Athletic Directors Research Articles

Intercellular void space effects on Kentucky bluegrass traffic tolerance

AbstractAthletic field safety is a top concern of field managers and athletic directors across all sports. Increased field usage on fields with traffic‐sensitive cultivars results in reduced turf cover and therefore decreased field safety. Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis L., KBG) is the most widely used cool‐season turfgrass on athletic fields due to its dense turf canopy. While most KBG cultivars have strong recuperative potential, significant cultivar differences in ability to withstand athletic field traffic exist. This study was conducted to determine whether leaf epidermal cell sizes predict differences in KBG cultivar traffic tolerance. Upper epidermal cell size, lower epidermal cell size, and intercellular void space (IVS) were measured on three traffic‐tolerant and three traffic‐sensitive KBG cultivars from the 2011 National Turfgrass Evaluation Program KBG trial, arranged in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Transverse sections of leaf tissue were fixed in an acid/alcohol solution and embedded with paraffin prior to sectioning for imaging by light microscopy. Cell size was determined by counting cells per unit area from light microscopy images. Leaf upper and lower epidermal cell size was not a predictor of traffic tolerance. Differences were measured in IVS at the cultivar level and at the traffic‐sensitive vs. traffic‐tolerant grouping contrast level. Traffic‐tolerant cultivars exhibited larger IVS (2823 μm2) than traffic‐sensitive cultivars (1112 μm2). Further investigation of these leaf anatomy size theories in relation to athletic traffic tolerance should be conducted on more cultivars, including recently released commercially available genotypes.

Disparities in baseline neurocognitive testing for student concussion management in Massachusetts high schools

PurposeThere is evidence of socioeconomic disparities with respect to the implementation of student-sports concussion laws nationally. The purpose of this study was to examine school sociodemographic characteristics associated with the...

Perceptions of implementation of Massachusetts sports concussion regulations: results of a survey of athletic directors

BackgroundIn 2011 the Massachusetts Department of Public Health issued regulations pursuant to 2010 Massachusetts youth sports concussion legislation that provided policies and procedures for persons engaged in the prevention, training, management, and return-to-activity for students who sustain head injury during interscholastic athletics, including Athletic Directors (ADs).MethodsA survey instrument was developed with participation from injury prevention experts at the Boston University School of Medicine, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, and ADs. An electronic survey was sent to all AD members of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association to assess their perceptions of implementation of the sports concussion law.ResultsResponse rate was 75% (260/346). The mean rating on a 0–10 scale (10 being “very important”) on importance of the law for student safety was 9.24, and the mean rating of the law’s impact on workload was 5.54. Perceived impact on workload varied as a function of whether or not the school also employed an athletic trainer (t = 2.24, p = 0.03). Most respondents (88%) reported that their school had a concussion management team, and 74% reported that they were informed “always” (31%) or “often” (43%) when a student-athlete experienced a head injury in a venue other than extracurricular sports. Most respondents (95%) endorsed that “all” or “most” school nurses were “very knowledgeable” about the law and regulations. Approximately half of all respondents endorsed that “all” or “most” teachers and guidance counselors were “very knowledgeable” about the law and regulations; 76% endorsed that “all” or “most” of students’ physicians were “very knowledgeable” about the law and regulations; 59% endorsed that “all” or “most” parents were “very knowledgeable” about the law and regulations. Sixty-six percent endorsed that student-athletes with concussion “often” (10%) or “sometimes” (56%) misrepresent their symptoms to accelerate return-to-play; and, 70% perceived that student-athletes with concussion “often” (15%) or “sometimes” (55%) misrepresent their symptoms to avoid academics.ConclusionsADs perceive the sports concussion legislation as very important to student safety and positively assess implementation of the law and associated regulations. More effort is needed to increase understanding of the law among stakeholders including teachers, parents, and physicians.

Evaluation of Implementation of Massachusetts Sports Concussion Regulations: Results of Focus Groups with Athletic Directors

In 2018, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) conducted focus groups with athletic directors (ADs) from Massachusetts middle and high schools to assess the implementation of legislated regulations relative to the management of concussion (mild traumatic brain injuries; mTBI) among students engaged in extracurricular sports. Two tape-recorded focus groups were conducted with a facilitator. Lists of themes were synthesized by investigators. Overall, participating ADs expressed that the law and accompanying regulations were necessary and important for protecting student athletes, despite some burdensome aspects of implementation. Emerging themes included support for the law, some implementation problems, impact on workload, and recommendations for improving mandated procedures. ADs assume an important role in the management of middle and high school students’ mTBI when given the authority to do so through legislation and regulation. Nonetheless, challenges to the daily application of legislated protocols exist and should continue to be evaluated.

