Interview with Jennifer VanSickle, PhD

Interview

Professor, prior to your career in academia, you had extensive experience consulting for professional sports teams and sitting on the planning committees of some major sporting events. Can you share your career journey and discuss some of the work you’ve done in the sports industry?

Professor Jennifer VanSickle: Yeah, certainly. So, I spent 10 years as a head softball coach, at Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky, where working at a mid-level D-I school, you’re not just a softball coach – you’re also helping out in the athletic department in a number of ways. So, I was the game administrator for our football team, I learned a lot about administration of events and administrative athletics through my time at Morehead State.

I was also a senior women’s administrator for a time and did other duties as assigned, helping out in the athletic department in a variety of ways. But moving to Indianapolis, I’ve been lucky enough to be in a city where there’s a wide range of sporting events and national sporting events that have happened here. During my time here, I’ve gotten to participate in a number of planning committees for major sporting events. The Super Bowl, the men’s and women’s NCAA Final Fours, and just recently, the CFP College Football Championship National title game.

I think all of those experiences really helped me in the classroom in terms of understanding what’s happening behind the sciences in sport, whether it be back in the time when I was doing my college administration or now. When I’m working on events now I am staying up to date with what’s happening in those industries and understanding what the work is. I think that helps me know what we need to talk about in the classroom and the experiences that the students need to have if they want to work in those areas of the industry.

Sports Degrees Online has many visitors who are current and former athletes, and we try to help them prepare to transition to the professional world. Knowing what the work looks like out in the real world, what is some of the advice that you have for student athletes as they prepare to build a career?

Professor Jennifer VanSickle: One of the things I find is that athletes don’t understand what it takes to put their game on. Like, all the things that go on behind the scenes to make their game happen. Oftentimes, they’re shocked at how early everybody else has to be there, how late everyone else stays and how they don’t even think about [things like] how the chairs magically appear for the benches when they’re there at the game.

So, it’s really interesting when you have athletes in your class, to get them to think [not just] beyond just the competition but all the things that have to happen before and after the competition to make sure that it occurs, and occurs in a safe manner and gets people there to watch.

But what athletes bring with them that always help them in this industry is they understand the value of hard work and long hours. Most of these jobs aren’t glory jobs, especially when you’re starting out, you don’t get to sit and watch all of the games. Instead, you are working behind the scenes and you understand that you’re working so that that game can be the best that it can be, so that athlete out on the court or on the field doesn’t have to worry about all those other things happening behind the scenes.

When you can get your athletes who are now going to be sport administrators, to understand that, then the light bulb goes on for them and they say, “oh, yes, I get this. I see what was happening now that I didn’t see then, and I understand the importance of that and the time that it puts in.” But they understand long hours and this business is long hours.

And nights and weekends – right?

Professor Jennifer VanSickle: And nights and weekends. Exactly. That’s my favorite phrase. When we have new freshmen coming in, I’m like, hey, are you willing to work nights and weekends? And they say, no. I just say, “Go to another major. Leave right now.” Because then when do the games happen? At every level, the games happen on nights and weekends.

It’s no secret that launching a career in sports is more competitive than other fields. What advice do you have for soon-to-be graduates who are trying to find their professional footing in the sports industry?

Professor Jennifer VanSickle: One of the keys is networking. And that’s not just in the sports business, but it seems to be really pronounced in the sport business; people will hire who they know. It’s really important for our students and any student out there, no matter where they go to college, to start to build their network. And they really start that network in high school, with their coaches and athletic directors. Then when they get on the college campuses, it’s their professors, it’s their classmates. It’s the classmates ahead of them that are juniors and seniors when they’re freshmen, it’s the coaches on campus and the athletic directors.

Start to get to know them but more importantly, let them get to know you, and who you are and the type of person that you are. And [show them] that you’re willing to go out and speak to people, that you’re willing to go the extra mile, to go out and help for an event when you’re not getting paid, by getting up on the weekends and helping out. Building that network and letting people know who you are and the type of person that you are is key.

Second, you’ve got to get some kind of experience, and you have to show those employees that you’re willing to do what it takes – going out and volunteering. Here at the University of Indianapolis, our students have outstanding opportunities to volunteer. We’re always saying, you’ve got to do this, you’ve got to do that. Be that person that goes out on a Saturday morning and volunteers when everybody else is in the dorm asleep. Do that thing on Thursday night or during the week or during the summer, where you go out and say, “Okay, I’m going to do this and I’m going to learn something from it.”

