Member Showcases

  • July Member Showcase – Raul Rosales Zavaleta

    Wednesday, July 10, 2024 | By

    Background 

    My name is Raul Rosales, and I am from Lima, Peru. I participated in the Visiting International Scholar (VIS) program in the Sport Management department from May 2023 to April 2024. During this time, I had the chance to be part of the CSC activities as a participant and then as a member. 

    I have been involved in the academic field since 2008 when I started as a Full-time faculty member at the Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas’ School of Business. At that moment, I was teaching International Business courses, but my interest was the Sport Management field. In 2010, my institution designated me as the lead coordinator of Peru´s first Sport Management undergraduate program: Business Administration and Sport Business. We started our new program in 2011 and in 2012, I became the chair until now. 

    I applied for the VIS program after getting my Doctor in Business Administration (DBA) degree to continue developing my research skills. I found at Brock not only outstanding academics but also great people with whom I want to continue my professional development in academia with. To become a member of the Center for Sport Capacity is an opportunity to continue my relationship with Brock University and a commitment to be part of the activities and work on joint projects such as conferences or research projects. 

    Research Area

    My main research interest is to contribute to the understanding of how sport could contribute to having a better world. Topics such as the governance of the sport that is related to the board role and activities, life skills development through the sport coaches’ activities, and sport volunteer behaviors are some of the research projects with which I am currently involved. 

    What is your Favourite TV Show? 

    Breaking Bad. I am watching it again. Some people might think that it is a series based on drug dealers, but I believe it is about human nature. 

    What are your current Hobbies and Interests? 

    Gardening. I like to spend some time trying to learn more about bougainvillea (ornamental vines), molles (trees) and Ficus (bush).  

    What’s your Favourite Sports team? 

    Club Alianza Lima (professional soccer team in Peru) 

    Achievements/Memorable Moments 

    Becoming a father. Lucia (21) and Sofia (9) are the greatest achievements of my life. It was a life game changer. 

    Future Plans 

    I plan to continue contributing to a better society through sport.  

    Categories: Member Showcases

  • April Member Showcase – Nick Lacoste

    Tuesday, April 23, 2024 | By

    Background 

    Through my past work in Indigenous hockey spaces, I have executed research projects, conducted surveys, and uncovered significant statistical insights concerning the journeys of Indigenous hockey players. I plan to share these findings through the CSC’s platform, with the main goal being to inform the public about the inequities in some Indigenous youth hockey experiences as well as to promote under-scouted high-level Indigenous hockey players. My expertise in statistical analysis (both quantitative and qualitative) has led me to new conclusions about current Indigenous hockey players upon learning about their paths to junior or high school hockey. I plan to present these findings to demonstrate the differences between some Indigenous athletic journeys and some privileged athletic opportunities that co-exist in neighbouring cities/communities. In doing so, I hope to contribute to the growing collection of Indigenous athlete research pieces and publicize issues that are not currently being promoted in mainstream media.

    Current Projects 

    Many of my research projects concern Indigenous sport through a strong partnership with the Manitoba Aboriginal Sport & Recreation Council (MASRC). One project that I recently completed was preparing important documents for the 2025 Manitoba Indigenous Summer Games. This event will be held in two nations, Norway House Cree Nation and Sagkeeng Anicinabe Nation serves as both an athletic and cultural celebration next summer. I also created the High-Level Indigenous Hockey Players Map. This has been a 5-month project to collect and organize Indigenous hockey players into a database to promote their achievements. I used my database management expertise to create database and map templates for volunteers to easily attach player info to their hometowns and eventual points on a map. The project began as a Google Doc of 80-ish names and has since become a full-fledged database with over 1000 high-level Indigenous hockey players. The Google My Map visual for this database has amassed over 32,000 views, which has completely surpassed my expectations. A special shoutout goes to Hockey Indigenous for their help throughout this process and for promoting the map on their website.

    What is your Favourite TV Show? 

    Prison Break or Bojack Horseman

    What are your current Hobbies and Interests? 

    Practically every day, I will watch, track, scout, research, or play hockey. When not focused on hockey, I like to read and play guitar or piano. I recently also started playing disc golf and I enjoy many outdoor activities like basketball and Spikeball.

    What’s your Favourite Sport? 

    My favourite sport is hockey, and my favourite team is the Dallas Stars. They don’t get much media attention in southern Ontario, but I have been following them closely since about 2014.

    Achievements/Memorable Moments 

    Being part of a panel at the Indigenous Hockey Research Network’s inaugural conference at McGill University in October 2023 was a proud personal moment. I was also selected to be a page in the Ontario Legislature when I was in Grade 7, which is a proud memory of moving to Toronto for 5 weeks in 2014 to work for the provincial government at Queen’s Park.

