I internship exercise was captivating, with loads of learning experiences for me. Over the weeks I was at Manual High School, I was able to exercise and apply the content learned in class in a real-world context. Facility maintenance, athletics director's collaboration, dealing with students' paperwork, and coordination of various sports activities were some of the projects I undertook as an intern at Manual High School. Through these activities, I was able to relate all the concepts taught in class. For instance, the idea of sport leadership and governance was critical for me in understanding how to help in sports events. The concept of sports in society helped me build a clear connection between parents, learners, and the school staff. Sports organizations also helped me prepare the students for all the sports events by collecting the relevant documentation. In essence, the intern project was highly productive for me.
At Manual High School, I was exposed to facility maintenance, whereby I learned how to ensure safe storage of sports resources. Facility maintenance involves the development of facility maintenance schedules aimed at achieving high-quality sports. The approach seeks to prevent damages to the sporting facilities; hence the process is proactive. Reactive maintenance is also taken in repairing damaged surfaces and equipment. From my course learning, I understood why sports managers must understand all the sports; rugby, hockey, basketball, and tennis.
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In this project, I have various responsibilities for ensuring effectiveness in the sports department. Sports, just like any other department, need sufficient facilities management for success to be achieved. Good facility maintenance in sports helps in improving adaptability, sustainability, and efficiency. Facility maintenance also ensures the smooth running of activities within the sports department. Servicing and handling of equipment are the key roles that I performed during this intern exercise.
The first role as a facility maintenance intern was planning, whereby I managed various sports inventories throughout the maintenance period. The planning role enables me to ensure all the equipment was placed in their rightful place and within the right timelines. In this role, I also ensured accountability for all equipment, whereby any missing item would easily be traced through the student allocated to it. The planning task was so challenging for me since I had to deal with students who wanted to mishandle the sports equipment. I got my worst experience throughout the intern project through this role (Hoye, Smith, Nicholson, & Stewart, 2015). Quarreling and demanding accountability from the students would always make the students develop hatred for me. The role relied heavily on my ability to keep records, as learned in this course. Updating inventories was an easy task for me since I had learned this process in my class activities. In the planning role, I also organized a quality assessment evaluation, whereby all the faulty equipment was replaced. Despite finding the role challenging, it presented a crucial step to my career development. I was able to exercise my judgment capabilities through the various interaction enabled by this role.
In facility maintenance, I was also tasked with various fieldwork activities, which helped shape my personality and career. The fieldwork exercise involved inspecting the sports pitches to ensure they were appropriate for all athletes. After inspecting the quality and condition of the fields, I would recommend immediate repairs or removal of the critically destroyed equipment. Through the field exercise, I was glad to interact with various sporting professionals in the field. The fieldwork exposed me to athletes who shared their concerns about the field and the quality of equipment they had. I also learned numerous indoor games, which would have been impossible for me to understand without this fieldwork exercise. My role in the fieldwork exercise was ordering for repairs like furniture and other sporting equipment. Through the fieldwork exercise, I learned the significance of responsibility and accountability in sports management.
Teamwork was also a critical responsibility that I learned through my role as an intern at Manual High School. As a maintenance intern, I was tasked with working with various groups within the sporting and other departments to ensure the success of sports activities in the school. I built critical skills in sports management, whereby I appreciated the role of decision making and judgment in establishing good sports management practices. Hence, through the internship project as a maintenance intern, I became a decisive personality. Sports management is a profession that demands massive collaboration with other people. I had to work with experts in the various facilities to establish the weaknesses within the facilities. For instance, when evaluating the state of the football pitch, I relied heavily on football coaches and other personnel in the department. This collaborative behavior within the maintenance sector helped me understand the role of expertise in sports management.
