Interview with Dr. Joseph N. Cooper

Interview

Sports Degrees Online: Welcome to Sports Degrees and Career Talk, we are joined today by Dr. Joseph Cooper cooper the J. Keith Motley Endowed Chair of Sport, Leadership and Administration at UMass Boston. Dr. Cooper, thanks for joining us today.

Dr. Joseph Cooper: Honored to be here, Bryan. Thank you.

Sports Degrees Online: All right. How are things in Boston?

Dr. Joseph Cooper: Everything is going well. Opening day just took place a couple of days ago, so a lot of Red Sox excitement, as well as the UConn Huskies. The men’s team just won their fifth national championship, so there are a lot of UConn fans here in the New England region. So it’s a great sports time here in the city and throughout the region.

Sports Degrees Online: All right. And you’re talking to a fellow UConn fan here,  I grew up about 15 minutes away, so I was very happy to see them get title number five there.

Dr. Joseph Cooper: Absolutely. It’s a testament to the success of the program. To have three coaches – three different coaches – win a national championship within a 24 year span is very impressive indeed.

Bryan Haggerty: I saw you spent time at UConn yourself. Is that right?

Dr. Joseph Cooper: I sure did. I sure did. I was at UConn from 2013 to 2019, so six years. I was actually there during the years when Brianna Stewart, Morgan Tuck, and Mariah Jefferson were there. And it was during the time when they won four straight national championships. My first year was a year when [both] the men’s and women’s team won a national championship, the second time that they had both won a national championship [in the same year]. The first time was in 2004, and I was there for the 2014 dual national championship. So that was definitely a fun time to be in Storrs and to see the excitement and what they coin as the basketball capital college basketball capital of the world.

Sports Degrees Online: That’s right! Great times.

So, Dr. Cooper, I want to take a moment to visit your academic journey. You started with a degree in Recreation Management from UNC Chapel Hill, and your education culminated with a PhD at the University of Georgia in Kinesiology and Sport Management.

Part of our goal with our website, Sports Degrees Online, is to help share the personal stories of leaders out there so young people today can get inspiration and imagine what their own journeys might look like. Can you talk about what your journey was like from an undergraduate student to the person you are today?

Dr. Joseph Cooper: Absolutely. When I initially enrolled at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, I was a business major. It kind of had a broad interest in business. I ended up changing my majors five different times just kind of going through what a lot of young adults go through, especially in college. You get exposed to new ideas about new careers.

At the time, there was a Sport Administration Master’s program at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, but there was not a Sport Administration undergraduate major. And the closest thing to that was a Recreation Administration and Leisure Studies degree or Exercise Sports Science Degree. And even though I took a sport psychology course, I wasn’t overly interested in the athletic training, exercise physiology, the anatomy side of sport. I really wanted to work more on the administration, the management side.

And so after kind of going through trying different measures including business, communications, public relations, I had a brief period where I was interested in peace, war and defense because at the time I wanted to be an FBI agent. But I eventually went to the Office of Career Development at the university. And at that time, I took a Myers-Briggs personality assessment test. What the results produced back to me was that people with similar interests and background as me, they pursued sociology and they also [tended to] pursue sport-related majors. So what I ended up doing was double majoring in Recreation Administration and Leisure Studies and Sociology.

Shortly after I [earned my undergraduate degree], I had mentors who encouraged me to pursue a master’s degree because at that time I wanted to be an athletic director. I knew I wanted to work in sport, but I wasn’t sure in what capacity. I had different internships that I completed, working with parks and recreation departments, working with a Division I athletic program. I even did some volunteering in professional sports.

But over the summer, I [got into coaching] at my high school. I coached the JV team at my alma mater, the high school that I attended. But I knew at that time I really wasn’t interested in coaching. So I ended up applying to the sport administration master’s program at UNC Chapel Hill, which was a two year program focused on intercollegiate athletics. [During] the second year of the program we were required to do a thesis, and I really fell in love with the research process.

I did a quantitative research study on black male college athletes at predominantly white Division I  institutions. I was looking at factors that contributed to their holistic development, particularly their academic and athletic success, as well as their personal social development. At the end of that year, I was able to present my research at the annual College Sport Research Institute Conference. [There], I met other faculty members who were teaching in Sport Management programs all across the country. [One of the people I met], Dr. Billy Hawkins of the University of Georgia, later became my advisor. [At the University of Georgia], their program was housed in the Department of Kinesiology with a Concentration in Sport Management and Policy.