Not just doing it, but what are you going to learn from it that you can take with you? Who are you going to meet while you’re there, and how are you going to show them who you are? You see garbage laying on the ground and it’s not your job to clean it up? Go ahead and pick it up. Somebody who sees that will say, “Wow, that kid, I want that person. I want that man or that woman to be a part of my program, because nobody told them to do that and they did that.” People will notice those little things that you do.

I think the third part of that is, every sport management program requires an internship. And in our program, we require two internships because we know the value of that [experience]. And it helps students to be able to change. For example, “I thought I wanted to work in professional sports, and I hated it in that internship. Now I get to try something else.”

But you really have to take advantage of that internship. By not only doing what they ask you to do, but by showing initiative, coming up with ideas, by being fully present every time that you’re there and understanding that it’s not going to be the glamor in the beginning. You’ll get to that glamor eventually in your career, but it’s not going to be that in the beginning, but by really just soaking up and learning everything that you can. And so, we’re always encouraging our students [to take advantage of every opportunity].

You’ve got a guest speaker in class? Go out, shake their hand, tell them ‘Thank you for coming’; follow up with an email. Listen carefully and remember something special that they said, and include that in the email. “Hey, I really appreciated when you talked about hard work and I think I’m a really hard worker.” Or, “I really appreciated what you said about sales and I want to learn more about sales. Will you talk to me?”

Build that network, volunteer, take advantage of the opportunities that are in front of you, and do well in your internship. Even if you don’t want to go into that industry, what you want to leave with in that internship is you want to leave with three or four people who are willing to stick their neck out for you and say, “You were great. I will help you find a job.”

There is so much good advice in there, thank you. I think your students are pretty fortunate to have you as a mentor!

There are so many sport management programs to choose from at the bachelor’s and master’s level. It might be overwhelming for prospective students to choose which program is the best fit for them. What factors should students keep in mind as they’re trying to choose a program?

 

Professor Jennifer VanSickle: I think there are a number of things. Number one, what opportunities are available in your area and/or are within a distance that you can get to? In Indianapolis, we’ve got so many things and so many organizations and so many volunteer opportunities that are at our fingertips, but not everybody can do that.

So, if it’s not right in your immediate area, how close is it? Because you’re going to want to volunteer. You’re going to want to put yourself in positions where you can meet people who are currently in the sports business now and show them who you are, so they can get to know you. I think that’s key. If not in the area, then what do they offer on campus that you can be involved in?

I think number two is, look at the professors. What have they done, and what are they doing? Does anybody in that program have experience in sports? Or do they just have the degrees and they don’t have working experience? What have they done and/or what are they doing? Are they still involved in what’s happening in their community? Are they still volunteering? Are they consulting? Are they working with the athletic department? Are they working with other sports organizations? Are they keeping up to date? Not just through their research, but also what they’re doing from their own service or professional time that keeps them up to date with what’s happening in the field.

And looking at their LinkedIn, what connections do they have? See what they’re doing and what connections they have. Are they connected to what’s going on in the sports world? Or are they putting in their time as a professor and going home. How invested are they?

And I think you can also look at the alumni from the program. What do they say on their website about where their alumni are working now and what are they doing? That can give you an idea of the connections that a university might have.

And then finally, I would look at the opportunities for experiential learning in the program. Do they require an internship? If they don’t, I’d be very wary of that because internships are really key. That’s when a student gets to try out for a job in front of an employer and to build connections, so that someone will help them get that job. If it’s not, then what is it? Do they have practicum experiences? Are they doing any experiential learning in their classroom? And if so, and they’re in a community where other sports organizations are working, are they taking advantage of those opportunities?

Because the curriculum is good and you need that baseline curriculum, but you also need those experiences and those networks to move forward. And if your university isn’t helping you cultivate that, then you’re going to have to do it on your own as a student. And how are you going to do that?

The last thing that’s out there is the COSMA (Commission on Sport Management Accreditation). There are very few schools that have that. That organization looks at the curriculum and certifies, “Yes, this is a quality program.” That’s another factor that students can look at to help them make that choice.

Professor, you’ve distinguished yourself in event management. Why should students interested in sport management consider a focus or a concentration on event management?

Professor Jennifer VanSickle: Event management is huge. There are so many different opportunities in event management in the sport world, there are lots of event management companies that are out there. If you look at professional sports teams, they’re doing events. If you look at recreation programs like parks and recs and their centers, they’re running events. So, I think what events help you do is learn to think, learn to react and make decisions on your feet.