    Future Plans 

    During my Master’s, I plan to continue working/volunteering in my 5-6 positions if time allows. The main goal throughout my Master’s is to apply the Indigenous hockey organizational learning and knowledge from the Master’s research into a live environment. I hope to build relationships with Indigenous hockey organizations as part of working with Indigenous youth athletes. I also hope to work with non-Indigenous Junior and Professional hockey organizations over the next few years, both locally and potentially overseas. The end goal is to work in a meaningful management space within a professional hockey organization, and I will continue to work until that happens.

    Categories: Member Showcases

  • April Member Showcase – Lucas Rotondo

    Friday, April 05, 2024 | By

    Background 

    Given my experience and focus on working within the sport event space, particularly on Indigenous sport events, my area of expertise to this point in my academic and professional career has been focused on that unique intersection within the sport industry. As a result, I was approached by Stephane Friday of Hockey Indigenous to work on the upcoming National Indigenous Junior Hockey Championships (NIJHC), which has allowed me to expand on my interest for Indigenous sport and sport events by applying the knowledge and experience I’ve garnered throughout my studies and work. In discussing this role with Dr. Taylor McKee, we recognized an opportunity to leverage the volunteer capabilities of the CSC and it’s relationship with Brock’s driven Sport Management students. I plan to build out the volunteer-related logistics and access Brock’s Sport Management students on behalf of the CSC and Hockey Indigenous. Ultimately, this would allow the NIJHC to flourish through enhanced support and capacity, while also providing Brock Sport Management students the opportunity to gain hands-on event-related experience. 

    Current Projects 

    While wrapping up my fourth and final semester, I recently engaged in researching the topic of “women’s sport and representation of women’s sporting events in the media.” I learned plenty about the differences in sponsorship, media representation – both quality and quantity – and how these issues reinforce negative gender stereotypes both within sport and society.   

    My most recent project, which is ongoing, is my work on the NIJHC with Hockey Indigenous. We are a small team of volunteers which has allowed me to take on a very hands-on role. As a result, I’ve been afforded very meaningful and critical responsibilities and tasks that allow me the opportunity to apply the expertise I’ve gained from my previous work experiences and studies. For example, I’m currently working on selecting the venue for the event while being mindful of key logistical components, developing the event website and social media, facilitating the internal database and organizational materials, and related event management / administration tasks.   

    Industry work 

    Prior to my work on the NIJHC, I was tasked with creating the programming for the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) x Carnegie Initiative’s partnership, which was aimed at encouraging hockey participants to have conversations about racism within and the culture of the sport of hockey. I created synchronous and asynchronous programming so that all 60 CHL teams could participate on their own schedule, and this programming generally included a film viewing, participation in and viewing of a panel discussion, and proof of performance collection. I was also able to bring this programming to life at the 2024 Kubota CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game by gathering nearly 200 high-school students, CHL players, delegates, and panel speakers together to watch the Carnegie Initiatives “Beyond Their Years” film as well as a panel discussion regarding both the film and concepts of race and racism within hockey.   

    What is your Favourite TV Show? 

    Survivor and Attack on Titan 

    What are your current Hobbies and Interests? 

    I enjoy playing just about any sport. Right now and for the last year or so I’ve focused on volleyball and becoming a better player, though I also enjoy playing hockey, basketball, and soccer. As such, I keep up with all professional sports, following the NHL most closely. I’ve also developed an interest in working out and learning how to most efficiently train in the gym. I’ve always been interested in video games and esports, most notably Rocket League. Truthfully, I’m interested in just about anything I can compete in, whether it’s against others or myself. 

    What’s your Favourite Sport? 

    At the moment, my favourite sport to play is volleyball and my favourite sport to watch is basketball. Hockey is certainly my favourite sport in general simply because of my involvement in the sport years ago. My favourite sports teams are the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Raptors, but I always wrote “#8 Ovechkin” on my wooden street hockey sticks as a child. 