I went [to UGA], and I was able to really jump start my research career [there]. And after I graduated there, I started my faculty career at the University of Connecticut, and I was there for six years. And then I transitioned to my current role as an endowed professor of Sport leadership and Administration here at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

Sports Degrees Online: Thanks for sharing that story. Professor, a lot of your research and work has centered around the holistic development of black athletes and former athletes. Can you share a little bit about what you mean by holistic development?

Dr. Joseph Cooper: Absolutely. What I mean by holistic development – oftentimes, individuals who participate in sport, they have a strong athletic identity. So in academic terms, we call that high athletic identity saliency. And that oftentimes can lead to what [is known as] athletic identity foreclosure, which means that you identify so strongly with your athletic identity that other identities that you possess end up, in my terms, being malnourished. [The other identities suffer] in terms of a lack of time, energy, effort in developing yourself beyond your athletic prowess.

Holistic identity development focuses on the multiple identities that all human beings possess. In this case, specifically those who participate in sport. [This approach makes] sure that, number one, there’s an awareness that you are more than an athlete, that there’s intentionality in developing in a healthy way, multiple identities concurrently and understanding the transferable skills that you’re developing through sport, that they could be applied in other areas.

So when we talk about holistic identity, we’re talking about your racial identity, your gender identity, your global citizenship identity, your leadership identity, your student identity, your family identity, your religious identity, sexual identity identity, your creative mind, creative personality identity. The notion that you are multiple things at the same time is what we emphasize with students. We help them understand that you can have certain priorities and different interests at different points in your life.

But the main purpose of using the language of holistic identity or calling them holistic athletes is that they’re indoctrinated into a view that, “I’ve always been multitalented and holistic. I’m just choosing to utilize and develop talents in different ways at different points in my life.” And so what we found is that when you provide that type of socialization, it alleviates the negative psychosocial occupational and health outcomes that occur in that post athletic career transition period.

So in the literature, what we found is that many athletes experience kind of post athletic career disengagement nostalgia. The nostalgia on some level is expected because you put a lot of time energy, you got relationships and memories, so you expect some of that, and that’s not inherently a bad thing.

But what we’re trying to prevent is the post athletic disengagement trauma, which is a term that Dr. Harry Edwards coined, which I also use a term called post athletic career identity crisis. [This] creates a sense of helplessness, a sense of sadness and confusion and even anger and resentment in a person because they no longer can tap into the level of enjoyment, confidence and self efficacy that they had in the athletic space and it makes it difficult to transition out of it.

When we talk about holistic development, it’s a lifelong process of continuing to identify the multiple identities one possess, identifying healthy ways to develop those identities, and also connecting to supports that allow people to amplify certain aspects of who they are at different points in their lives. [It also encourages people] to reinvent themselves and understand that at different phases of your life, you’re going to have different interests, you’re going to have different responsibilities, and being able to – in a healthy way – compartmentalize the lifespan of your athletic identity where you’re an active participant in competitive athletics. [And] then transitioning that to being a person who’s active in physical activity, whether it’s competitive or not, so that you’re living an overall healthy lifestyle.

Sports Degrees Online: That makes so much sense. But I imagine that there’s a significant percentage of people out there athletes, current athletes and former athletes who have never even been taught anything about that holistic approach. What percentage of college athletes out there have access to a support system, or someone teaching them these [ideas] at this very important time, when change – and evolution from their athlete identity to their professional identity – is coming?

Dr. Joseph Cooper: That’s a good question. It’s hard to put a percentage on it. My colleagues and I, we’ve been working over the years to try to get a larger national sample size to kind of get a better grasp as to what percentage and how are college athletes and high school athletes and youth athletes experiencing sport and how does it relate to other aspects of their lives.

The NCAA – the National Collegiate Athletic Association – do a number of surveys, as does the National High School Athletic Association. And then there are some other groups that do studies on large groups of students. Sometimes they’ll ask questions around whether they participate in sport so they’re able to disaggregate it like the National Student Engagement Survey. But I’m hesitant to put a percentage on it.