For events to be successful, you need to be very detail oriented. It’s a preparation thing. You have to have things ready to go. You have to think ahead of time about what’s going to happen and then react if something doesn’t go well. I think there’s a lot of things you can learn from event management. I think there’s a lot of opportunities in event management, just in that role, whether you’re an event manager again for an event company or whether you’re an event management game operations kind of role for a team, there are a lot of different opportunities out there.

So, it’s just one of the branches of sport management that you can get into. Sport management is such a wide degree that it’s sometimes hard for students to understand where do they want to go and what they want to do. If we can help our students gain some skills from event management courses, then perhaps they can take that with them wherever they go in the field.

And how about volunteer management? What are some skills that you’d learn with a focus in volunteer management that would help you have a successful career?

Professor Jennifer VanSickle: Nowadays, every state will have a sports commission, right? Because what states have found out is that sports commissions can help drive economies because sports commissions will bring events to their cities. Within every event management company, you’ll have a volunteer person who’s in charge of helping that organization put its events on – whether it’s a marathon, whether it’s a final four, or whether it’s an event. Sometimes even within parks or recreation, if it’s a larger event. There are volunteer positions for a lot of nonprofits, like Special Olympics for example, will have volunteer positions.

What a student can gain from volunteering is working with people and understanding how to work with people. Sports is a relationship business. Bottom line; it’s about working with people. All sport is putting on some type of entertainment or event that involves people, either getting people to come, working with the people on the court, getting the officials who are people.

From the volunteer side of things, I think one of the best things that you learn is the relationship piece. Like event management, it’s also detailed. You have to decide how many volunteers you want before you start? What are those volunteers going to do? What are their job descriptions? Who’s going to supervise them?

I (volunteer managers) have to communicate with them in variety of forms before the event to make sure that they’re on time. When they get there, I’ve got to help them. We’ve got to make some changes when people don’t show up, because volunteers don’t show up. And then how do I communicate with them afterwards to keep them coming back to keep helping with my events.

Our final question for you professor – what makes Indiana, generally and Indianapolis, specifically a good place to earn a degree in sport management? What does the sports economy look like there, and where are some of the places where graduates are finding internships and jobs there?

Professor Jennifer VanSickle: Indianapolis is the best place, the best place if you want to get a sport management degree. There are roughly, within the Indianapolis Metro area, about 75 different sport organizations and they’re all different kinds. You’ve got five professional sport teams. You’ve got our Indiana Sports Corp, which brings in all of the major events like the men’s and women’s Final Four, the college football championship that was just here this last year.

You’ve got the NCAA. Indianapolis is the only place in the country where the NCAA national headquarters is located. You also have the National Federation of High School Sports Office located in Indianapolis. You have NCAA conference offices at every division level.

We have the Horizon League, Division I. We have two Division II conferences and the Heartland conference, which is Division III. If you want to work in auto racing, we’ve got the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. If you’d like to work in parks and recreation, there are numerous parks and recreation centers throughout. We have YMCA’s throughout, so you can work in the recreational side of sports.

You want to work in events, Grand Park Sports Campus is on the north side of the city. It hosts softball tournaments, basketball tournaments, soccer tournaments. It’s one of the largest sport facilities, and one of the largest [facilities] of its kind. Now, you see many, many more. You’ve got the events in town where students can come and work. You’ve got internship opportunities with all those organizations (and more) that I’ve talked about right here in town.

From the very beginning in the freshman level class, we have our students get out and get involved and volunteer for something. They do something on campus that’s sports related, and they do something in the community that’s sports related. So, they can get a feel for the long hours that we’re talking about and the sacrifices and commitments that it makes.

As far as our alumni, we’ve got them working for the professional organizations, the Pacers, the Indianapolis Indians, the Colts. We’ve got them working in Indy parks and recreation. We have several of our alums that are working in different levels of the NCAA and in different departments in the NCAA. We have several USA governing bodies here, and we have alums who’re working for USA Track and Field. We have alums that have worked with USA Gymnastics. Those are both located in town. We have alums with PGA and the players’ championships. We’ve got former students in minor league sports, like the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. We’ve got alums that are in sales for Learfield and Legends. Should I keep going?

And we’re very proud of that. Yeah. We’re very proud of it. Can you tell?

And of course, everybody always says that Indiana is home to some of the nicest people in the country.

Professor Jennifer VanSickle: It really is. Since I’ve come here, I’ve found that the sports community in Indianapolis is pretty tight knit and also very generous. People in this community have been very generous to our students in internships and guest speaking opportunities. People come in to our classes all the time or offer job shadowing or sit for student interviews. I mean, I really do feel like I’ve hit a gold mine here when I landed in Indianapolis.