    Achievements/Memorable Moments 

    The 2023 North American Indigenous Games Opening Ceremonies was arguably my most memorable working experience so far in my career. To recount the event, I was already ecstatic to be in Halifax, Nova Scotia for the first time in my life as I love to travel and enjoy new experiences. My role throughout this event was to capture and disseminate social media content with the goal of archiving content, posting to social media channels, and creating a newsletter for the Manitoba Aboriginal Sports and Recreation Council and Team Manitoba. As such, it was my job to follow Team Manitoba throughout the street parade and into Scotiabank Centre. I can vividly remember entering the loud arena through the side door to get ahead of our athletes with the goal of recording them walking into the venue. Ironically and selfishly, I missed the first few athletes as I took a few seconds to soak in the experience; the music, the cheering, the atmosphere, the smiles on everyone’s face, the thousands of spectators already filling up and seated within the massive arena, being in a new city and province, the week I was about to have – I was thinking about all of these things over the span of just a few seconds, and I’m thankful it seemed to last so much longer. My immense effort, urgency to push myself beyond my comfort zone, desire to be excellent and stand out, and ability to adapt and excel in any task thrown my way had led me to that specific moment. As a culmination of all of my personal and professional qualities and drive, finding myself in that moment reflects as an achievement in and of itself. I’m incredibly proud and grateful for that moment as it most memorably presented me with the opportunity to reflect on why I work so hard, what’s important to me, and where I hope to take my career.  

    Future Plans 

    I hope to find myself working more closely within the sport event space, though I can truly see myself working in any role or department. I plan to return to Brock University in 2025 to study the intersection of Indigenous sport and sport events by researching the practices, execution, broader impact, and cultural significance of prominent Indigenous sporting events such as the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships, North American Indigenous Games, and National Indigenous Junior Hockey Championships. Ultimately, my personal goal is to continue pushing myself outside of my comfort zone to learn new skills, theory, and ultimately to have new experiences as a result. 

     

     

    Categories: Member Showcases

  • March Member Showcase – Joseph Dick

    Monday, March 04, 2024 | By

    Background

    As an undergraduate, I studied in the sport management program at Brock University. While I always planned to go into industry after I finished my degree, Dr. Craig Hyatt’s SPMA 4P85 class shifted my sights to the master’s program where I was fortunate enough to secure Dr. Hyatt as my supervisor.

    Currently, my work is focused on psychological and sociological antecedents to sport consumer behaviour within sport marketing. In this regard, my research currently focuses on how sport consumers navigate adverse events. Of importance here is how sport organization may leverage strategies for to garner and retain support. From a business perspective, I am fascinated by exploring what factors drive growth in fandom and consumption. Translated to application, this means to provide accurate and targeted marketing/communication practices for driving growth in revenue.

    I joined the Centre of Sport Capacity to assist in knowledge mobilization. I believe that my research could be used directly in industry.  I hope through membership, I will be able to contribute my expertise to relevant industry partners and receive support in mobilizing my knowledge.

    Current Projects

    Currently, I am working to complete my master’s thesis. This is a qualitative research project aiming to understand the impact of the upstart men’s professional golf league called LIV Golf, as it attempts to rival the traditional, historically dominant PGA Tour. Since the beginning of my thesis, the organizations have since announced a merger, meaning I am now examining the fan perspective on the events of LIV Golf through the announcement of the merger.

    I am currently writing my findings for my thesis, focusing specifically at how golf becomes “sacred” to participants, and how that influences their thoughts, feelings, and behaviours toward LIV Golf and the announcement of the merger. With the sacred elements of golf, it seems as though the sport operates as a sort of quasi-religion entity in the modern industrialized world, encompassing a variety of reactions of fans. With this, I hope to contribute to relevant literature of how sport can indeed carry “sacred” elements, which must be considered in the marketing of a sport object.

    Industry work

    Last summer, I completed a research project with the Niagara River Lions to help achieve their organizational goal surrounding increasing attendance. To utilize my consumer expertise and research skills, I drew from academic literature in consumer behaviour, psychology, and marketing to create and conduct a survey. With the findings, meaningful recommendations were made to stakeholders on how they could utilize marketing dollars more effectively to increase attendance.

    I hope to do more industry research this coming summer.

    Are you involved in any clubs/associations?

    Throughout my undergraduate and master’s degrees, I have been a member of the Brock University cross country and track and field teams.

    What is your Favourite TV Show?

    The Office.

    What are your current Hobbies and Interests?

    I am very into the research right now. Running is my other major hobby. More minor hobbies include watching professional sport, hiking, and biking.

    What’s your Favourite Sport?

    Running is my favourite participatory sport while American football is my preferred spectator sport.

    Achievements/Memorable Moments

    I would say that in my personal life, running my final collegiate OUA cross country race comes to mind as the most significant. I had been training for many years to that point and seen the team improve significantly over my tenure. This race was our last chance to qualify for the USports (Nationals) or my cross-country running career for Brock would be over. My parents and other significant people in my life came to watch and it was a highly emotional day to finally qualify for USports after 5 years on the team.