But what I will say is family, community, and exposure to role models and supports that affirm one’s identity beyond sport greatly influence the extent to which they experience athletic identity foreclosure or what I would call holistic identity development or holistic identity underdevelopment.

So if you grow up in a situation where in your town or city football is very popular – and you’re a big football player and everybody knows you as the football player – you get a scholarship and everybody [recognizes] that’s your primary reference identity to most people in that community. You’re more likely going to strongly identify with that role.

Whereas if you are an athlete but you’re also involved in a music organization, or you’re also involved in maybe a local student government group, or maybe a part of a religious organization where you’re able to [establish other identities that] are outside of sport, you’ll be able to internalize that at a higher level.

Another part of this that I think is important is in our society we still have gender inequities in sport. And so the idea of being able to matriculate in a sport not only to the collegiate level but the professional level, even if it is kind of an elusive dream for the majority of athletes, the possibility of those opportunities also influences the intensity of whether someone has that athletic identity role engulf them.

So what I mean by that is there is professional baseball for men, professional football, professional basketball. There are not as many professional sport opportunities for women. And so if you’re participating in a sport as a young girl where you may know that there may not be as many professional opportunities, at least in the United States, beyond the college level in this sport, you are going to more likely be inclined to develop other aspects of your identity. Whereas for a lot of young athletes, particularly on the men’s side, there’s this belief that, “Hey, I could be one of the few who makes it to that next level.” And there’s been increased financial benefits at the youth intercollegiate levels, particularly with the changes in the Name, Image, and Likeness (N.I.L) rules, where there’s significant financial upside even if you don’t make it to the professional ranks.

And so the amount of time and emphasis that families and parents are putting into helping their athletes develop in that way, it can impact their development. Like I said, I’m hesitant to put a percentage on it, but I would say probably around half, if not more, probably do experience high levels of holistic identity development. But if you disaggregate that by race, by social class and by gender, I think you would see significant gaps in terms of that. That has to do a lot with the way our society has been structured to provide more opportunities in certain areas for certain groups compared to others, and that’s usually along racial, gender and social class lines. So I do think that it is there.

You have a lot of coaches who emphasize the importance of doing well in the class, being active in the community, saying that sport is a means to an end, not an end and of itself. But then again, you have a lot of coaches and parents who are trying to live vicariously through their children and their players. So you get this idea that the dreams and hopes of the adults are being imposed upon the young people, and the young people obviously want to be in the good graces of the adults who have poured into them and invested in them. So that obviously can lead to higher levels of athletic identity salience and in some cases athletic identity foreclosure.

Sports Degrees Online: Professor, you founded Collective Uplift, and the mission of that organization is designed to educate, empower, inspire, and support individuals to maximize their holistic potential both within and beyond athletic contexts. Now, I understand you’ve already talked about a lot of the research that you’ve done. Can you talk about what the types of projects and initiatives that this involves, this project?

Dr. Joseph Cooper: Absolutely. When we started out, it started out with a group of five black men football college athletes at the University of Connecticut. And it started with a one on one conversation with one of them about they were approaching their senior year. The reality of them not making it to the NFL was starting to settle in. And he was communicating to me kind of feeling a little bit lost, and wishing that he had more support because he feel like since he’d been at the university, football had been his top priority.

I asked him, “Hey, I’ve been doing research on this area. I know we meet one on one. Do you think you could get a small group of your teammates and some other college athletes here to kind of come and for us to talk about some of these topics that you brought up?” And we initially just started just building relationships.

The first thing that I would do, an activity that we did every meeting, when they walked in the room, I [would ask them], “Who are you?” And at first, they all be like, “I’m a football player here. What do you mean, who am I?” And I said, “All right, we’re going to do this every meeting. I’m going to ask, who are you? And you have to say five things about yourself that aren’t related to your sport.”

So every meeting, they would walk in and say, “I am my parents son”, “I am a leader in this way”, “I am an artist”, “I am a friend.” So they became socialized into [the idea that] “when I come into this space, I am more than just an athlete. And actually my athletic identity in this space is not the most important part of who I am.” And so that was one activity that we would do throughout the course of our development.