Sports management is highly linked to other disciplines within the socioeconomic aspect of life. Through my role as a maintenance intern, I learned the importance of business in sports management. The success of any team relies heavily on its adaptability to the current trends. Investing in teams, determines, to a greater extent, their chances of achieving success. My position gave me the knowledge that winning teams have a strong background in investment and support from their institutions. Teams can only win through investment in facilities, coaches, and other resources in the sports industry. As a future manager, I have to influence teams to win through my business approach to sports management. I learned various techniques I can use in using business to achieve success for the teams within my jurisdiction. As a manager, I must advise the school board to invest in sports facilities and equipment. The business perspective of management also demands that I reduce expenditures like inventory management to save for sports improvement projects. My responsibility at Manual High limited my ability to conduct sports management activities like maintenance using technology. I was highly fixed in the manual approach of maintenance, which limited my understanding of technology. However, through the little exposure I had on technology, I understood that its application could greatly help sports managers establish cheaper options for running activities.
My internship activity also enabled me to understand the concept of student eligibility in sports management. Manual High School helped me understand how learners can be eligible or ineligible for participating in various sports activities within the US. Sports-governing bodies express various regulations that learners have to comply with to compete at the district and other levels. As an intern, I ensured all the students within the different teams complied with the stipulated regulations. Failure to comply with the eligibility guidelines attracts massive fines from KHSSA with the disqualification of an entire team being a possible risk for laxity in this job. Schools that fail to comply with the eligibility regulations can also be put under probation, warnings, or advisement. As a school sports manager, it would be a massive failure for your team to be disqualified because of eligibility principles, which can quickly be resolved through keenness and carefulness. Through this role, I was able to reflect on the sports management theories learned throughout the course. For instance, I understood leading, directing, controlling, and planning in ensuring students are eligible to participate in sports.
The internship project at Manual High School also introduced me to intercollegiate and interscholastic sports in the US. Various interscholastic relationships govern schools at districts, local, and national levels, with KHSAA Bylaws representing state laws for gauging the legitimacy of participants in sports events. Aspects of academic integrity and competitive balance are critical, and a sports manager must understand them critically. Eligibility laws differ across the various levels in the US sports sector. However, transfer rules and medical assessments are critical considerations when assessing the eligibility of learners to participate in specific sports.
The internship project also helped me understand other eligibility factors like minimum academic requirements, home-schooling, misconduct, transfers, and maximum age limits. Through this internship, I understood why the governing bodies have the restrictions, as they have social, political, and economic implications on the education sector. Community involvement in sports can also help in establishing better sports activities. The internship project helped me understand why a sports manager must include parents and society members in building strong teams.
The internship project also exposed me to the coordination of students, parents, and coaches to establish successful teams. In this project, I was requested to chair a meeting for planning pre-season activities and rationale within the school sports department. The coordinated meeting is critical in helping all the parties raise their issues, begin a season with a clear focus, and have all members on the same page. Interactions between students and their mentors help in building autonomy for successful sports activities. As a sports manager, I must maintain sportsmanship in coordinating these group meetings. The meeting allowed me to guide the parents on effective conduct during the fall season. Students are highly motivated by their parents' involvement in sports activities, with studies suggesting that schools with higher parent involvement record better results (Holden et al., 2015). As a sports manager, I must tell these three groups the new regulations and requirements before every fall. I was tasked with ensuring all the stakeholders were aware of the changes in the sports curriculum, a factor which will help in the physical and psychological preparation of students. For instance, I told the groups the new regulations by NFHS that have been influenced by the global pandemic (Barbara, 2020). The task also enabled me to tell the parents, students, and coaches, what was expected of them during the games.
The first responsibility I had as an intern at Manual High School was "Athletic Director's Collaboration." In this project, I was determined to learn the governance, policy formulation, and other management activities within the sports management career. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I was unable to learn through face-to-face interactions. In this meeting, the Athletic Directors discussed the progress of Fall Sports with the main focus being Jefferson County Public School. The meeting covered numerous components, critical to the sports management sector. Policy setting involved the determination of various regulations, which the regulations and the roles of athletics director. An athletics director is charged with multiple administrative roles, whereby they oversee all sports activities within a school. Most athletics directors have extensive experience in sports activities; however, their role limits them from exercising their experience through direct contact with the sportspeople. With the outbreak of COVID-19, the AD's role in the sports department has been further worsened.
