A Mixed Methods Approach to Identifying Administration Issues Pertinent in Interscholastic Sports

The purpose of this study was to investigate three propositions: a) What are the administration issues most pertinent to interscholastic sport today, as well as the next five years?, b) How important are those administration issues to athletic administrators?, and c) What are the potential implications of those pertinent administration issues to practicing athletic administrators? The literature provides a general overview of relevant issues surrounding interscholastic athletics. However, the importance and implications of relevant issues to practicing high school athletic administrators are difficult to discern. To answer the first proposition, the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) provided 10 contemporary administration issues that were most pertinent to interscholastic sport today, as well as the next five years. To answer the second proposition, a Likert-Scale was created so that practicing athletic administrators could rate each issue on a scale of 5 = extremely important to 1 = very little importance. A national study was conducted with athletic directors from the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (N = 170) annual conference. A one-tailed ANOVA was executed to determine significant differences among the 10 administration issues identified by the MSHSL. Four issues were found to be significant; Athletic Facilities, Athletic Training, Health Issues and Travel Teams. A Games-Howell post hoc was executed to determine significant differences across geographical regions of the United States. For the third proposition, semi-structured interviews were completed to provide insight on the implications for practicing athletic administrators. The results offer insight from which further investigations could be conducted to continue building on policies that influence interscholastic athletic administrators’ day-to-day accountability when overseeing their athletic programs

Using biometrics for sport venue management in a post 9-11 era

The purpose of this paper is to assess technologies, both currently available and under development, which may be used to assist sport facility and other venue operators in preempting a terrorist act or some other form of organized act of violence. The attack on the World Trade Center on September 11 highlighted the vulnerability of large facilities to attack by committed terrorists. Facility managers and venue operators must face the challenge of protecting physical assets as well as participants and spectators. This technology forecast focuses on technologies associated with biometrics. The proposition presented has been based, in part, on information provided from interviews with industry experts from a variety of professions, including facility management, biometric technologies, event security and anti-terrorism from both the private and government sectors. A review of published and unpublished materials associated with biometrics is also presented as part of the technology forecast

Sport information directors and homologous reproduction

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of homologous reproduction (Kanter, 1993) on the number of women serving as Sports Information Directors (SIDs) in intercollegiate athletics. Previous research has demonstrated that the dominant group (men) in power in sports systematically reproduces itself by hiring more men than women for coaching and administrative positions (Lovett and Lowry, 1994; Stangl and Kane, 1991). The result is the entrenchment of male hegemony (Schell and Rodriquez, 2000) in sport. This study analysed the administrative structure within NCAA athletic departments (n = 369) to determine if the sex of the Athletic Director (AD) influenced the sex of the Sports Information Director (SID). The findings suggested that ADs did engage in homologous activity

Amount of photographic coverage for boys and girls on the sports page of newspapers as related to circulation size.

The present study analyzed the amount of photographic coverage devoted to high school athletics over 1 year. Previous research pertaining to sex differences in newspaper coverage of sports has focused on the amount of written coverage given. Present findings indicated that, as with written coverage given female athletes, photographic coverage differed significantly by newspaper circulation. Specifically, the larger the newspaper circulation, the more inequitable the photographic coverage of high school athletics was for girls

Amount of newspaper coverage of high school athletics for boys and girls on sports page and newspaper circulation

This study analyzed the amount of coverage for high school athletics in 43 newspapers with small circulation by devoting 40% of their interscholastic athletics coverage to girls in athletics, printed significantly more articles about girls' athletics than did the newspapers with medium (33%) or large (32%) circulation. Therefore, the smaller the newspaper circulation, the more equitable the coverage of athletics for girls and boys. This finding was consistent with some prior work but not all

Analyzing Ethics in the Administration of Interscholastic Sports Three Key Gender-related Ethical Dilemmas Faced by Educational Leaders

Athletic administrators and decision makers within interscholastic athletics are expected to embrace a code of ethics that serves as a set of rules to guide their professional behavior. Included within this code are areas of controversy that present gender-related ethical dilemmas for administrators. Three specific ethical dilemmas involve (1) providing equitable participation opportunities for students, (2) instituting ethical hiring practices for coaches, athletic administrators and educational leaders and (3) creating an environment and organizational culture that embraces fairness. This article examines these three critical dilemmas

Florida ADs and Homologous Reproduction

Interscholastic athletics, Gender inequity, Homologous reproduction,

Using a Content Analysis to Examine the Gendering of Sports Newspaper Personnel and Their Coverage

The purpose of this study was to determine if the coverage given to female and male interscholastic athletics was a function of the gender of the individuals who make up newspaper sports departments. The degree to which males controlled and dominated the newspaper coverage of interscholastic sports was also assessed. The study revealed, from the examination of 1792 articles and 827 photographs, that the newspaper media was clearly the domain of males who made up 91.4% of the reporters, 78.6% of the photographers, 100% of the executive sports editors, and 91.3% of the high school sports editors. The study further determined that there was no association between the gender of the newspaper personnel and the amount of coverage given to female and male interscholastic athletics. Female and male reporters, photographers, and editors were found equally responsible for the under-represented coverage of girls' interscholastic athletics