Spring Quarter Review

I think I pretty much summed up my Spring Quarter Review in my Doback class review but I will continue on I guess.

Spring Quarter is here...and almost over. Exams are due. Internships are winding down. Executive weekends are over, and it's crunch time with the job market. S0 what does that mean exactly?

Those who are job focused are freaking out if they don't have jobs and are doom and gloom. Those who are life focused and focused on happiness are of course wanting jobs and actively seeking them - but remembering what life's all about. That's what I'm trying to do.

Spring Quarter more than any other has taught me that well - you just can't predict life. You can't predict when life will throw you for a loop and when your envisioned path will come to life. Who will email you back, which interview you'll get, what family member will struggle, and what city you want to live in or eventually will live in - just to take that next step. Side note: who even knows what a next step is supposed to be? You'll not always be able to predict the reason you feel certain things but you can try and understand them and then use that to your advantage.

As my friend BJ Pickard says...it is all about perspective.

My perspective currently at this moment (and that could change in an hour depending on what I eat usually) is that my internship was an experience. I learned a lot in the realm of leadership. How I will do things differently. I am so thankful for my internship supervisor. What a wonderful woman...who after I'm finished, I hope to keep as a friend for years to come. After my internship I know exactly that I have to have coaching in my life. I love it and I enjoy it. I know I've realized things about myself personally, desires for the future that I want to pursue, and if that's all I learn this quarter well then my education has paid off ten fold.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Ethical Leadership Class Review

I want to say that ethical leadership is almost an oxymoron in the sports industry of today. It makes me question, what's the use? Why enter into a profession that seems so "run-away," untamable, and corrupt? Because I believe that myself, along with America's Team, especially a select few I have in mind - can change it. I truly believe that.

Even in a class of 26 people, we have 26 different dreams for our futures. Some start at the youth level, some at the middle and high school stages, some in the classroom, some in the field, then even more in college, and a few in the pros. If we have good, solid, people of unquestionable character influencing the lives of others while doing something we love - we can change what is the ridiculousness of college and professional sports today.

Isn't that what we all want ultimately in life? To be passionate about something, believe in what we are doing, and to be treated with respect while giving others respect in return? Who knows, maybe not? Like I said, everyone has a different dream. Everyone may have some form of this dream, add some prestige and money for one person, take away responsibility for someone else and so forth. But essentially I believe everyone wants to be treated with love and respect.

Ethics with Professor Doback, I mean Dobel :) has been a great time for reflection. I wish this class was a week long in the summer. Just in a handful of assignments, a few days of class, and many discussions I feel like I've come closer to recognizing my views on ethical decisions within sports - or at least giving them more reflection time. It's great to see others reactions to the issues as well. I guess that is what I enjoy most. Gives you insight into your own opinions and opens you to other aspects you may have never thought about until the discussions with others.

Quarterly Reflection : Winter

I can't say that there is one particular area in which I am developing an expertise. I think that would be a bit of an overstatement and an embellishment. One area in which I would say I'm learning and improving almost daily on is the art form of writing within certain mediums. For instance within communication through emails or handouts and the proper language that is used for each document. The tone and diction of each document is very dependent on the audience you are addressing and the message the writer is trying to convey.

The challenge with writing is the dramatic shift in our most common used methods for writing. As we have discussed, at nausea, the shift toward social media today and going away from hard-copy paper trail writing. As an example, when was the last time you actually put a pen or pencil to paper and wrote out an essay? Mine was over 3 years ago when I was doing an in class essay for a final. As I'm writing this blog now it isn't done on paper, it is constructed on a computer screen through a word document.

For athletic departments the tone in which you convey your message is highly sensitive. Never do you want to seem condescending when addressing a donor. So how a person writes on behalf of the athletic department or themselves is super important. And as we all know especially through text or email, the emotion or tone of voice can be misconstrued in interpretation.

To wrap it up, I am learning the proper methods of how to write emails, publications, announcements, tweets, etc. when addressing sensitive and wide spread audiences.

Data Driven Decisions Class Review

Since I've confirmed my love for coaching I thought the information we learned in this class would be irrelevant to my passion. Through our project and the access to academic information I was able to gain more insight into the academic side of athletics. It was very interesting to look into APR rates of various colleges and how easily that can be affected and the difference between that and graduation rates.

Doing the APR calculations for various teams was a change of pace exercise. It was different than most the other assignments we’ve had up until this point. It was a good task in the sense that now I can say I’ve calculated a team’s APR before, one more thing to add to the skill list from my IAL education.

