ICE 16-20

The first internship I found was with Robert Morris University in Illinois as an assistant softball coach. This position's responsibilities are helping the Head Coach coordinate team practice, making the schedule, competition itineraries and away trips, recruitment, and helping with budgeting.

The next job opportunity I found was on the NAIA website as the Director of Eligibility. This job requires leadership in communitcation, becoming a member of the NAIA Eligibility Center, management team, and serve as a key member of the team responsible for making eligibility determinations for first-time NAIA student-athletes.

At the University of Connecticut they are seeking an assistant manager of athletic fields. This individual is reponisible for reporting directly to the Manager of athletic fields and will assist in overseeing staff responsible for the preparation and maintenance of top quality athletic fields and outdoor athletic facilities to ensure student-athlete and spectator safety.

Bucknell University is a small institute in Pennsylvania looking for a softball intern. They are NCAA Division I and the reponsibilities for the job include on-field coaching and recruitment of academically qualified student-athletes.

The University of Michigan is seeking an internship in athletic groundskeeping. This job includes assisting in day-to-day operations involved with maintaining playing fields, practice fields, and facilities for the University of Michigan Baseball, Softball, and Track and Field programs.

Turner Field Visit

We went on a guided tour of turner field on Thursday, November 11, 2010. The tour started and ended in the Braves Museum and Hall of Fame. The tours start at the top of the hour and last about an hour long. The tour consisted of the Braves Museum & Hall of Fame, Coca-Cola Sky Field, Scouts Alley, Broadcast Booth, Luxury Suite, Press Box, Clubhouse, The Plaza, Dugout, and Museum Store. We all got to go on the field and go where the players and the players' families go. Our tour guide showed us the $1 seats that I did not know they had and told us about internships available through Turner Field. At the end of the tour, in the museum, we walked through a model train which is how baseball players back in the day used to travel to their games. It was very interesting to be one of the few people in the stadium and to learn about the places you never go when you just go to a summer baseball game.

GAE 6-10

Graduate Assistantship in Athletic Training

Illinois State University is looking for a graduate assistant for the Athletic Training Department. The Graduate Assistant is responsible for assisting in all facets of athletic training covering the assigned sport. You must have a 3.0 in the last 60 hours and qualifying GRE score.

Graduate Assistant for Events and Game Operations

Mercer University is seeking a graduate assistant for assisting in organizing, staffing, and managing all athletic events and operations. Bacelor's degree and admission to the Master's of Business Administration program.

Graduate Assistant in Sports Information

Mercer University is also looking for someone to assist in all aspects of sports information for the university's intercollegiate programs including press releases, serving as satisfaction, developing web media guides, publications, the university's athletic website, and stories to local media. Traveling is required.

Academic Support Services

At Purdue University, you need a Bachelor's degree and admission to a Purdue University graduate program. This job requires assisting assigned academic advisor and sport team members with academic advising issues.

Division of Student Affairs

At the University of Tennesee, you must have a Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university and earned a 2.7 GPA during the senior year of undergraduate study. For this position, you must have strong computer and communication skills.

Human Resource Management

Jay and I are seeking are a job for a conference commissioner for the Appalachian Athletic Conference in the NAIA. The person is responisible for eligibility for all the players in all sports of the conference, make sure the teams in the conference, oversee the group of teams in the conference, and enforce policies and guidelines involving each participating school's athletic teams. You must have a Bacelor's degree in a sports related field and strong written and verbal communication skills. They need to be very organized, confident, motivated, and firm in decision making. Experience in athletic directing is a plus. To apply, fill out an online application with 3 references and contact the AAC director. The deadline is March 2010. The intern is going to be evaluated on is leadership skills, communication skills, knowledge of the AAC, education, willingness to travel, organization, and motivation.

Ga Tech/ Ga Dome Visit

Thursday our Sport Administration class took a trip to Georgia Tech and Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia. At Ga Tech, we took a tour of the Campus Recreation Center. It is ranked one of the top ten public universities in the nation. They got a whole new Aquatics Venue for the 1996 Olympic Games. After the Games, they began to plan for a whole new facility. Johnathan Hart led us in our tour and began to tell us about all the problems they have had in the past few years with the diving pool and all the piping problems. The facilty they have their is incredible, and would love to run one like it one day.

