Envision A Mission For An Athletic Department

Fellowship of Christian Athletes stands strong with a vision “to see the world impacted for Jesus Christ through the influence of coaches and athletes” (“Vision & Mission.”). This is followed up with their mission statement, “to present to coaches and athletes, and all whom they influence, the challenge and adventure of receiving Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, serving Him in their relationships and in the fellowship of the church.” (“Vision & Mission.”). Visions and mission statements do not mean much if they are not backed up. Fellowship of Christian Athletes backs up their vision and mission statement with their four core values; which they back up with the Bible.

Do student athletes make the most of their opportunity to obtain a post-secondary education? Do they have the same academic success as those students that are not athletes? Are student athletes just “dumb jocks?” The answers to these questions might surprise you. Much research has been done to dispel the myth that athletes going to college are only there to play sports with little regard to their education. Programs have been created to assure that colleges and universities hold athletes to the same standards as the everyday student. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has decided that the “magic number” to put the “student” back into “student-athlete” is 925 (Hamilton).

"A good mission statement portrays an organization's unique and lasting reason for being, and energizes stakeholders to follow common goals. It likewise enables a focused allocation of

that student athletes are students who gain access to a college education through their participation in sports, for which they earn scholarships to pay tuition, fees, room and board and other allowable

It all started with an email seeking freshman male in his coaching and administration program. The 2012 graduate of UConn’s Sport Administration and coaching program, William Aloia, says this future success as the Associate Athletic Director for The College of St. Rose started out by almost” falling into his lap”. The New Jersey native began his undergraduate experience with two Division-I parents, and like an abundance of people he knew that working in sport was something he wanted to do. Previously a part of the Kinesiology department under the late Joe Marrone, Will jumped on the opportunity posted through an email and started his freshman year as a basketball manager for the very successful UConn’s basketball program. He explains how this experience “opened his door up”. Will states; “once I started at UConn working with the women’s basketball program and being around collegiate athletics at such a high level it’s really something in itself, and unbelievable experience. I knew it was for me, I didn’t know which part for sure, but I knew this was something I wanted to do.” What Will realized very quickly realized about working in sport is that often times it is a thankless job. However, that did not stop him from finishing his undergraduate career as a four-year manager for the basketball team. The motivation for Will early in his career has been a two-dimensional illustration of success.

Literature surrounding athletic participation and its impact on the college experience is well documented (LaForge & Hodge, 2011). Many scholars purport that athletic participation enhances the academic experience, while others argue that it creates a divide between colleges’ missions and student-athletes lived campus experiences. To support this claim, Lawrence, Henedricks & Ott (2007) found in their study that nearly one-third of faculty who responded to their survey indicated that they believed that academic standards are lowered to achieve success in the sports of football and basketball. One question that is often posed by

Each year, thousands of high school student athletes graduate without ever having left their mark on the community. They breeze through these four years of life as if they’re nothing whether they are playing or sitting on the bench. They receive average grades and never find ways to give back to the community that has allowed them to be in the position that they are today. I have always looked at things from a different perspective. I believe student athletes should be a leader to their peers and in their community.

The NCAA believes “that a student-athlete is a student first and athlete second.” Student-athletes benefit more than from playing a sport that they love. The graduation rate is higher among the student athletes than the general student body. “NCAA studies show that student-athletes enjoy high levels of engagement in academics, athletics and community: have positive feeling about their overall athletics and academic experiences: attribute invaluable life skills to being a student-athlete: and are more likely to earn similar or higher wages after college than non-student athletes.”

The competitive athletics programs of member institutions are designed to be a vital part of the educational system. A basic purpose of this Association is to maintain intercollegiate athletics as an integral part of the educational program and the athlete as an integral part of the student body and, by so doing, retain a clear line of demarcation between intercollegiate athletics and professional sports (NCAA, 2011).

The vision statement of the University of California, Davis Athletics department is to be a prestigious model program in athletics and academics.

Student athletes would expect to be respected by the university. They would want to be seen as important components of the team as opposed to simply revenue markers for the university. Students were the ones who chose to sign to that school, after all.

While only one of the women I worked with this semester is graduating, I know that other female athletes within the athletic department have and are carrying on the leadership skills they learned because of athletics. For the sake of privacy, some names have been changed. One student, Beatrice Manuel, was a successful student-athlete here at Ohio that is graduating with me next week. Over the course of four years, she learned key leadership skills such as how to lead a team and work with them, resilience, goal-setting, how to work under pressure and how to adapt to numerous situations. Because of her hard work and the key skills she learned, Beatrice is will be attending vet school this coming fall. Other female athletes in the athletic department are going on to obtain their masters degrees, or are obtaining jobs in leadership and management positions. In our athletic department, I know of one person who was formerly a student-athlete herself. I wrote many journals about Jenny, the football coordinator in Ohio’s athletic department. She played soccer collegiately and I see the skills she learned put to use everyday. She leads the entire football, and plans their academic schedules, as well as advises them and hosts weekly meetings. There is never less than three athletes in Jenny’s office or waiting to meet with her. She works under pressure, knowing that it is her responsibility to guide almost one hundred football players to graduation. Time management also comes very

Our Mission Statement is: Our school and community will educate and inspire our students through exceptional learning opportunities. Also, as a team, we created our vision statement: Our first priority is student achievement. To accomplish this, we envision:

In order to create our mission statement we would first look into existing statement's of competitor's but also realizing we need to expand it a little bit to include our global vision. We would tell them who we are, what we do, what we stand for and why we do it. We would let all members of our organization help with the statement. So we can make sure we all really believe it and it's not a lie (King, 1998).

Upon my hiring, I noticed that the business did not have a mission statement. I developed a mission statement that states, “A passion to serve.” This mission statement is simple, easy to memorize, and very useful. This mission statement is a formal statement, but ties into the vision, core values, and