We would invite clinicians who specialize in mental health to come in and talk about depression, to talk about substance abuse, to talk about sexual behaviors. A number of things that many college students are exposed to in terms of lifestyles that they may be tempted to pursue, or even long standing issues that they’ve experienced. But in certain communities and certain groups, it’s taboo to talk about. So we talked about that.

We talked about career exploration, and we had a number of individuals who were of the same race and same gender – many of them former athletes themselves – who were from a range of career fields. [They would} come and talk about their post-athletic career journeys. So students got exposed to people who were in politics, in education, in business, entrepreneurship, in the sciences.

We talked about financial literacy. So this is well before N.I.L changed, talking about healthy financial management skills. What’s the difference between good credit and bad credit? What are the benefits of having a credit card and how do you develop your savings account? What are different types of investments and things of that nature?

And then we always would talk about cultural empowerment. So we would get them to talk about what did they know about their racial and ethnic identities and their families and how do we begin to amplify a sense of pride in who you are. And I would obviously introduce them to individuals like Dr. Harry Edwards, Paul Robeson, Mohammed Ali, a number of prominent figures in sport who use their status in and through sport to champion for broader human rights, social justice, and just the improvement of humanity overall.

So those were just some of the activities that we did. We did collaborative events with other organizations on campus. They participated in panels where they challenged the ‘dumb jock’ stereotype. We talked about athlete activism. We helped develop mentorship programs with local schools in the area. Many of them still keep in contact with their mentees. So we really provided them with a space to where they were valued for being human beings and being talented people beyond their sport.

We also connected them with relationships and support systems that help them to visualize and actualize what it means to be holistically developed as an individual. And how do you optimize that within yourself but also begin to role model and cultivate that among others?

Sports Degrees Online: Sounds amazing. And I’m just sitting here listening, thinking, wow, every kid should have access to that. And every student would be fortunate to have a professor like you!

Dr. Joseph Cooper: Our goal is to provide – I know there’s organizations like the Positive Coaching Alliance and there are a number of a lot of coaches all across the country do this in some way, shape or form – but what we find is that it’s not systematized to where it’s embedded within the culture or sport. As normal as it is to talk about winning and losing and skill development, this aspect – we all know that character development is communicated. That’s why we talk about sports-personship and after the game shaking hands and understanding how to deal with adversity.

But oftentimes we just kind of leave the conversations there. We say that sport is kind of a metaphor or an analogy for life, but we need to have programs like Collective Uplift that more intentionally make the connection between other aspects of your life and sport, and understand where there is some overlap [and also] where there is some differences as well. Like there are certain things within sporting spaces, certain behaviors, certain expressions, certain engagements that are going to be more normalized or accepted in sport that aren’t going to necessarily be accepted in certain workplace environments, other social environments, other political environments.

So, once again, a part of it is developing what we call with the holistic development approach. We want to cultivate holistic consciousness, internalized empowerment, and active engagement in holistically developed actions. What that means is that once you develop one’s consciousness about who they are, the society and the systems in which they exist, you want to really develop a level of internalized empowerment and agency and self advocacy and self efficacy to improve their individual as well as a collective plight to groups that they’re connected to.

You want to make sure that you’re not only saying, “okay, they know how to do it, they feel they can do it,” but actually help support them in doing it. So that’s where the analogy to sport is particularly helpful, because when young holistic athletes are introduced to sport, they’re taught how to do these skills or the activity, and then they train and practice those skills, and then eventually they perform them at a certain level.

When Steph Curry first started playing basketball, he was not shooting threes from half court. That’s something that developed over time. And so we use that analogy of the same type of repetition, the attention to detail, the muscle memory, the coordination, the time spent applying that to different areas of your life. You could develop high levels of proficiency in a multitude of areas, just like you’ve been able to do it in sport.

Sports Degrees Online: Amen. Professor, I’d like shifting gears a little bit and give you a chance to talk a little bit about your Sport Administration and Leadership program that you’ve helped build at UMass-Boston. What are some of the strengths of your program and why should students consider it?

