Paul Snow, co-athletic director and former girls soccer coach, introduced Sports Leadership this year, a class dedicated to providing students with a hands-on experience in athletic management.
According to Snow, “[The students are] taking tickets, selling tickets, ushering people in, helping the trainer, shadowing the trainer, helping set up, helping clean up, all of that stuff and much more.” Students also help maintain the website, uploading game photos and recent scores.
A mix of both concrete tasks and more abstract event-planning, the course provides students with a realistic hands-on environment.
When asked if there were any specific people at the collegiate or professional level that he would like our athletes to emulate, Snow did not offer specific names. Rather, he aspires to instill in his students the value of sportsmanship as a whole. “I had them get a certificate from the NFHS (National Federation of State High School Associations) website on sportsmanship. I think it is huge.” Athletics on campus have embodied this concept of sportsmanship; there were no ejections by M-A athletes across all sports last year.
Snow states that this course is just the beginning of something special. “This is a first step, I’d love to in the future bring different classes also related to sports but instead of sports leadership, sports management, or a sports medicine and maybe have different classes offered.” If this idea of sports leadership could expand its horizons and provide an array of sports-related courses related, our athletic program could take another step towards becoming an even more widely known and respected program.
“I want them to have some ownership over our sports program… to know what it takes to do what we do.”
“I want them to have some ownership over our sports program… to know what it takes to do what we do,” Snow continued, “We’re trying to add more school pride and having them take on a leadership role, something they can use in the future.” The students in this class are given the opportunity to take the course and run with it. They can pursue a similar major in college and emerge with a degree in sports management.
This is ultimately what this course brings to M-A and these students, a building block for on-campus athletics and inspiration for individuals who might pursue sports leadership in the future.