    In terms of research, the day I was accepted to the MA program is not a day I will forget soon. Dr. Hyatt called me down from my hometown of Guelph to meet him in his office and informed me that he would take me on as his grad student. That was pretty surreal, and I could not wipe the grin off my face after.

    Future Plans

    In the future, I plan to pursue my PhD and become a university professor and researcher. I have enjoyed the research journey so far, and I hope to continue down this path, while also leveraging my work to help industry.

    Categories: Member Showcases

  • July Member Showcase – Dr. Ashley Thompson

    Thursday, July 13, 2023 | By

    Background

    I did my undergrad, master’s, and Ph.D. at the University of Ottawa. During my master’s and Ph.D., I focused on understanding organizational change in nonprofit sport organizations in Canada in hopes of helping these organizations better manage change. I also had the opportunity to work on a SSHRC-funded project which set the stage for the research I do now. 

    Teaching

    This year, my courses include SPMA 4P25 –  Strategic Alliances, SPMA 2P98 – Sport Event Management, and SPMA 3P98 – Sport Event Critical Issues Management. Strategic alliances is essentially a course about managing a sport organization’s strategy – what is called strategic management. To practice developing and executing a strategy, the students participate in a semester-long simulation called The Business Strategy Game, where they run an athletic show company (think Nike or Adidas) and compete against each other. Sport Event Management introduces students to the world of sport events. We discuss events of all sizes, including small-scale, medium-sized, large-scale, major, and mega events such as the Olympic Games. Students go out into the field and evaluate a sport event themselves, connecting their experiences back to what we learn in the classroom. Finally, Sport Event Critical Issues Management can be considered an advanced course in sport events. The goal of this course is to bridge the gap from the classroom to industry practice; it’s designed for those students looking to work in sport events in the future. 

    Research Work/Project

    My research focuses on three interrelated streams: governance, strategy, and organizational change. One major project recently concluded was a study focusing on understanding the impacts of certain dynamics on the success or failure of organizational change initiatives. Specifically, the project focused on exploring how culture, politics, capacity, and technology, enabled or constrained (blocked) organizational change from happening. In addition, I was part of a SSHRC-funded project which examined the interrelationship between governance, brand, and social media in Canadian national sport organizations. From a governance standpoint, the project focused on understanding the structure and design of these contemporary sport organizations. 

    Are you involved in any clubs/associations?

    North American Society for Sport Management; European Association for Sport Management; Sport Management Association of Australia and New Zealand.

    What’s your favourite TV show right now?

    Friends, it’s always Friends. Or Suits. 

    What are your current hobbies/interests?

    I like to be outside and physically active as much as possible. My favourite hobbies include golf, hiking, basketball, and cycling. 

    What’s your favourite book?

    I don’t know if it’s a favourite, but one book that profoundly impacted me during my graduate studies was “Lean In for Graduates” by Sheryl Sandberg and Nell Scovell. It’s a great book for young professionals – particularly women – entering the workforce. I highly recommend it. 

    Categories: Member Showcases

  • July Member Showcase – Dr. Changwook Kim

    Wednesday, July 05, 2023 | By

    Background

    I am currently in my first year at Brock University, serving as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sport Management. Prior to joining Brock, I completed my PhD in Health and Human Performance with a concentration in Sport Management at the University of Florida. Before pursuing my doctoral studies, I spent three years as a full-time instructor and naval officer (first lieutenant) in the Department of Sport and Culture at the Korea Naval Academy, where I taught courses in sport and physical education to naval cadets. As a researcher, I have developed a diverse range of skills in sport management, spatial analytics, and community science through my involvement in numerous projects. I have applied spatial panel data analysis, longitudinal panel data analysis, and simulation modeling to these projects. My expertise lies in advanced statistics and methodology, utilizing tools such as Mplus, Stata, ArcGIS, Geographically Weighted Regression, and the R programming language. These advanced analytical skills allow me to contribute significantly to the design of population-based regional sport policies. Additionally, I highly value collaboration with colleagues from different disciplines to conduct interdisciplinary research and uncover new theoretical and practical insights. I seek interdisciplinary work using aspatial and spatial analytics to analyze a variety of sport-related data in the context of sport and community. To date, artificial intelligence and its derivatives (e.g., machine learning) have garnered great attention in real-world businesses and academic environments. Thus, I endeavor to combine my spatial analytical skills and traditional models (e.g., the latent growth curve model) with machine learning algorithms (e.g., random forest), employing the ArcGIS, GWR, and R programming languages. Such integrated approaches would contribute significantly to unique analytical model developments that cannot be addressed or produced by traditional methods used in sport discipline. I believe my innovative approaches could extend the limits of the existing scholarship by bringing attention to measurements and further engendering applications within sport literature. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to join the CSC team, as it allows me to not only make meaningful contributions to Brock’s high-quality academic culture but also generate and disseminate knowledge that empowers the sport industry in enhancing active, healthy, vibrant, sustainable, and resilient communities.