Sports Participation Fee Policies in US High Schools: A National Survey of Athletic Directors

ABSTRACT Purpose Because of budget constraints, many school districts are reducing or eliminating sports programs. An alternative trend is to maintain programs but charge fees for student participation in sports. Fees may discourage participation and unfairly burden students unable to pay. The purpose of this study was to explore sports participation fee policies in US high schools among a national sample of athletic directors. Methods We developed a survey and sent it online or through postal service to a national sample of athletic directors (N = 3342) from a randomized list of US school districts. Descriptive statistics and multilevel regression models were computed comparing respondents from districts with and without policies, and those with and without fee waivers. Results We received 991 responses (response rate of 30%). Almost 40% (39.9%) reported participation fees for interscholastic sports, and 26% reported the likelihood of a policy within 5 yr. These policies varied; 32% charged fees per season, 26% per year, and 42% by sport. The average amount was $120. Most (78%) had waiver provisions. Lower-income districts had significantly lower odds of charging fees than higher-income districts, and when they did, they were less likely to have waivers. Conclusion Overall, respondents from districts with fee polices had significantly different perceptions of policies compared with no policy respondents. High schools are implementing a wide variety of sports participation fee policies, and majority of those with policies provide waivers for students unable to pay. There were significant differences by district income level. Further exploration on the extent to which these policies are influencing sports participation, especially among lower-income students, is needed.

Judge rules against athletic director

Case name: Nace v. Faith Christian Academy, et al., No. 15‐333 (E.D. Pa. 03/29/19).

A Mixed Methods Approach to Identifying Administration Issues Pertinent in Interscholastic Sports

The purpose of this study was to investigate three propositions: a) What are the administration issues most pertinent to interscholastic sport today, as well as the next five years?, b) How important are those administration issues to athletic administrators?, and c) What are the potential implications of those pertinent administration issues to practicing athletic administrators? The literature provides a general overview of relevant issues surrounding interscholastic athletics. However, the importance and implications of relevant issues to practicing high school athletic administrators are difficult to discern. To answer the first proposition, the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) provided 10 contemporary administration issues that were most pertinent to interscholastic sport today, as well as the next five years. To answer the second proposition, a Likert-Scale was created so that practicing athletic administrators could rate each issue on a scale of 5 = extremely important to 1 = very little importance. A national study was conducted with athletic directors from the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (N = 170) annual conference. A one-tailed ANOVA was executed to determine significant differences among the 10 administration issues identified by the MSHSL. Four issues were found to be significant; Athletic Facilities, Athletic Training, Health Issues and Travel Teams. A Games-Howell post hoc was executed to determine significant differences across geographical regions of the United States. For the third proposition, semi-structured interviews were completed to provide insight on the implications for practicing athletic administrators. The results offer insight from which further investigations could be conducted to continue building on policies that influence interscholastic athletic administrators’ day-to-day accountability when overseeing their athletic programs.

Examining the role of high school athletic directors in promoting leadership development in high school student-athletes

ABSTRACTLeadership training is a valuable but underutilized process for high school student-athletes to experience. Athletic directors represent a unique opportunity to foster environments of leadership development in high schools. The purpose of the current study was to examine high school athletic directors’ approaches to leadership development, and discuss the practical application of leadership programming. Interviews with nine athletic directors supported the value of sport as context for learning life skills, including leadership. Leadership development strategies included captain roundtables, provision of resources, and connecting networks of coaches. Differences existed across schools in leadership development prioritization and programming, indicating a lack of standardized programming between schools. The authors concluded that leadership is an essential component of high school athletics, and that it is pivotal to improve the delivery of leadership training through athletic directors. Further research on the topic is required to clarify best practice principles, and to evaluate athletic director programming.

Blood, Sweat, and Tears: Jake Gaither, Florida A&M, and the History of Black College Football by Derrick E. White