Dr. Joseph Cooper: We’re a brand new program. We were founded in 2019 due to a generous gift from New Balance, the athletic apparel and shoe company based in Boston and under the leadership of Chancellor Emeritus Dr. J. Keys Motley and former Vice Chancellor and Athletics Director Charlie Titus at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. They, in partnership with Jim Davis, the owner of New Balance, came up with the innovative idea of creating equity minded sport leadership program that was intentional about equipping students with the skills to be successful in a global industry that covers multiple areas such as marketing, sport based youth development, operations, even sports analytics in a number of areas.

The purpose of our program, which we argue highlights our uniqueness, is to cultivate equity-minded, character-driven, and transformational leaders who will positively improve society through sport. And so our core values are equity and social justice, diversity and inclusion, integrity and holistic development. We’ve got an interdisciplinary model whereby students can pursue courses in the College of Education and Human Development that focus more on the intersection of sport and education.

So when you talk about leadership broadly that could be applied to multiple areas of sport. We have those courses, and then we also have a Sport Business concentration. So some students who want to be more on the finance side – entrepreneurship, innovation, sport business analytics, sport corporate sales – they can do that.

We also offer courses in sport psychology, and we’re developing our courses in sport based community programming and culturally responsive and equity minded coaching and athletic administration. So, for example, last semester I taught a class on sport activism, advocacy, and agency that is very uncommon in most sport management, sport leadership, and sport administration courses all across the country. We embed equity mindedness, antiracism, antisexism, anticlassism, anti-ableism, anti-agism across all of our courses.

So a part of what differentiates us is that we’re not only going to teach students about how the business structure of sports operate, how do you effectively market, develop, and promote sport, but more importantly, how do you use sport as a transformative tool to reduce social inequalities and social inequities in society? How do you be intentional about increasing diversity and leadership roles? How are you intentional about building community partnerships where your organizations are located so that you’re helping address local issues? How are you intentional about using various platforms and resources to champion equity in our society and to promote social justice and human rights?

Sports Degrees Online: I love it, the program sounds amazing. And what do you have to say about Boston as a place to earn a degree and launch a career. If students are looking at programs in different places, why is Boston a good place to earn a degree and launch a career in the sports industry?

Dr. Joseph Cooper: I would argue that Boston is the capital of the sports world in the United States, and arguably in the entire world. I mean, you have internationally recognized sport organizations throughout the city. Boston Red Sox. Boston Celtics. Boston Bruins. Boston Pride. New England Revolution. New England Patriots. You also have a number of large sport based organizations such as New Balance, Reebok, and Converse. You have a multitude of intercollegiate athletic programs within the city of Boston and in greater Boston area.

And it’s a city that loves sports. You have the New England Sports Network (NESN) not too far in the state right next to us in Connecticut, you have in ESPN located nearby in Bristol, Connecticut. So there’s a multitude of career opportunities.

In fact, our Sport Leadership and Administration program, we have an advisory board of 40 members, and all of them are connected within the Boston sport industry in a multitude of ways. We’re also the only undergraduate program in the city of Boston that focuses on Sport Leadership and Administration. So there are some other programs that are graduate programs in the city and right outside of the city, but within the city of Boston, we’re the only undergraduate program that has that focus. So we believe just from access to networks, to career mobility opportunities and to professional development opportunities, that there’s no better place to pursue a degree than in the city of Boston at the University of Massachusetts. Boston.

Sports Degrees Online: Now, I want to give you a chance to say a little bit more about that advisory board for your program that you mentioned. I had to look at some of the names on that list,  and there are some very well known people in the Boston sports world and beyond on that advisory board. How does the advisory board plug in your program?

Dr. Joseph Cooper: Oh, yeah, I mean, they’re tremendous. I mean, we have individuals like Mark Duggan, who is a 30 year veteran who had worked with Nike in their Bauer Sponsorship and Sales unit. We have Elise Najimi, who is the co-founder of the Foundation to be Named Later with Theo Epstein. We have Mark Lev, who’s the president of Fenway Sport Management. We have Edwin Moses, who’s an Olympian and the leader of the anti-doping movement in Olympic sport. We just have so many individuals who are connected to sport organizations throughout the city of Boston.