Hiring and supervision is also a critical role of an AD, which I learned through the meeting. An AD hires, supervises, and fires coaches and other staff within the athletics department. During this meeting, it was established that Jefferson County needed to hire more staff to ensure compliance with the set health guidelines. The AD set the various job descriptions for all the newly developed positions in the sports department. The AD also evaluated the plans of the multiple coaches in preparedness for the upcoming season.
The AD is also tasked with budgeting and fundraising to help the sports department. Through the meeting, I understood how Ads perform this critical role within their line of duty. The D was faced with financial constraints due to COVID-19. Nevertheless, the meeting taught me various experiences concerning budgeting and fundraising. In this role, AD budgets the purchase of new equipment and also organizes fundraising activities for the multiple activities in the sports department. An Athletics director should also perform games and events planning. Students may have to share gyms and fields, hence the need for better planning activities. The AD also monitors players and teams within a school by ensuring adherence to the National Federation of State High School Associations' regulations. The week was massive for me, with various learning experiences. The meeting and training process gave me a broader knowledge of statistical analysis, scouting activities, and all the legal procedures in athletics.
The internship project also tasked me with ensuring journal entry for all the students. In this role, I was expected to ensure that the students had all the requirements for participating in the games. The role required me to ensure the learners were well-prepared for the games. These preparations included the payment of necessary monies like medical covers and documentation of any requirements in the games. Through this role, I ensured that the parents prepared their children for the games by providing them with the necessary support and documentation. I performed the role by requiring all the interested. All the prospective participants were required to provide their medical examination reports to the sports department. The report covered their medical status within the last year. As a sports manager, it is my role to ensure that the students are well and do not have any medical conditions that may affect their health and performance. Participants must also submit their emergency details, which will help in any emergencies during the games. The journal entry activity also covered medical assessments like surgeries that students may have undergone in the past. Supplements and any history of medication are also included in this report.
In this internship exercise, I was also exposed to the role of planning for fall games. Through this assignment, I understood the various bodies concerned with planning sporting activities in high school. I participated in planning for Kentucky fall sports. I was able to understand the environmental factors that affect the sporting activities in high schools. As a sports manager, the planning exercise is the most critical function that I must perform. In this activity, I was able to appreciate what I learned in class about the relationships between cultural, political, and social aspects in planning high school games.
The journal entry activity also ensured that the students and parents sign their consent forms after reading them. In this role, I related the concept of consent in sports, whereby all the participants must indicate they were not coerced to participate in sports. The consent also covers the aspects of waiver, eligibility rules, and risks for all people. Legal guardians and parents were also required to consent to allow their students to be in the interscholastic games. The journal entry role also helped me to examine the physical appearance of the learners before the games. For instance, aspects like eye, throat, and hearing were critically evaluated in this stage.
References
Barbara Bean-Mellinger. (2020). An Athletic Director's Duties. Work - Chron.com. Retrieved 4 July 2020, from https://work.chron.com/athletic-directors-duties-15807.html .
KHSAA Bylaws, https://khsaa.org/common_documents/handbook/bylaws.pdf (2019-2020)
https://khsaa.org/general/khsaa-handbook/
Holden, S. L., Forester, B. E., Keshock, C. M., & Pugh, S. F. (2015). How to Effectively Manage Coach, Parent, and Player Relationships. Sports Journal. https://thesportjournal.org/article/how-to-effectively-manage-coach-parent-and-player-relationships/
Hoye, R., Smith, A. C., Nicholson, M., & Stewart, B. (2015). Sport management: Principles and applications. Routledge.
