{"id":68378,"date":"2020-01-07T13:33:54","date_gmt":"2020-01-07T18:33:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=68378"},"modified":"2020-10-02T13:34:08","modified_gmt":"2020-10-02T17:34:08","slug":"educating-the-big-leagues-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2020\/01\/educating-the-big-leagues-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"Educating the big leagues\u2019 leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a clear day, if you look out from one of the many skyscrapers throughout Toronto, you can see Brock University\u2019s Schmon Tower across Lake Ontario. The Greater Toronto Area is home to many Brock Sport Management (SPMA) graduates, some of whom share a unique and resilient bond.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Brock SPMA graduates are now in some of the most sought-after positions in the Canadian sports industry.<\/span><\/p>\n

They all started out in the trenches as interns and possess a rare trait that helped them secure the coveted positions they\u2019re in today: calculated patience.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Jon Goodwillie.<\/p><\/div>\n

This past June, Jon Goodwillie (BSM \u201903), was at the forefront of national history when the Toronto Raptors won the NBA Championship, marking the first time a Canadian team won professional basketball\u2019s biggest prize. In September, he went from head video co-ordinator to assistant coach of the Raptors.<\/span><\/p>\n

He says that Brock allowed him to combine his passion for basketball with the business side of sports.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI had an interest in the strategy of the game and thought maybe I\u2019d get into coaching,\u201d says Goodwillie. \u201cI ended up getting a great opportunity with my internship\u2026 Everything kind of grew from there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He says the level of commitment required by everyone in an organization to have a successful season is something relatable for all sport teams.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much that goes on behind the scenes to getting the players ready for performing their best,\u201d says Goodwillie. \u201cIn a regular season game, a playoff game, an NBA Finals game \u2014 that\u2019s the culmination of so much work.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Corey Wray.<\/p><\/div>\n

A short distance from the Raptors\u2019 home court, Corey Wray (BSM \u201907) describes the \u201cinvaluable\u201d lessons he learned through SPMA in his journey in becoming the assistant general manager of Major League Soccer\u2019s Toronto FC.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know that there\u2019s a book that teaches you how to deal with the Toronto hockey media or rabid soccer fans, but you have a head start coming out of the program,\u201d says Wray.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Toronto FC chooses interns and students to join their team, they look for top talent. Wray says it\u2019s no coincidence that many come from Brock.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cComing from the SPMA program, it leaves me and others who are hiring interns with confidence,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kirsty Spence, Associate Dean for Teaching and Undergraduate Studies in the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences and former Chair of SPMA, helped Wray become Toronto FC\u2019s first-ever intern when he was a student.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She says the hunger of so many students to get into the program is due largely to its successful graduates, experiential learning opportunities and faculty who are academic leaders.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look from the perspective of a high school student considering their options and they follow any kind of sport or sport league, they start to put names to faces and institutions to those names and faces,\u201d says Spence. \u201cPeople interested in SPMA track where general and assistant managers studied.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She says SPMA graduates who find success share key components.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey seem to find their niche early and deepen their experience within it,\u201d says Spence, noting that many distinguish themselves while students at Brock in a positive way. \u201cPeople who find success in the industry are all masterful at developing and maintaining interpersonal relationships in a genuine way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Wray was in the same class as Kyle Dubas (BSM \u201907), who is now the general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI remember when [Dubas] was hired as the assistant GM,\u201d says Wray. \u201cIt was pretty exciting. There are things we\u2019re all doing that we can learn from each other.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When Dubas became the Leafs\u2019 assistant general manager in 2014, he brought the iconic Canadian franchise into the modern era of professional sports, drilling deep into data and analytics when making key personnel decisions. In 2018, he became the Leafs\u2019 general manager.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Erin Mathany.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cBrock, the University in general and the Sport Management program in particular, is where I learned how to learn and I was always challenging myself to learn more,\u201d Dubas told a group of SPMA graduates in 2015. \u201cThat was massive in terms of how it shaped me and my career. Without that lesson, I don\u2019t know where I\u2019d be or what I\u2019d become.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Erin Mathany (BSM \u201905), Vice-President, Marketing and Partnerships for the Canada Games Council, was in her third year at Brock when Vancouver won the bid to host the 2010 Olympic Games, a feat that inspired the Olympic fan to pursue a career in multi-sport games.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes as students, we underestimate the role the program or the professors can play in our journey,\u201d she says. \u201cMany SPMA profs are closely connected to alumni and can help build a bridge from university to industry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mathany, who also sits on the Brock University Alumni Board, has a passion for remaining engaged with the University.<\/span><\/p>\n

She notes that the strong SPMA alumni network also includes a top cohort of female graduates who are industry leaders, including Holly Gentemann (BSM \u201903), Director of Events, Alomar Sports Inc., who spent 15 years with the Toronto Blue Jays, and Krystle Krasnaj (BSM \u201806), Senior Manager, Integrated Marketing, NHL.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Andrew Tinnish.<\/p><\/div>\n

For Andrew Tinnish (BRLS \u201999, BSM \u201901), a love of baseball is what led the now assistant general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays to Brock. Winning two national championships on Brock\u2019s varsity baseball team (\u201898\/\u201999 and \u201899\/\u201900) were highlights from his time as a Badger.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe hard work put into those championships, as well as in the classroom, helped me get to this point in my career,\u201d says Tinnish. \u201cIt\u2019s helped me develop some resilience and work ethic.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The profoundness of having a cohort of Brock SPMA graduates at the top of the Canadian sports industry isn\u2019t lost on Tinnish.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He says he hopes to see more SPMA graduates join the ranks of leadership in the sports industry. In order to make it happen, he encourages SPMA students and recent graduates to exhaust every resource and opportunity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI take a lot of pride in seeing SPMA graduates doing as well as they have,\u201d said Tinnish. \u201cIt\u2019s obviously rewarding to have the position that I have, but it took a lot of time, effort and work \u2014 blood, sweat and tears \u2014 to get to this point. These jobs are hard to find and hard to get. None of this happens overnight.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On a clear day, if you look out from one of the many skyscrapers throughout Toronto, you can see Brock University\u2019s Schmon Tower across Lake Ontario. The Greater Toronto Area is home to many Brock Sport Management (SPMA) graduates, some of whom share a unique and resilient bond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":68388,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[119,36,3319,1,4,58,4523],"tags":[3333,814,6789,5792,4753,4994,7488,8242,6360,2111,57,3331,349,5793,2109,6872],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68378"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68378"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68394,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68378\/revisions\/68394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}