And so the primary role that they serve is they serve as mentors to our students. They provide internship opportunities, and they also provide my colleagues and I with feedback on curriculum development. So they’re very much in tune with the shifts [in the industry]. So when you talk about sport analytics, technology, social media, some of the things that are moving the industry forward, they provide feedback about [new courses that we should create to address those things], or maybe we could have one of our advisory board members serve as a guest speaker to talk about this topic.

They also assist with fundraising for the program. So in about two weeks, we’ll have our second annual Equity and Sport Leadership Conference. Last year, Dr. Richard Lapchick, founder of the Center for the Study of Sport and Society (CSSS) at Northeastern University, and founder for the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida, and internationally recognized Champion of Human rights through sport, was our inaugural keynote speaker.

This year, we have Andrea Carter, who is a former standout basketball player at the University of Tennessee and then the WNBA, and currently a college basketball analyst on ESPN. We also have guest speakers from the Special Olympics, mary Beth McMannon, who’s the president of the Special Olympics of Massachusetts. We have Paralympians coming to speak at our event. So our advisory board plays an integral role in supporting our students, supporting our program, and providing advocacy for our continued program development and cultivating relationship and networking opportunities for our students.

Sports Degrees Online: Sounds like an amazing program you built, congratulations and best of luck with that. I think any students looking for an undergraduate program who are listening to this podcast will be strongly considering joining your program.

I have one final question for you, Professor Cooper, changing gears yet again. Is there a team, a league, or a sports organization that comes to mind that you feel like right now is doing creative things, thinking outside the box and advancing their sport in a positive direction?

Dr. Joseph Cooper: That’s a good question. My initial response to that is it’s not just a team, it’s more organizations. So when I think about organizations like the Advancement for Blacks and Sport, ABIS, they’ve been putting out reports and updates on ways to increase diversity hiring in sport.

When I think about the Institute for the Study of Sports, Society and Social Change at San Jose State University, the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at University of Central Florida – I mentioned earlier the Northeastern Center for the Study of Sport and Society. These are organizations I would also shout out, the College Sport Research Institute (CSRI) and the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport (NASSM). These are organizations that I believe are exemplifying championing equity, social justice, and human rights through sport.

I will say that Major League Soccer, under the leadership of Dr. Jamil Northcutt, has done some great work over the past few years developing player led groups that focus on issues such as addressing police brutality and increasing voter engagement. Obviously, the Men’s National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) were, to me, exemplars during the summer of 2020 in terms of using their platforms to create meaningful partnerships to raise attention and awareness about issues related to police brutality, voter disenfranchisement, and other human rights issues. So I would say the NBA, the WNBA, Major League Soccer, obviously. I would also say that the Women’s National Soccer team and the Women’s National Hockey Team, using their platform with the lawsuits that they filed to promote gender equality or gender equity pay.

I also want to mention the Minnesota Tucker Center for Women and Girls in Sport is another exemplar, the University of Louisville, their sport administration program, and the Mohammed Ali Center there. So there are a number of groups all across the country that are doing great work that are drawing attention.

Dr. Ellen Stoworski at Ithaca College is another exemplar in the field who’s been doing great work as it relates to these areas, Dr. Cheryl Cookie at Purdue University and then, obviously, my former advisor, Dr. Billy Hawkins at the University of Houston. So there’s widespread efforts that are happening. I would say more so in organizations that are not formal sport leagues or teams. I do think there are players like Jalen Brown, athletes like Megan Rapino, obviously Colin Kaepernick and a number of others who are really pushing their organizations to take a stronger stance in support of certain social justice issues. So those are just some that come to mind off the top of my head.

Sports Degrees Online: Thank you for sharing all that, professor, and thank you for all your time – you’ve been very generous with it today. I think a lot of people will really enjoy hearing everything you have to say here. So thanks again for joining us.

Dr. Joseph Cooper: No, absolutely, Bryan, thank you. And thank you for all the great work that you’re doing with the Sports Degrees and Career talk podcast. It’s a great platform to share information and to provide resources to various stakeholder groups.

And for those who are interested in reaching out to me, you can Google UMass-Boston, Sport Leadership and Administration program. My email is JosephnCooper@umb.edu. And thanks again, Bryan, for this opportunity and look forward to keeping in touch and connecting with you and your audience in the future.

Sports Degrees Online: Same. Have a great day, professor.

Dr. Joseph Cooper: Thank you, you too.