By Andrew Smith
The Adelphi Sport Management program launched an entirely new curriculum this academic year in which students are given the opportunity to pursue many different aspects of the sport management field through one of two specialized concentrations. The first concentration allows students to pursue their interests in marketing, communication, management and entrepreneurship while the second track centers around youth sport programming and recreational sport administration.
Greg Bouris, the undergraduate program director, said an unintended positive outcome of the new curriculum is the uptick in current students picking up the sport management minor degree. Currently, the program has about 100 undergraduate and graduate students, with about 70 of those undergraduates. The program has brought in many professionals from the industry to serve as adjunct professors, including Frank Supovitz, who is a pro sports event expert with experience planning NFL Super Bowls, and MLB Drafts and certified NBA agent Ian Rubel. Combined this staff has over 100 years of top-level professional sport experience.
In addition to the changes in the curriculum, two current sport management students took the initiative and established an Adelphi sanctioned student organization to further promote and progress the development of the program. The Sports Management Club was founded on Dec. 5, 2022 by Danielle Puglisi, who is a junior, and this reporter, also a junior. The new co-presidents faced a tremendous task to establish the new student organization and had to work together and present a strong plan on why this organization should even exist. The university gives students who want to be a student leader the opportunity to do so.
“This was an opportunity that we could not pass down,” Puglisi said, adding she saw it as a great way to not only add to her own resume but to also give her peers amazing opportunities.
The club had their “kickoff” meeting on Feb. 15 with eight students playing a version of “Sport Management Jeopardy” and an open forum. Puglisi and this reporter gave the participants an opportunity to offer suggestions on what direction they would like the club to go.
The mission of this club is to provide students who are interested in the business of sport with special opportunities to learn more about a possible career in this field. The mission will be accomplished by inviting guest speakers from the industry, trips to local sport organizations and facilities, as well as opportunities on campus. The organization will encourage collaboration among the students. Connections are very important in the business world, and this club will allow students to form strong connections with their peers.
“We are looking at several different guest speakers, from both on and off campus,” Puglisi said. “We also have several connections to local professional teams for potential trips to give our students the opportunity to see the sport business world first hand.”
Bouris, who is the club’s faculty advisor, said, “The new student-organized and led Sport Management Club will help reinforce the program's goal to establish a sense of community within the major and connect students to executives working in the industry. The relationships and bonds the students will build through their involvement with the club will likely stick with them for the rest of their lives.”
Bouris congratulated the co-founders. “As the undergraduate sport management program director, I tip my cap to the students who worked diligently and put in the time to meet all of the university's requirements to establish the club. Although it may have seemed like a daunting task, I believe the students who are stepping up to get the club off the ground will be able to leverage the experience to enhance their own job prospects down the road. The sport management faculty is very proud of these young leaders and we're confident that this effort will help enhance the reputation of the program both on and off campus.”
Junior Jason Goldman was in attendance during the debut meeting. “I thought that the meeting was a great start to what will be a great club for students who are sport management majors to gather together and connect with one another and professionals in the industry,” he said.
If you’d like to join the next meeting or learn more, keep an eye out on MyAU Life and around campus for updates from the Sport Management Club.