<p>Just wandering what my son could major in if his interest is sports, maybe coaching or something related. Was going to search ideas, but knew I'd be better off coming here and asking the experts.</p>
<p>My S's roommate is majoring in Sports Management. There are quite a few good programs and many of the kids get involved with the school's sports programs. S's rm is the manager of the basketball team. Athletic Training is another possibility.</p>
<p>Most kids around here who are interested in coaching major in some sort of education degree. In our state, to coach in high sch. you must also teach classes at the sch. My neighbor's S majored in History and got a teaching certificate and also took coaching classes along the way. He was able to intern as an asst. coach for a high sch. football team during his last two years of college. He was also a manager for his college basketball team.</p>
<p>Another major that is related to sports is Parks and Recreation management.</p>
<p>Occupational therapist...I knew someone many years ago who did this and landed up being a sports therapist for the NY Giants.</p>
<p>If he has any interest in science, he might study kinesiology.</p>
<p>The great thing about sports is that they're preeetty much everywhere! Your son should be able to fit this interest right in alongside his academic and personal strengths.</p>
<p>Interested in business? Sports management. Great writer? Sports journalism. Psychology? Sports psychologist. Coaching fits in either on its own or alongside a desire to teach another subject. Within academia, I imagine that sports could be a research focus within a number of different fields...neurology, psychology, sociology, _______ studies. Film buff? Someone's gotta handle all the A League of Their Own and Return of the Titans of the industry! </p>
<p>At my school, there's a professor who teaches in the bio and neuro departments. His current research specialty is golf, but in general, he's something of a 'sports neurologist.' He teaches classes like "Analysis of Human Motor Skills," where final projects all focus on some sort of athletic movement. There ends up being great class-level research re: dance, figure skating, bocce ball, basketball, tennis, etc. This professor teaches a few other relevant courses, and also does summer research with students. Great opportunities for a sports-loving science student (or science-loving athlete).</p>
<p>Of course, there are majors and paths that make obvious sense for a sports-lover, but athletics are definitely a broad and flexible interest. If your son isn't sure of his goals, but knows he wants to do something related to sports, he shouldn't have to worry...lots of roads have the potential to get him there!</p>
<p>ETA: If your son is just undecided and stressed about that, I suppose this may not be helpful. Maybe it'll take some of the pressure off, but an appointment with career services could also be very helpful. Among other things, they may be able to help him do a sports-related internship search, which could generate ideas (and perhaps actual opportunities).</p>
<p>Student615- great answer!</p>
<p>There's also a sports focus in Community Health. We typically think of it being related to the medical field but there is an emerging(albeit obvious) awareness that sports really are connected to public health</p>
<p>Another idea-generator:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.jobmonkey.com/sports/%5B/url%5D">http://www.jobmonkey.com/sports/</a></p>
<p>^ The menu on the left lets you learn about some different careers within the industry (though it's by no means an exhaustive list, as this thread has already demonstrated). Towards the bottom of the list is "Sports Internships," which is also worth checking out (and this section suggests other sites which might be more helpful, such as MonsterTrak, which your son will likely have access to at college).</p>
<p>pb&j
Son is a 2nd year Sports and Entertainmenet Management major at the University of South Carolina(Columbia).His is a business based major.Other directions take you into coaching,recreation management.Some kids combine Sports interest with journalism,broadcasting.
You can take a look at his departments website for some good info(<a href="http://www.hrsm.edu/)%5B/url%5D">www.hrsm.edu/)</a>, also the website of the dept at University of Mass -Amherst is very informative(<a href="http://www.isenberg.umass.edu/sportmgt/).The%5B/url%5D">www.isenberg.umass.edu/sportmgt/).The</a> website of the North American Society for Sport Management (NASSM.com) has good iinfo for student programs.Look on the left hand side of the opening page for subcategories:Sports Manangement programs. This will take you to the websites of most college programs covering these fields. This is where we did our initial research into programs.</p>
<p>OP: You can also go to the College Search forum and do a "search" for sport science, sport management, or kinesiology, and find numerous threads discussing the topic and listing colleges. </p>
<p>For kinesiology, for example, there are a broad range of colleges from the very selective (Rice, UMich) to those that pretty much take all comers. The large universities tend to have impressive programs in these areas, but there are umpteen number of smaller colleges (the lesser known types) that offer this major all over the country. Your S should have a lot of options. If you go to the princeton review website and search for specific majors, you'll get a list that even highlights those colleges where the major is among the most popular. </p>
<p>Some of the colleges have two distinct tracks to the major: one more focusing on education and a career as a coach or phys ed teacher and one more focused on interdisciplinary science and heading toward a career in physical or occupational therapy. Once you or he zero in on some specific colleges, read the descriptions of the major and the facilities and internship programs available.</p>
<p>Amazing.....great information....Thank you, thank you, thank you.</p>
<p>you are welcome lol I always come here first when needing info on any topic,there's always someone who knows something,be it travel,money matters,real estate........</p>