    Teaching

    I teach SPMA 3P07 (Quantitative Analysis for Sport Management), SPMA 3P94 (Information Systems for Sport Analytics; scheduled for Fall 2023), and SPMA 2P92 (Data Management and Technology for Sport Management; scheduled for Winter 2024). Specifically, I have invested my time and effort in course content development for advanced analytics, using Excel, R programming languages, Tableau, and ArcGIS. Advanced data analytics has recently been in the spotlight in business, public health, and community development. Thus, such analytics courses could provide students with new knowledge of sport business and sport policy as they learn how to identify and organize information in the decision-making process for designing competitive community sport resource distributions. 

    Research Work/Projects

    1. Sport Industry and Community Resilience: Kim, C., Kim, J., & Jang, S. (2021). Sport clusters and community resilience in the United States. Journal of Sport Management, 35(6), 566-580.

     Community resilience—a set of interconnected adaptive capacities based on economic, social, and community resources—has been increasingly highlighted as the key framework within which to build a model to cope with disturbances in socioeconomic conditions derived from adversity (Norris et al., 2008). Thus, in my paper published in the Journal of Sport Management, I attempted to empirically investigate the macro-level association of sport industry clusters with community resilience in light of (a) whether the clustering of sport industries influences community resilience and (b) how the association between sport industry clusters and community resilience varies across communities. To address those objectives, I applied aspatial (e.g., OLS model) and spatial (e.g., GWR model) econometric analyses to macro-level empirical data on sport industry clusters (e.g., location quotient) and community resilience across 3,108 counties in the contiguous United States. I found that some of the clusterings of sport industries (e.g., sport facilities) could play a vital role as providers of transformative industry services, whereas their overall impact on community resilience could be either positive or negative, depending on the spatial heterogeneous effect affected by the local (nonsport) assets and resources. From an overarching perspective, this study has provided insight into the question of whether the community’s sport infrastructures and businesses contribute to the development of a set of community assets and resources that help prepare for, respond to, and recover from crises and disasters.  

    1. Sport Media and Consumer Resilience: Kim, C., Kim, J., Lee, J. H., & Inoue, Y. (2023). Bouncing back: unpacking the influence of sport media on consumer resilience. Journal of Sport Management, 37(1), 51-65.

    The primary objective of this study is to empirically examine the influence of sport media consumption on the relationships between spatially explicit risks of COVID-19, resilience, and positive and negative affect, while considering social class. To accomplish this, in my paper published in the Journal of Sport Management, I employed an integrated approach that combined spatial and aspatial analyses. The results revealed that sport media consumption helps mitigate the negative impact of spatially explicit COVID-19 risks on resilience. In turn, a higher level of resilience contributes to increased positive affect and decreased negative affect. Additionally, individuals belonging to the upper social class displayed a more pronounced resilience process through sport media consumption compared to those from the lower social class. By uncovering the moderating effect of sport media consumption within social classes and addressing the spatially explicit risks of COVID-19, this study enhances our understanding of the association between sport and resilience. These findings serve as a foundation for developing resilience strategies based on sports during challenging times.  

    1. Community-Level Physical Activity and Well-Being: Kim, C., & Kim, J. (2022). Urban sprawl and leisure time physical activity. Sport Management Review, 25(4), 608-630.

    In my published article in Sport Management Review, I attempted to measure the association of urban sprawl with different leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) types at the county level (sixty-seven counties in Florida), considering spatial features (spatial heterogeneity and dependence). To that end, spatial regression analysis using GWR with GIS-based mapping was employed to address the spatial heterogeneous effect in the association between urban sprawl and LTPA types. The findings indicate that different types of LTPA (e.g., moderate and vigorous LTPA) at the county level could be positively or negatively associated with urban sprawl and, thus, affected by the spatial heterogeneous factors. This study has extended the behavior-specific framework of LTPA primarily used in existing research to area-specific modeling by identifying the spatial variability between urban sprawl and LTPA. In addition, the findings have provided a better understanding of the spatial and regional approach for increasing LTPA along with specific regional attributes that link community-level strategies. 

    Are you involved in any clubs/associations? 

    • North American Society for Sport Management 

    What’s your favourite TV show right now? 

    • Netflix K-dramas and sports documentaries 

    What are your current hobbies/interests? 

    • Gym Workouts (burning belly fat, losing weight, and trimming body) 

    What’s your favourite book? 