Reviewed by: Blood, Sweat, and Tears: Jake Gaither, Florida A&M, and the History of Black College Football by Derrick E. White Thomas Aiello Blood, Sweat, and Tears: Jake Gaither, Florida A&M, and the History of Black College Football. By Derrick E. White. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2019. Pp. [xiv], 303. $30.00, ISBN 978-1-4696-5244-3.) While Martin Luther King Jr. and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference were winning civil rights victories, Alonzo “Jake” Gaither and his Florida A&M University football team were winning championships. Derrick E. White’s Blood, Sweat, and Tears: Jake Gaither, Florida A&M, and the History of Black College Football demonstrates that while the latter might not be the equivalent of the former, sporting success was not inconsequential in the [End Page 530] era of the civil rights movement. White makes his case through a description of “sporting congregations,” emanating from “the faith in Black-controlled athletics for the betterment of the university and the community” (p. 9). These secular mirrors of the bodies led by ministers like King reflected the push for quantifiable achievement and for improved educational institutions. The successful black college football programs that those congregations supported also demonstrated the tensions between a desire for the structural benefits of integration without the sacrifice of cultural autonomy that typically came with it. White describes football’s role in and representation of such dilemmas by telling the story of Gaither, who grew up in the upper South in the early twentieth century and attended Knoxville College during the 1920s. He joined the coaching staff of Florida A&M the following decade, eventually became the program’s head coach and athletic director, and served at the helm of one of history’s most successful football programs during the volatile civil rights era, winning seven national titles while King and his congregations were winning victories of their own. Gaither and his Florida A&M team are perfect vehicles for White’s narrative, as they were on the tip of the spear for the potential costs involved with integration. To build his congregation, Gaither’s program graduated future high school coaches and placed them around Florida. He created a system whereby segregated education served as a pipeline to athletic and academic success for generations of students. It was a system that collapsed under the weight of integration, so when Gaither balked at some of integration’s dictates, some saw him as part of the problem. The Black Power movement was no more charitable, seeing Gaither as a comfortable middle-class power broker who benefited from the racial status quo. That criticism was not entirely unjust, but White’s narrative makes it clear that the story was far more complicated. After all, “[Florida A&M] spent the last three decades of the twentieth century chasing Gaither’s coaching legend” (p. 222). Such chasings were not the result of incompetence in hiring or coaching. As white universities in the South sought integration to feather their own athletic nests, the attendant media story of triumph often hid the erosion of those historically black college and university (HBCU) programs that were so central to White’s “sporting congregations.” In other words, Gaither’s wariness proved prescient. White also uses Gaither and Florida A&M to tell the much broader tale of the rise and fall of HBCU athletics, the ancillary casualties of the push for integration, and the role of racial assumptions in state educational funding and sports media priorities in the creation of hierarchies, which always gave preference to whiteness but at the same time left space for the creation of legitimate and meaningful black sporting congregations. And though Florida A&M is the principal subject of the book, the congregations at Morgan State University, Grambling State University, Tennessee State University, and Southern University all play a role in the narrative. White’s story is not a hagiographic one of triumph that sometimes enters the genre of sport history. The ebbs and flows of Florida A&M’s success, and the racial and representational reasons for such movements, are incredibly instructive for anyone [End Page 531] interested in either black college athletics...

Judge rules against athletic director

Case name: Nace v. Faith Christian Academy, et al., No. 15‐333 (E.D. Pa. 03/29/19).

The function of athletic director in an american institution as a sports administrator

The function of athletic director in an american institution as a sports administrator

Athletic training students’ engagement in interprofessional education in the classroom and during clinical education

ABSTRACT Interprofessional education is an area of emphasis within healthcare. Little is known regarding what other healthcare professions athletic training students engage with during interprofessional education. Therefore, our purpose was to identify the healthcare students that athletic training students engage with in the classroom/laboratory and during clinical education. We used a cross-sectional survey design with open-ended questions to survey 90 athletic training program directors. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and an analysis of variance to determine differences between demographic characteristics and engagement with other healthcare students in the classroom/laboratory and during clinical education. The alpha level was set at .05. Overall, athletic training students regularly engaged with students from other healthcare professions in the classroom/laboratory and during clinical education, with physical therapy and nursing being most common. Unfortunately, more than 30% of respondents indicated no engagement with other healthcare professions during clinical education or in the classroom. It was concluded that athletic training faculty need to capitalize on opportunities to expose athletic training students to other healthcare students, as well as utilizing teaching and evaluation strategies that foster interprofessional education and practice. Similarly, students need to capitalized on opportunities to engage in interprofessional practice.

Judge rules against athletic director

Case name: Nace v. Faith Christian Academy, et al., No. 15‐333 (E.D. Pa. 03/29/19).

Focus on growth mindset leads to success

When Nan Carney‐DeBord, M.A., began her role nine years ago as Director of Athletics and Recreation and Chair and Professor of Health, Exercise and Sport Studies at Denison University in Ohio, she appreciated the opportunity to work with many incredible leaders, mentors, and coaches at her alma mater — but she also noticed many silos.

Gain a better understanding of how to apply NCAA interpretations philosophy, process

Most college athletics administrators would appreciate some extra guidance on how to best apply the NCAA's Division I interpretations philosophy. And that's why a panel convened to offer such guidance at the annual convention of the National Association for Athletics Compliance. The panel included Aaron Aaker, Associate Athletics Director of Compliance and Strategic Planning at Boston University; Marra Hvozdovic, Director of Compliance for the Atlantic Coast Conference; and Jen Vining‐Smith, Senior Associate AD for Compliance and Governance/SWA at the University of Delaware.