Learning more about the capabilities of Catalyst was interesting. I think it was beneficial to learn how to administer online surveys. Though the creation of survey was a good lesson learned, getting the actual results with accurate data seemed near impossible. I understand that wasn't exactly the point of the exercise but for a person who likes to ask "why," it is difficult to complete something "just because" it was the assignment. But regardless of the outcome of the results from the survey, learning Catalyst was helpful.


Comparing Catalyst to Blackboard was interesting as I've (and most others in our class) had experience with Blackboard in college. Blackboard is more suitable for undergraduates I think based on the capabilities and easier navigation of the site, but maybe Catalyst provides more opportunities for graduate students?

I enjoyed discussing the project topics with my classmates and seeing the examples from last year. I think that was the most interesting part of the class, more so even than researching our own topics.

Winter : Isports Review

Well as the quarter wraps up, with one final group project to finish, I can't say that I am going to miss this class. Though I have obtained a more in depth knowledge of operating systems at UW, and thought about ways to improve for improvement with techniques, technology and exploring software is not my passion. But as the saying goes, "sometimes you have to do what you don't like to find out what you do," or something along those lines.

In my opinion this class would be more beneficial if Professor Eisenberg was able to have a full week for this class during our summer intensive. Given the culture of the students in our class, and our specific passions, shifting the focus of the class a bit and having a live professor may help the students (overall) enjoy the technology class more.

The project in which we compared websites I enjoyed in certain ways. It was beneficial to see where various athletic departments were lacking and how others excelled. A stark difference that became apparent to me was a university's capabilities based (often but not always) on their institutional standing - DI, DII, DIII etc. Often I was surprised at the the lack of many athletic departments websites and their need for improvements. This will be a great tool or experience for me when I move on to a new school and am given the opportunity to assess a school's website for improvements.

After this project, I was made even more aware how vital the functionality of an athletic department’s website is to their success overall. A bad website, especially given today’s online preference, can severely influence a user’s experience with the school based on their online adventure.

Though our final project is not finished it has been very interesting hearing everyone’s ideas on new software for athletics operations and the improvements we desire. Some ideas are outlandish but lined with good intentions, others are simplistic but definitely improvements that are needed. For the sake of secrecy I cannot reveal what our group is doing. Isports, I’m out!

Autumn Quarter Reflection

Oh Autumn Quarter….I am ready to be over you! The Bid project was a stressor and beneficial in a multitude of ways. It is VERY difficult to communicate with classmates all over the U.S. with the kind of schedules we are keeping. Not only do we have people participating in various types of internships, but time schedules, and different time zones! But what a great accomplishment when we were all done!! Nobody’s project was perfect, but I feel very confident in the marketing plan The Real Charlotte Group turned in.

Internship wise – I’m starting to realize where I don’t want to be in athletics, at least not right now, rather than where I want to be. I’m learning just exactly how NOT to lead, but not necessarily learning how to lead better. Through my own readings I’m learning how to lead, and observing my classmates. It’s so much about how you handle situations, what you do with adversity, and the respect you give people from the start. In my internship there are a couple examples of people I observe and can’t comprehend their methods. There is no cultivation of leadership for them. Some people are so narrowly focused they lose sight of the big picture and what’s important. Innovation is what keeps things alive and in certain parts of athletics (that I’ve observed in my internship) that aspect is lost, and the continued cycle of negativity continues. My goal in my next job is to change that.

Two themes that I see spread throughout my experiences in the field are that college sports are a form of entertainment and the severe lack of leadership throughout college athletics which is supposed to be based on leadership or help develop leaders.

Facility Enhancement Reflection

After these two facility assignments, I don’t know that I ever want to think about improvements to Conibear Shellhouse again. Just being honest as John Moss often says. The part I enjoyed most about this assignment I think was learning the history behind the facilities we researched, not exactly the enhancements themselves. I find the history to be fascinating, especially how the facility has morphed and changed over the years. My facility was difficult because it has so many different uses and attracts so many different groups it was hard to narrow down to a couple specific groups and keep within the page limits for the assignment.

I think I would be more enthralled with a enhancement proposal process and research if it was a facility I really cared about and wanted change. That is when we do our best work at anything right? When we are passionate about something. I was never truly passionate about enhancing Conibear, so it was difficult to really think of enhancements that wouldn’t just be superficial and a great addition but essential. In the end with some research and interviews I was able to come up with some good ideas, but mine alone were not really getting at ways to truly improve the facility.