We then we across the street to the Ga Dome. Here they had just redone all the seats, making them black and red for the falcons. He gave us a tour of all the suites and the vip areas of the dome. We went to the Falcons locker room and saw all where they take showers and the coaches rooms. Then we walked through the portal where the Falcons run out of on game day and got to stand on the field. They had a lot of workers working on the field and pressure washing every seat in the stadium. We also got to see where all the media go and work on gameday. I did not know how much work goes into one day of football for a facility like the Ga Dome, but it was amazing!

Guest Speaker: Bob Pearson

Bob Pearson from Berry College spoke to our class about his job at Berry and gave us pointers about life and careers. He has been at Berry College for 29 years and is the athletic director and the department chair of kinesiology. He mentioned that every day is different for him on the job. Pearson teaches anywhere from 15 to 29 hours a week and advises students as well. When we first got there, he gave us three things that he called "gifts," and they were a bright green notecard, a whistle, and a paper holder. He was very personal with each of us and asked each student what sport they played. Bob then had the class read off one quote from the sheet of paper he gave us, and we had to interpret the quote and what it meant to us. I learned a lot from his speech because he taught us to always do the right thing even if it is the smallest of things.

Internships 11-15

The five internships I researched were an assistant professor/assistant director at Virginia Commonwealth University,  a physical education assistant professor at Los Rios Community College, the head softball coach at Los Rios Community College, and the assistant ticket manager at Mississippi State University. The internship I was most interested in out of these jobs was the head softball coach at Los Rios Community College because it also offers a job in physical education which are the two careers I want to seek when I graduate. They have had a winning program in the past, and I really think I could continue with the trend.

Guest Speaker: Bill Popp

Bill Popp is the Athletic Director and head baseball coach at Reinhardt University. He first went to West Georgia but finished up his Bachelor of Science degree at Kennesaw State University. After college, Popp was a volunteer assistant at Oglethorpe University and got lucky enough to become head coach there after the first year. Bill Popp was the first and only head baseball coach at Reinhardt. As a head coach, he informed us about Reinhardt's sport history and all the conferences it has been in. Reinhardt is part of the NAIA, which has 60,000 student athletes and 290 schools involved. Reinhardt was originally affiliated with a junior college and began in the GCAC conference. They then moved to the SSAC conference for seven years until they moved to the AAC conference this past year. Reinhardt has 15 total sports, 8 for women and 7 for men. As an athletic director, Bill Popp does a variety of activities. He develops a mission statement and sets goals with a goal report every year. He checks eligibility of all athletes of the school and developed a booster club. Popp helped get both the baseball and softball fields built, a new fitness center, and lights for baseball and softball. As far as his hours go, Popp says it depends on what time of year it is. We also discussed adding a football program at Reinhardt and how it would basically end up paying for itself. I really enjoyed having Bill Popp as a guest speaker and learned a lot from his presentation.

Grad Assistantships 1-5

For someone who is looking for a higher education, they should really look into graduate assistanship programs. A graduate assistantship is a study grant of financial assistance to a graduate student that is offered in return for certain services in teaching or laboratory supervision as a teaching assistant, or for services in research as a research assistant. I found three of my graduate assistantships from the University of Florida with their athletic program. Your tuition is waived and you get a $10,000 stipend from August to May with health insurance offered. My other two assistantship were with Wayne State Uuniversity in Detroit, Michigan and Southern Illinois University. All of the assistanships waive their tuition and give you a stipend while going to school at their institute.