Emergency Action Plans in Secondary Schools: Barriers, Facilitators, and Social Determinants Affecting Implementation.

Secondary schools (SSs) inconsistently adopt emergency action plans (EAPs) for athletics. To describe the barriers, facilitators, and social determinants influencing EAP adoption in SSs in the United States. Cross-sectional study. Secondary schools. A national sample of athletic trainers (ATs; n = 9642) and athletic directors (ADs; n = 9687) were invited to participate in a Web-based questionnaire. A total of 1273 (13.2%) ATs and 702 (9.2%) ADs responded to the survey. The questionnaire addressed self-reported barriers to, facilitators of, and social determinants (eg, locale, funding classification [eg, public or private SS]) of EAP adoption. The responses of ATs and ADs were analyzed separately. Barriers, facilitators, and social determinants were evaluated using descriptive statistics. Contingency (2 × 2) tables were used to calculate the odds ratios (ORs) of adopting an EAP and the presence of each social determinant. Perceived barriers to implementation were a lack of knowledge about how to implement an EAP and financial limitations. Facilitators were having access to health care personnel, state mandates, and support from a person in an authoritative position. Compared with ATs at rural schools, ATs at suburban schools displayed greater odds of having an EAP (χ2 = 5.63, P = .01, OR = 1.63 [95% confidence interval = 1.08, 2.44]). According to the ADs' responses, a larger SS enrollment (≥500) led to greater odds of adopting an EAP (OR = 2.02 [95% confidence interval = 1.41, 2.89]). Perceived barriers to EAP adoption suggest that ATs and ADs need to be educated so they can provide additional information on the low cost of EAP adoption. Further, ADs described state mandates as facilitators to improve EAP adoption; therefore, efforts to educate state leaders about the need for mandated policies may be warranted. Certain social determinants (eg, school enrollment) may affect EAP adoption, but not every proposed determinant significantly affected adoption.

GOALS OF THE ENDGAME

At all stages of life, the body can be considered an occupational resource that interacts with social structures in identity formation and complicates personal adaptation to life transitions. As the body declines, the economic and social standing it confers also tends to decline, leading to socially embedded fears about physical decline and marginalization. This paper applies theoretical work from embodiment theory and the life course perspective to examine how perceptions of aging and life experience with sport (or lack thereof) influence exercise participation and athletic identity. Using a narrative approach, I examine in-depth interviews I conducted with elite athletes, masters’ athletes, coaches, athletic program directors, mature adults. Some participants struggled to exercise regularly, and others are exercising more in their later years than at any other point in their lives. Three key themes emerged: 1) bodily identity is tremendously important in relation to other forms of identity when it is affected by aging, ill-health, or other physical processes; 2) physical functional mobility becomes increasingly important with age; and 3) experiences with sports and athletic identity (or lack thereof) influence engagement in exercise in later life in surprising ways. The paper challenges society’s focus on youth in sports and elite athletes, to discuss how our greater longevity means that we must place more emphasis on identifying ways to keep physically active and mobile throughout adulthood.

Gaining insight into limitations sets stage for success

Kanoe Bandy, M.B.A., Athletic Director at Taft College in California, gained valuable lessons from leading the 1996 reinstatement of the Taft athletics program after its 1994 discontinuation.

Build administrator‐to‐coach relationship to boost success

Athletics administrators play a key role in ensuring the success of coaches. But it takes an investment in building a relationship with coaches and the initiative to intentionally build coaches up. That's according to a panel of athletics directors who spoke at the annual convention for the National Association of Division III Athletic Administrators. Here's a closer look at how each of them have made strides in coaching the coaches at their institutions.

The Globalization of Intercollegiate Athletics: Challenges, Opportunities, and Advice for Those Seeking to Emulate the U.S. Model of College Sport

This special issue targets an audience of scholars and practitioners across the globe to advance research, enhance practice, and facilitate policy-making decisions among those interested in emulating and/or learning from US intercollegiate athletics. We begin with a panel of practitioners and academics who comment directly on the discussion of the globalization of intercollegiate athletics. Together with the articles included in this issue, those interested in the advancement, fortification, reform, and development of global intercollegiate athletics can draw upon a variety of critical perspectives and hundreds of years of combined experience in the field. Panelists in this dialogue include a variety of experiential lenses, institutional affiliations, and oversight responsibilities. Current and former titles include those of coach, president/chancellor, director of athletics, professor, senior woman administrator, faculty athletics representative, consultant, and NCAA chief executive officer. Through these lenses, our panelists tackle questions that emerged through foundational literature and global dialogue.