    • Joy of Learning by Hironawa Heisuke 

    What’s your favourite sport or sports team? 

    • Hanhwa Eagles (Korean Baseball Organization)
    • Toronto Blue Jays (Major League)
    • Florida Gators baseball (US Division I of the National Collegiate Athletics Association).

    What is the first Achievement/Memorable Moment that comes to mind? 

    Above all, I am honored to be a part of the faculty of the Department of Sport Management and a member of the Centre for Sport Capacity. I am also grateful to receive the following awards and grant:  

    1. 2021 North American Society for Sport Management: Winner of Student Research Competition
    2. 2021 North American Society for Sport Management: Recipient of Doctoral Research Grand Award
    3. 2020 North American Society for Sport Management: Final List of Student Research Competition

     

    Categories: Member Showcases

  • April Member Showcase – Dr. Hilary Findlay

    Friday, April 29, 2022 | By

    Background

    A number of years into a career in physical education I realized it wasn’t the vehicle to realize my broader goals. I returned to university to study law at the University of Alberta and began practicing with a mid sized law firm. I came to see I could start using my legal skills to help sport organizations become more aware of their legal rights and obligations. It was a time before ‘sport law’ was a thing, nevertheless I teamed up with another professional, to build a legal and consulting firm – the Centre for Sport and Law, as it was then called, and which today continues to be a mainstay in the Canadian sport community under its recently rebranded name of Sport Law. I eventually came back to academia focusing on the legal underpinnings of sport and sport management.

    Teaching

    I have now retired from teaching. During the course of my teaching career, I taught a number of legally oriented courses in the Department of Sport Management. They were interesting to me because of their dynamic nature focusing on legal principles underlying the business of sport. Perhaps the most engaging course for me was a negotiation course in which we focused on the theory and skills of negotiation and spent considerable time putting it all to practice. Sport practitioners inevitably engage in some form of negotiation every day. One can learn to be a very good negotiator.

    Research work/projects

    My focus, and continuing interest in terms of scholarly writing, is the regulatory regimes of sport and their impact on participants within the system, particularly athletes. The recently introduced Universal Code of Conduct to Prevent and Address Maltreatment in Sport and the independent regulatory body overseeing it, presents a number of jurisdictional and institutional issues worth exploring. A colleague, Marcus Mazzucco, and I recently contributed 5 chapters on the subject to a new digital book on Safe Sport, edited by CSC Director Dr. Julie Stevens. Similarly, athletes face several jurisdictional barriers when attempting to advance their interests and challenge the International Olympic Committee’s exercise of authority over the Olympic Movement. A number of recent decisions of the Court of Arbitration for Sport provide opportunity to examine the jurisprudence around these barriers and allow me to continue writing in the area.

    Hobbies

    It’s golf season – enough said!! I also have a couple of trips of the hiking and cycling variety planned. Retirement affords opportunity to dig into some of these activities a bit more seriously and combine them with travel.

    I typically have 3 or 4 books on the go at any one time. A very engaging visiting law professor once said to a class I was attending that an ingredient of professional and personal success and satisfaction is being a well-rounded and informed person and recommended we read a book a month. It has become a life long habit and pleasure, though sometimes a challenge. I typically have a book on some professional subject matter (currently, Regulating International Sport: Power, Authority and Legitimacy by Lloyd Freeburn), a biography or political book (currently, The Arbornaut: A Life Discovering the Eighth Continent in the Trees Above Us by Meg Lowman) and some sort of mystery, espionage or courtroom drama (just finished State of Terror by Louise Penny and Hillary Rodham Clinton) lying about.

    Closing Thoughts

    With a curious demeanour and an open mind, it is not difficult to stay engaged and learn new things daily. Life long learning kept the job interesting and the mind alive. The learning environment doesn’t have to be formal – though it can be. For a time while practicing law, I enrolled in a number of art history courses as a way to distract from the intensity and drama of the work. Engaging in a negotiation course through another university led to the development of a similar course as part of the Sport Management curriculum (and the development of some very important skills). You never know where inspiration will come from or where it might take one.

    Categories: Blog, Member Showcases

  • March Member Showcase – Dr. Taylor McKee

    Thursday, March 31, 2022 | By

    Background

    I’ve been a sports editor for both the University of Calgary and the University of Victoria’s student newspapers. I’ve created podcasts, most notably Body Paragraphs which can be found on Spotify, I’ve blogged about, and been consumed by sport my entire life. My journey into sport scholarship came about purely by chance while working as a TA at the University of Victoria’s History department pursuing an MA in French history. I was able to apply the methodological and theoretical concepts I was learning in my Master’s degree to the study of sport, which was a revelation for me. After finishing a PhD, under the direction of my fantastic advisor Dr. Janice Forsyth, and teaching in British Columbia at Thompson Rivers University, I am so thrilled to be here at Brock and part of the CSC’s vibrant and growing community.

