Background

I would say I identify as a football coach and that was my passion for a long time. Football coaching brought me back to academia to pursue a master’s degree in coaching and was the springboard for my subsequent PhD in sport management.

My dissertation is titled ‘Capacity for Sport for Development’, so the idea that a place – the Centre for Sport Capacity – exists to support local sport organizations achieve their goals really aligns with my values and research interests. Dr. Weese said it best, “If we’re not serving practitioners, we’re not serving sport management”.

Teaching

I’m teaching Organizational Behaviour in Sport Organizations (SPMA 2P21) and Leadership in Sport Management (SPMA 4P09). I’ve also taught the Introduction to Sport Management course (SPMA 1P91) and Negotiation of Deals and Dispute Resolution (SPMA 4P96). They’re all great and offer unique challenges from the instructor’s perspective. I love the enthusiasm in the first-year class. And because I started at Brock in September 2018, I’m just now seeing students in SPMA 4P09 who I remember from SPMA 1P91. That’s a highlight for me.

Research Work/Projects

I’m most excited about research that impacts sport organizations. Action Research (AR) (or, participatory action research) in particular, where sport organization leaders/members and academic researchers collaborate (as co-researchers) to solve a problem.

As an example, at the most recent North American Society for Sport Management (N.A.S.S.M.) conference, I and two CSC colleagues (Dr. Shannon Kerwin and Dr. Pat Reid) presented findings from an AR-inspired project titled Building Coaching Capacity at One Provincial Sport Organization. With that project, the P.S.O. was interested to learn more about their coaches/members experiences and expectations of the P.S.O..

Accomplishments

Earlier I mentioned I identify as a football coach. Well, the more you coach the more opportunities you have to be around some amazing people and amazing athletes. This year I enjoyed watching L.A. Chargers wide receiver Josh Palmer. I had the pleasure to coach Josh (and so many other great young men) as part of the 2015 Team Ontario at the International Bowl Series at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. To my knowledge, that may be the last Team Ontario to defeat Team U.S.A. at that event.

And just this week, Tanya Walter was hired by the B.C. Lions. She’s the first full-time female coaching hire in the Canadian Football League (CFL) and was a great player with the 2017 Football Canada Women’s National Team that I was fortunate to coach.