athletic director can vary in many ways.
Some of the common ways is being a former head coach, college athletics, and business experience outside of college athletics, education, and sports industry. The two that I hope to pressure and that I will focus on more is through education and college athletics paths. Some administrators have been able to work their way up through athletic departments to become athletic directors, many others pursued graduate study in the field of sport management right out of school before embarking on their careers. While others gained experience by working their way up through the athletic department. Institutions have come to value the skills and experience gained by holding a variety of roles within an athletic department, and individuals with this background have often been hired as athletic director. A lot athletic directors at the college level sometimes move into positions with a conference or league. (Wong …show more content…
2014) In Texas the salary for a highschool athletic director start at an average of $50,000-$60,000 and can increase to an average of $90,000 - $110,000. For college athletic directors the starting salary is an average of $74,000 and can exceed all the way up to $2 million dollars. (Wong 2014) All of those numbers can increase at any point with bonuses and benefits. One way college athletic directors bonuses and benefits are determined is by if the football team participates in a non-Bowl Championship Series bowl game and qualifies for NCAA post-season competition games. Highschool is determined the same but just in a state level, by how far they go in the playoffs. Some of the challenges that athletic directors face include staying atop changing rules; political skills with coaches in the program, school leaders, and the public; and pressures from changing budgets. At the high school level, athletic directors may have to work through concerns of athletes, coaches, and parents. At the college level, athletic directors can become the focus of media scrutiny. Now for me personally my biggest challenge will be the fact that I am a woman. (Pasternak 1998) I will have taken in the fact that I will be in charge of men that possibly might have been in the profession before me and will know more. But that’s where leadership skills come in. Learning and developing ways to defeat challenges will determine what type of athletic you’ll be. My main goal as of now is to finish every semester from here on out with an average of 3.5 or higher GPA. My yearly goal would to finish with my bachelor’s degree by May of 2017 so I can start graduate school in the fall. Graduate school falls into my long term goal as well. I am wanting to finish in the top of my class and achieve in internship with Texas A&M athletic department or affiliate with the Texans and then getting a promising job with either. From there I will grow and adventure out, doing some teaching and coaching and focus on growing the knowledge to become an athletic director. I will definitely continue in pursing this profession after undergraduate and graduate school.
This research has made me even more excited to explore this profession and grow in it. There were a few things I was surprised about and that was the salary income collegiate athletic directors make and with that being a lifelong goal of mine makes me more determine to reach it.
References
How Can I Become an Athletic Director? (n.d.). Retrieved November 28, 2015, from http://learn.org/articles/How_Can_I_Become_an_Athletic_Director.
Pasternak, C., & Thornburg, L. (1998). Cool Careers for Girls in Sports. Manassas Park, Va: Impact Publications.
School Just Start of Sports Career Preparation. (n.d.). Retrieved November 28, 2015, from http://sportscareers.about.com/od/educationtraining/a/Experience.htm
V. Weldon ( Personal Communication, November 4, 2015)
Wong, G. (2014, June 9). The path to the athletic director’s office. Retrieved November 28, 2015, from
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2014/06/09/In-Depth/Wong-column.aspx
Milligen , D. V. (2013, 11). High school athletic directors hiring more off-campus coaches. Retrieved from http://www.athleticbusiness.com/articles/article.aspx?articleid=4092&zoneid=9
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.
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/.
Title IX was the stepping-stone for mergers and sports, but immediately after the merging took place, women were fully discriminated against. When men and women's sports combined, it opened new administrative positions for women, but what these women found were that they were constantly being pushed down to the bottom of the pile, to the least authoritative positions. Men were the head coaches, and the head of the physical education departments Men organized the teams schedule for the season and organized practice hours. Also, "male sexist attitudes ensured that male rather than female athletic directors and heads of physical education departments were almost automatically appointed to direct merged departments" (Hult p.96) This male over female preference continued right up to today. As of 1992 there are more men in administrative sports positions than women.
Pappano, Laura. “How Big-Time Sports Ate College Life” Norton Sampler: Short Essays for Composition, 8th ed. Pages 591-600. 2013.
My first goal after passing the Board of Certification exam for Athletic Training in April is to earn my Master’s degree while working as a Graduate Assistant in the Athletic Training department. In order to make sure that I am successful with my first goal, I am applying to over 25 schools across the nation. I have reached out to various athletic trainers in all different settings in order to make the connections needed to earn a Graduate Assistant position. I have attended Seahawk leadership conferences held on campus to build my leadership skills and I have held, and am currently holding, leadership positions in the other organizations that I am involved in on campus. I have earned supplemental experience in athletic training by working with the Wilmington Sharks, working as a camp counselor and lab assistant at the North Carolina Student Sports Medicine Symposium, and working with the UNCW Soccer youth camps over the summer. I also work to attend
Siegel, D. "The Union of Athletics with Educational Institutions.” Athletics and Education. Science Smith Education, n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2014.
Howard-Hamilton, Mary F., and Julie Sina. "How College Affects College Athletes." New Directions for Student Services (2011): 35-43.
Forbes, 30 January 2014. Web. 29 April 2014. Gutting, Gary. “The Myth of the ‘Student-Athlete’.”
Professional women's sports haven't been around too long, although it does have an extensive history and root system. In 1865, Vasser became one of the first women colleges in the United States. Within the safe boundaries of campus and away from the curious eyes of men, w...
From its controversial student-run beginnings to its carefully controlled and monitored big-business attraction, college sports have evolved into an increasingly popular and demanding phenomenon in the United States. Along with the publicity and reputation that is created for the institution, many have found that intercollegiate sports serve several functions for the participants and community as well. While these functions also help balance and maintain the social order of the institution, unequal opportunities and distribution of power is found among the participants and non-participants, and the athletes themselves. Furthermore, with the new popularity and demand for victorious, competitive teams, colleges have lost their goal between balancing academics and athletics and using sports as an aid to help improve the athletes’ educational experience and opportunity.
Power, Clark. "Athletics vs. Academics." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 14 Jan. 2014. Web. 07 Apr. 2014.
Over the past 20 years, college athletics has gained in popularity. College sports has become a household entity. Every child growing up has their favorite college team. Whether it be from family relations with alumni, geographic orientation or simply watching the sports colleges provide. In the world of college sports, there are three that stand out above the rest. Football, basketball and baseball are among the NCAA’s top-grossing sports. Billions of dollars are generated through marketing contracts, ticket-sales, and merchandising. Intercollegiate sports have boosted revenue as well as increasing the popularity and public image of their respective Universities.
Sports have been around for thousands of years. The history of sports in United States began back in the 1840s. United States is a very unique country when we look at its sports, just like every country has a different structure of sports so does US. This paper will be taking about the Sports Organizations and Governance, the sports industry, sports organizations, and Structure of sports in the United States. It will also cover the Sport in the United States vs. Other Western Democracies by taking a look at the State Political, historical context, team objectives, and sports organizations. It will also cover the uniqueness of American sport as well as cover the mass participation and give recommendations on how to increase participation and success.