Uconn Alumni: A Case Study

In his article “The Shame of College Sports,” Taylor Branch (2011) describes how universities are focused on advancing and receiving money from major athletics and having star athletes, but how the universities are not caring for the “student athlete.” The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has made college sports into an unmerited business. However, as years progress more athletes are getting smart and are taking the NCAA to court. The more students that challenges the rules by the NCAA and take them to court, the secrets and undermining values of the NCAA come out and the closer the NCAA comes to an end.

Joe Ehrmann describes how he has developed his philosophy of coaching by relating the story of his life in his youth, high school and in college describing two different types of coaches he had played for. The first are coaches who were impersonal, authoritarian, and sometimes abusive which he calls transactional coaches; this is in contrast to the humane coaches he calls transformative coaches. Coaches must face this responsibility because we all remember our coaches. “This is the awesome power and responsibility of coaching: You give your players memories, for better or for worse that stay with them until the day they die” (Ehrmann, 2011 p 46-47). Joe Erhmann goes on to ask, “What is the moral and ethical composition of their program?

The curriculum focuses on the social, business and cultural aspects of sports through hands-on activities and real-world case studies. Sports management students are encouraged to actively engage the faculty, academic advisors and alumni mentors who have successful sports management careers. Sports management students regularly run campus-based student groups, such as the Sport Business Association and the Michigan Sport Business Conference. The sport management alumni is made up of the largest body of graduates in the U.S. They provide support and guidance through networking, mentoring, internships and exclusive career opportunities. This includes undergraduate research opportunities and membership in pre-professional clubs. Most graduates go onto careers in professional sport organizations and corporate

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.

Intercollegiate athletics have been a part of the college experience dating back to 1852, when Harvard and Yale competed against each other in their first annual regatta race. Initially, the entry of collegiate sports onto America’s college campuses was the result of professors’ realization that a complete college experience required more than accomplishments in letters (Lewis, 1970). Furthermore, Shulman & Bowen (2011) assert

Then he moved on to the America East Conference for 5 years where he was the Assistant Commissioner for Championships and Sport Administration. He was responsible for 19 conference championship events. After his time with the America East Conference he began working for Brown University Sports Foundation as the Assistant Director. For 6 years, Matt helped manage fundraising for five individual sports at the university. He then began working at UCONN in July of 2014 as the Director of Major Gifts. When asked about his favorite part about working at UCONN, he said that his favorite part was being able to watch different sporting events on campus. He also mentioned that it makes him wish he could still get out there and play the sport that he loves. The professional advice that he would give to students that are interested in going into athletics is that, “Athletics is a niche industry, there are a lot of people in athletics and it is hard to go into.” Matt also spoke about how there is a huge time commitment. He also said, “Until you get to the top, you’re scrapping by and that you have to have a passion for athletics to work in

Not every school. Also, a lot of those comments or statement were just opinions. Not valid facts.

This past Thursday I had the opportunity to sit down and conduct a phone interview with Jordan Maleh. Jordan graduated from UConn in 2006 with a Bachelor’s in Sport Management and then his Master’s in Sport Management and Sociology in 2008. He currently works at the Big Ten Network in Chicago, Illinois as the Director of Digital and Consumer Marketing. As a graduating senior, this interview was very helpful to me because it gave me the chance to ask a professional in the sport industry, such as Jordan, questions about his experience at UConn and how he got his start in the sport industry and to where he is today.

After graduation, college athletes receive additional benefits, even if they are not part of the admittedly tiny group of athletes with the skills to play professionally (McCormack 21). Status as a former star athlete, or even an ordinary one, can open many doors in the professional world, especially in fields like sales and marketing. People enjoy associating themselves with athletic performers, especially those from their own alma mater. In addition, many colleges have developed special programs to help former athletes return and – if they have not received their degree, as many do not – complete their education ( 22). These programs make it a relatively simple process for a former college athlete to obtain his or her degree. More and more colleges are providing programs to help former athletes in a variety of ways, with the focus on helping them earn a degree ( 25). Some of these programs are still available to

I was born in June the year UCONN won their first men’s basketball championship. I’m sure I heard my mother cheer when the final buzzer rang. She was not the first Husky, though. It was my aunt, Judy Lion Carbonella, a graduate of ‘82, who planted the seed early on for me to follow in her footsteps. There are also my cousins: Captain Anthony Carbonella IV, undergraduate of ’07 and graduate from UCONN Dentil ‘11, U.S. Air Force Dentist; Gregory Carbonella, ‘11, now in medical school; Daniel Carbonella, ‘11, UCONN School of Business; Jeffrey Carbonella ‘16, currently anticipating his acceptance into UCONN’s medical school, my brother, Mitchell DelVecchio, ‘10, Pharmacist, and my mother, ‘85, Math Department Head.

To be a college coach you have to be very dedicated and love the sport you are coaching. Being a college coach is very time consuming and a very hard job to land in the sports world. The competition that one faces when trying to get into the job field is fierce. This means that the job as a coach in the collegiate athletic career field is limited to a small percentage of the people that end up applying. These people need to be able to fulfill a variety of duties for their universities, and because of this it is important that anyone who is thinking of applying knows the difficulty that comes with the job (Greenwald, 2010).

One of the biggest challenges that Vanderbilt Athletics must face is that each of the sports within the Vanderbilt Athletics organization can sometimes feel like an entirely separate organization. Additionally, the level of resources and attention that these sports receive can greatly vary. An example of these differences can be found in the difference between the Vanderbilt Football coach’s

I had the pleasure of interviewing Felicia Crump who is the Chief of Staff at Harlem RBI. Her upbeat and welcoming attitude made talking to her very easy. From growing up in central New Jersey to attending school in New York and then UConn, Crump has been able to open many doors in her professional career. Though she was not always interested in Sport Management, sport was always a big part of her life, as she was a starter for Hobart and William’s women’s soccer team in upstate New York. While playing collegiate soccer, Crump was studying art history and graduated in 2002. She spoke about how there wasn’t a huge demand for jobs in art history and there were even less when she graduated. While trying to look for jobs she landed a position at

A: I worked in the University 's Budget Office for three years before working in athletics. I began my career in Athletics in 1993 as the Senior Business Manager where I worked with day to day activities and reconciling. I was promoted to Assistant Athletic Director in 1999 and Associate Athletic Director in 2005. On September 2010, I was offered the position I hold now: Senior Associate Director for Business and Finance.

“To this day, after being in this business … the best day on a college campus is graduation, When I see kids I had a relationship with … graduating, you feel like you had a part in that.” David Williams, Athletic Director of Vanderbilt Athletics. Being around sports my whole life and now currently coaching a basketball team, I have encountered a few athletic directors and their supporting cast, which in a high school, it’s the principal and the administration staff. In some circumstance, especially from most coaches’ point of view, it is always about the result of the team and how good the players are. For some athletic directors, it is the same, but at the school I coach, it is also about