    Dr. Stevens introduced me to the Centre, and I remain grateful for her introduction to it. I am so looking forward to helping the Centre grow and to lending a helping hand wherever possible.

    Teaching

    So far at Brock, I have been fortunate to teach SPMA 1P93 – Diversity and Inclusion in Sport Management, SPMA 1P94 – Professional Engagement for the Sport Industry, SPMA 2P06 – Sport Policy, SPMA 3P05 – Management Concepts in Non-profit Sport Organizations, and SPMA 4P97 – Advanced Analysis of the Sport Industry: Hockey.

    Each of these courses has been an exciting opportunity for me, and I am fond of each for separate reasons. For some courses, it gives me the chance to have challenging discussions and allow students to consider sport from different perspectives. Others, like 3P05 for instance, allow students to be directly involved with the sporting community and forge lasting connections in the sport industry. In developing the 3P05 course I saw a great deal of wasted potential as we only focused on the conceptual side of non-profit sports. I felt that by having students work directly with non-profits they could gain valuable first-hand experience in a variety of areas that would help build skills for the future. For instance, with the North American Indigenous games, students are learning about how the governance model works of a non-profit. They’re meeting the people that fill the roles of Vice President, Secretary, director, they’re learning that those people are professionals in other fields. They’re learning these people are extremely committed, extremely capable and I think delivering the course in this way is a hell of a lot more interesting than listening to me blabber for three hours a week. Partnering with the CSC for this course seemed like a natural fit because they work with so many non-profits it allows for students to assist many sport organizations at once.

    One thing that has been true since arriving at Brock though: it’s still hard to shake the feeling of ‘I am so lucky to be talking about sport each and every day.’

    Research Work/Projects

    Journal of Emerging Sport Studies: In 2018, Andrew Pettit, Jared Walters, and I founded an open-access journal called the Journal of Emerging Sport Studies (JESS) with the goal of providing high-quality scholarship at no cost to authors. We accept submissions from established and emerging scholars and one of the JESS’s mandates is to help people just starting their academic careers through the gruelling publishing process. JESS helps to get research to the public free of charge at no cost to the researcher. Since initial publication, we have created an open-access, manuscript publishing imprint, hosted digital symposia, produced a public-facing series of discussions and interviews called “Emerging Discourses,” and published six volumes of sport scholarship from emerging and established scholars around the globe.

    Indigenous Hockey Research Network: I am so fortunate to be part of the IHRN. We are a collective of researchers dedicated to uncovering and engaging with hockey’s Indigenous past, present, and future. We aim to cultivate critical understanding of hockey’s role in Indigenous and non-Indigenous relations in Canada. Through archival research, personal interviews, data analysis, and Indigenous community-led approaches, we take up hockey as a site for community building and Indigenous empowerment, as well as a vehicle for the pursuit of reconciliation between Indigenous Peoples and other Canadians.

    Ice Breakers

    Are you involved in any clubs/associations?

      • The North American Society for Sport History
      • The North American Society for the Sociology of Sport
      • Indigenous Hockey Research Network
      • Society for International Hockey Research

    What’s your favourite TV show right now?

      • All time: The Wire
      • Right Now: Barry

    What are your current hobbies/interests?

      • Playing beer league hockey and collecting CDs

    What’s your favourite book?

      • Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese

    What’s your favourite sport or sports team?

      • Born and raised in Calgary: a tortured, devoted Calgary Flames Fan
      • Other sports: Stampeders, Jays, Raptors, TFC, Hyderabad Sun Risers

    Achievements/Memorable Moments

    My biggest brag is, honestly, getting a chance to be here at Brock, teaching sport every day.

    Also, one time I met most of the cast of Cool Runnings. My mom used to run a Film Festival in Calgary, and my last year there I thought we should do a 25th anniversary of Cool Runnings. I told my mom I will plan a reunion for them, and we’ll have a showing at Olympic Park where the bobsled track is and she said no, this will never work. So, I just did it anyway behind her back. And sure enough, we got Doug E. Doug, who plays Sanka, we got Derice who’s played by a guy named Leon Robinson. And we got the real life Derice Bannock, Dudley Stokes and we got them all there to watch the 25th anniversary of Cool Runnings. They watched the movie at the Bob Sled Track, and I watched the Super Bowl with the three of them, as the Film Festival just happened to be on Super Bowl Sunday.