<p>We were just talking about this last night - my son is a HS Junior. He truly does love sports - not just playing, but many aspects - broadcasting, writing, facts, statistics, coaching - you name it. My fear is that a million other guys have the same thought and with broadcasting at least, I think a select few acheive great success at it. </p>
<p>I've often wondered about "sports" behind the scenes of broadcasts - the statisticians, the cameramen, etc. What kind of experience/degree do they have??? Any thoughts..? </p>
<p>I would love to see him go the route of occupational/physical therapy - he/we need to explore the real job aspects of these careers...any OT/PT people out there to share experience/need in these field in relation to sports?</p>
<p>Look for colleges with big sports programs where there will be great intership opportunities. If you choose a smaller college try to go to a city that has professional sports where there will be more internship opportunities. Internships help teach career skills, define career goals and lead to jobs and job contacts. </p>
<p>Another career path to consider is being a high school or college level athletic director.</p>
<p>Here are a few more majors which can be used to build a sports oriented career
marketing, business, statistics, communications, exercise biology, physical therapy, physical education and psychology.</p>
<p>I'm in a college class now called Sports, Society, and Science. It's interdisciplinary, and we have professors come from across the university. Each professor teaches about two class meetings, and then we switch topics and switch professors. All of these people are, obviously, professors; they are also researches into different aspects of sport. Our topics so far have included: religion and sport, anthropology of sport, psychology of performance and competition (i.e. "choking"), the Olympics (in the US we only think of the Olympic Games; in other countries, they think of the Olympic social movement), and literature and sport (significant sport metaphors). We still have to do sports and the law, economics of sport, statistics and sport, physics of sport (baseball is the focus, I believe), and probably one or two other topics that I can't remember. </p>
<p>All of these fields exist for research, which can be very gratifying if your kid is very intellectual and into sports, and some of them have associated "jobs," such as with statisticians, people who work for the Olympics or associated organizations, people who design sports equipment (physics), and many others. Remember that there are design, marketing, managing, technology and other jobs at companies like Nike and New Balance. There are companies that design baseball bats and footballs. Stadiums need managers. Colleges have sports departments; many high schools have athletic directors, who may also coach or teach. There are orthopedists, historians (think: Hall of Fame museums), and thousands of people who work in other industries but teach Little League or kiddie soccer, watch sports every night, or ref on the weekends.</p>
<p>One idea would be to read sports related job descriptions - to really see what the requirements may be - check out the jobs listing at <a href="http://www.ncaa.org%5B/url%5D">www.ncaa.org</a> - under employment and just review the summaries of some things. There are many jobs available in the sports field - just depends on which direction one wants to go.</p>
<p>OP - are there any sports in particular that your son is interested in?? Does he play them now - any interest to play in college?? Does he have any idea what would be his general area of interest for a sports career??</p>
<p>my d is a sport management major at SUNY Cortland- during her summer orientation, it was made clear that there are alot more kids interested in a "sports career" than there are decent paying jobs. So at Cortland, they also emphasis a solid business background in addition to the sports management courses. I'm thrilled with that, as I do not think my kid would have ever taken basic business courses like marketing or accounting if she had majored in a social science.
There is also an incredible emphasis on Internships. We're lucky we live in the NY metro region as there are lots of sports opportunities in our backyard. D interned for a ML Lacrosse team this summer and received credit from her school.
as Cathymee said- I also liked the NASSM website. It will link you to the sport management curriculum at each school. You'll see that the sport management major can be apart of the Health Dept, Parks and recreation, kinesiology etc. etc. depending on the school.
personally I do like the emphasis on business, as it may make a sport management major a bit more marketable.
pb&J- any part of the country your son is interested in? we may be able to steer you to some good programs in your neck of the woods!</p>
<p>Athletics have SOOOO many job opportunities available.</p>
<p>I'm a pre-athletic training student currently and look to be admitted into our athletic training program at the end of this semester. It's definitely my love of sports that got me even remotely interested in a medical field. The nice thing about an athletic training degree and certification is that it opens a ton of doors. If you decide sports aren't a career you want, then you could look into PT. Or working to develop exercise programs in corporations. Or go to the business side. Ever thought it'd be cool to work rodeo? One of the professors at my school volunteers when the rodeo is in the area. Our program director works with the Para-Olympics.</p>
<p>So many directions you can go in sports!</p>
<p>coarranged
your class sounds very interesting and your post is a great summation.
Like Marny's D (lol I remember when both our kids were looking for schools) S's major is business based.It includes economics, accounting,management,marketing.He does his first internship this summer (after soph year) for credit and a second one in the senior year. He's had great networking opportunities in his departmeent as they run an industry-wide academic conference every year (one reason he liked that school) where he volunteers and next year will have a leadership role.There are so many opportunities involving Sport without having to be a player.The only admonition is,like any other field, you must be prepared to pay your dues,take that first low level job and work like the Dickens to advance. You're not going to graduate and be general manager of the Yankees.</p>