Canton YMCA Site Visit 9/14/10

Today we visited the Canton YMCA and toured the facility with Nicole Lawson. We all met in the "Reinhardt Room" to talk briefly about the programs at the Y and the different career opportunities they offer. Nicole was the membership manager at the facility and also worked with all the marketing of the business. The Canton YMCA is very family oriented and offers many programs for all ages. The different career paths at this site include event management, physical training, coaching, marketing, child care, instructor, and life guarding. This site has a huge soccer program for kids which offers jobs in helping organize the programs as well as coaching. There are so many different programs such as cycle class, yoga, aquatics, and sports that you are able to be a part of. There is a day care center where you take care of the parents' children while they workout. After Mrs. Lawson talked to us about the facility, she gave us a tour of the building. There was a hall of fame room where they hold board meetings and can elect anyone to be in the Cherokee Hall of Fame. She then showed us the Day Care Room where it was full of babies and kids with plenty of games and toys to entertain them. They had a full court baskettball court with a screen that comes down to separate it into two different courts. Above the the court there was a walking track around the gym. There was a Cycle Room where they hold cycle classes with a screen that the instructor can show a scene to make it look like they are riding with Lance Armstrong. This site had an Excerise Room where they hold different classes such as yoga. The workout gym has free weights and machines with t.v.'s above them. They call this the Cardio Theater. It also had an Indoor and Outdoor Pool located within the facililty with a life guard always on duty. The outdoor pool closes after the summer because most of the life guards are college students who have to go away to school. The newest room there is called the Teen Room with pool tables, couches, and t.v.'s to hang out in. The most significant things I learned were all the careers associated with any YMCA not just the one in Canton. I am actually thinking about doing my practicum at the Y near my house this summer.

Internships 1-5

All the internships I researched were through ncaa.org. It was a very helpful site because it was easy to navigate and there were a lot of job openings. The jobs I was interested in were an assistant softball coach at Purdue University, director of athletic ticket sales at the University of South Alabama, assistant softball coach at North Georgia College and State University, assistant athletic director at Kennsaw State, and assistant athletic director at St. Mary's College of California. I was interested in the assistant softball coach positions because I play softball and most of the requirements are college experience and a bachelor's degree which I both have. The athletic director positions interested me because you need a lot of leadership skills because you oversee all the athletics at the school and I have very good leadership skills. The ticket sales would also be a fun and different experience for me because I would be at various sporting events and organizing different duties and work schedules.

Guest Speaker: Vic Mitchell

Vic Mitchell of Shorter University came speak in our class today. He is the head women's basketball coach their as well as the senior associate athletic director at Shorter. Mitchell got both his undergrad and graduate degree at the University of Georgia and built a base for his resume by volunteering for the basketball program at UGA. He started as the basketball manager and continued to get involved at the school. If you want to go into coaching, you need to get involved in something at that school. As a head coach, he told the class that you need to know how to work with people. For the first 15 years at Shorter, Vic Mitchell had to coach two teams at a time including basketball, golf, softball, and cross country. He gave us a lot of advice when going into a job and how to prepare for it by researching their philosophy to become successful. I learned that many institutions are tuition driven and have to bring in a certain number of students to keep running and athletics is a great way to draw students. I also learned that if I am ever in a leadership position to not micro-manage and to hire good people so that I can trust them to do their job.

"Becoming Invaluable" Article

This slideshow is very helpful in making a sports studies graduate stand out and get the job they want. It makes you think about the path you want to take as soon as possible so that you can prepare for the real world. The slides have the things you should be doing and questions you should be asking yourself through each year of your college career. It makes sure you separate yourself from other students with the same degree. The grad assistantship program is an option you can take where you work to gain experience while completing your graduate degree and getting paid. This is an excellent option for those looking for a higher degree which will in itself help someone stand out when finding a job. This was a very constructive article because it teaches how to make a resume and things you should and should not put on it. The strategies it tells you about will help anyone find a good job right off the bat, not just in the sport industry.

Guest Speaker: Peggy Collins Feerehy

Mrs. Peggy Feerehy visited our class today and talked to us about the Career Services program here at Reinhardt University. She talked about the four career fairs here in Georgia this year. At the career fairs, you are expected to dress in business suits. Mrs. Collins then went on to explain the process of making a resume and what all that should include. Your resume should be in chronological order ending with the summary. She showed us the two different types of resumes, some of which include a cover sheet. The references are given separately from the resume as well as the portfolio. She mentioned that the portfolio is sometimes better to give the employer because it shows you in action and how you work. She prepared us for an interview by making sure we know what were selling and giving us real life interview questions. Feerehy is willing to help the students here at Reinhardt prepare for the real world and how to act and look professional. From her presentation, I learned how the business world works and what an interview is looking for because I have never been on one in my life.

Intro Message

Welcome to my PED 350 blog! I am really excited about this course not only because I am a sport administration major, but because it is something I am really interested in learning about. We get to go to the Canton YMCA, Turner Field, Georgia Tech, and Georgia Dome! I can't wait and I'll keep you posted on our visits.
-Bailey