     

    Categories: Blog, Member Showcases

  • February Member Showcase – Dr. Ryan Clutterbuck

    Monday, February 28, 2022 | By

    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.

     

    Categories: Blog, Member Showcases

  • January Member Showcase – Dr. Rob Millington

    Tuesday, February 01, 2022 | By

    Background

    I’ve been involved with the Centre for Sport Capacity (CSC) for about a year now. I was eager to join the CSC because of the tremendous activities they’ve been engaged with, and because of the collaborative nature of the Centre. The people I get to work with are amazing and the webinars that they have hosted are such great resources for everyone.
    I am in my third year at Brock University as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology. My focus is on the socio-cultural stream of Kinesiology, so I am interested in the role of sport as an agent of social change. In my research, I do a lot of historical and policy analysis of how sport contributes to international development goals. In recent years, we have seen an increasing formalization and institutionalization of the role of sport within the international development sector, whereby organizations like the United Nations (UN) and International Olympic Committee (IOC) have sought to use sport as a tool to promote a range of positive social outcomes, including HIV-AIDS education, gender equity, and employment skills, amongst others. In my most recent project, I have been interested in how sport can contribute to sustainable development, with a specific focus on the environmental side of sustainability. For example, sport is now connected to all 17 of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which includes things like environmental protection, remediation, clean waterways, food security, and combatting climate change. However, the goals in these policy documents are quite ambitious and the sport sector doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to the environment. Sport has a profound environmental impact for its carbon footprint, food waste and impact on local ecosystems. I’m interested in exploring these types of disconnects further.

    Classes

    I currently teach KINE 2P91: Social History of Physical Education and Sport, KINE 4P61: Sport, Development and Sustainability, and a Graduate qualitative methods course.
    Kinesiology students are fortunate that they can take a range of courses including, Anatomy, Physiology, Psychology, Sociology, History, and Phys-ed courses. I think this variety in their coursework leads to well-rounded students. The second-year course I teach is an interesting way for students to get exposure to social history. The course helps in developing a critical toolkit to explore how sport both reproduces and challenges broader power dynamics, and ongoing histories of colonialism, race and racism, gender (in)equity, social class and commercialism.
    The fourth-year KINE 4P61 class that I teach has emerged out of the research interests I noted above. The course provides an opportunity to explore how sport is positioned as a tool to combat climate change, yet how it also needs to be accountable for its own deleterious environmental impacts – all while engaging students in the topic of sport and environmental action.

    Current Research

    My current research program is funded through an SSHRC Insight Grant in collaboration with my colleague, Dr. Simon Darnell (University of Toronto). Its goal is to try to explore how stakeholders in the “sport for development” sector view the role of sport in contributing to sustainable development objectives through interviews with policy-makers and practitioners that run sport for development programs, particularly in the global South. Through the project we hope to better understand sport’s potential and limitations in promoting environmental protection and remediation strategies.
    I am also now in the process of submitting a new SSHRC grant with Dr. Brad Millington (Department of Sport Management, here are Brock University) and Dr. Simon Darnell (University of Toronto), focused on sport and environmental action in Canada. We are interested in exploring if and how sport organizations in Canada (e.g., Hockey Canada, Aboriginal Sport Circle, Right to Play), are taking up the call from the UN to use sport as a positive force for the environment.

    Ice Breakers

    Favourite TV Show – This is a tough question, there’s so much good stuff out there these days, but I’d have to say Succession is up there for me.
    Hobbies – Sports is a big one. I’ve been enjoying watching this Raptors team and think they can make some noise in the playoffs, if they get in. I’m also trying to stay active (or at least saying that I am) by exploring the many nearby trails to run and hike.
    Favourite sport – Basketball is my favourite sport, it’s the sport I grew up playing the most. Although it is being rivaled these days by baseball: the Blue Jays are on a fun trajectory and I’m excited to see the team develop over the next few years.
    Clubs associations – I am helping out with a few different organizations focused on the connection between sport and the environment: the Canada Games Council, the Canadian signatories of the Sport for Climate Action Framework, Parks and Recreation Canada, have all been active in this area. I think there is momentum behind the idea that sport can be a positive force for environmental sustainability, so it’s an exciting time.
    Achievements – I’ve been helping to put together a new Seminar Series at the CSC titled: Sport and the Environment Webinars. The series is being led by Dr. Brad Millington and it speaks to the different sides of some of the issues we’ve talked about today. Our guest speakers include journalists, academics, policymakers, and more, who will be sharing their insights on how sport can drive sustainability initiatives forward. The first one is February 3rd and I encourage everyone to check it out.

    Categories: Blog, Member Showcases

1 2