Georgia Dome

Also on November 17, 2011 our class visited the Georgia Dome.  The Georgia Dome houses many athletic events and activities but is primarily used as the home of the Atlanta Falcons Football Team.

Site Facilities:  Separately, list and briefly summarize all areas/aspects of the sports site you toured.

• Press room
• Super suite
• Regular suite
• Verizon Wireless Club
• Lounge
• Locker room and showers
• Field

Career Possibilities:  What are potential career paths associated with this sports site?  Please list and briefly explain as many as you can identify.

• Management
• Sales
• Front desk
• Grounds keeping
• Food Services

What are the most significant things you learned from this site visit?  What questions arose from this visit?

• The Super suites end up being a better deal than the regular suites in the long run
• The Falcons mascot is not kept on the field when games are not being played
• The Press gets very good treatment
• The top of the dome is about 28-30 stories high
• The tv screen is over 100 feet wide
• There are closed circuit television sets located all over the stadium
• The x-ray room is located right next to the locker rooms
• GA State football plays at the dome

Georgia Tech Site Visit

On November 17, 2011 our class visited Georgia Tech.  The visit included:

Site Facilities:  Separately, list and briefly summarize all areas/aspects of the sports site you toured.

·         Weight rooms

·         Rock wall

·         Diving pool

·         Competition pool

·         Recreational pool with lazy river

·         Basketball courts

·         Indoor soccer

·         Racquetball rooms

·         Volleyball courts

Career Possibilities:  What are potential career paths associated with this sports site?  Please list and briefly explain as many as you can identify.

• Personal Trainer
• Rock wall attendant
• Lifeguard
• Aquatics director
• Management
• Membership services
• Sales
• Front desk
• Grounds keeping
• Food Services

What are the most significant things you learned from this site visit?  What questions arose from this visit?

• The GA Tech Recreational Center has the largest concrete ceiling in the world. 
• It is cheap for students, faculty, and alumni to have a membership
• The Olympics were housed here in 1996.
• The facility is accessible for handicap persons
• The facility costs a lot of money to operate so they hold swim meets and competitions to help bring in money.
• The basketball courts also serve as volleyball and badminton courts
• The building is partly the remnants of the 1996 Olympics

Turner Field Visit

Our class visited Turner Field at the end of October.  Turner Field is home the the Atlanta Braves.  This is where they play all of their home games.  The sit visit included:

Site Facilities:  Separately, list and briefly summarize all areas/aspects of the sports site you toured.

• Coca-Cola Sky Field
• Big red chairs, home plate to first base, digital Coke bottle
• Suite Boxes
• Seat 12+ people, companies buy these for a season and get to rename the room, covered for inclement weather, free food and drink during the game
• Press Room
• Telephones, stats kept here, official scorer sits here, sliding windows, computer for stats on other teams, etc.
• Dug Outs
• Two televisions that link to the bull pen so managers can keep an eye on that area
• Athletic Training Room
• Whirlpool, offices, beds, x-ray room, etc.
• Locker Room
• Televisions, veteran players get lockers closest to the exit, showers located right next door, couches
• Museum
• Replica of Braves merchandise, awards, model of train car, world series trophy, old stadium seats, etc.

Career Possibilities:  What are potential career paths associated with this sports site?  Please list and briefly explain as many as you can identify.

• Public Relations
• Official scoring, press, announcing, etc.
• Grounds keeping
• Maintain field and stadium
• Management
• Athletic Training
• Food Services

What are the most significant things you learned from this site visit?  What questions arose from this visit?

A lot of times in the Braves industry you get a job based on who you know.  Our tour guide told us that you get the job as Official Scorer by knowing somebody in the industry and getting recommended by them. 

It is interesting to me that the grass for the field is grown within the stadium.  The field is watered and mowed twice a day. 

The press/media cannot follow the players into the showers.  This is why veterans get the lockers closest to the exit.

Guest Speaker Vic Mitchell

Vic Mitchell is the Head women's Basketball Coach and Senior Associate Athletic Director at Shorter University.  He spoke with our class on Thursday September 29, 2011 and shared with us information on coaching and how he started his career.

Speaker’s Main Points:

·         Volunteered 3 weeks, then got offered a managing position

·         1^st Women’s Head Coach at Reinhardt and he coached at Reinhardt before it was a 4 year institution

·         Graduate Assistantships at Shorter do not offer money.  Students need to figure out how they are going to live for the 2 year degree.

·         It is a good idea to start a career as an assistant because it allows you to network socially.

Questions for Speaker:

• How much work does a graduate assistant do? – Full-time work (hotel reservations, food reservations, letters to recruits, etc.)
• Will scholarships stay the same when Shorter moves to Division II NCAA? – No many will drop and there is always gender equity to take into account

Sport Leadership Information Learned from this speaker:

• Recruiting is what makes a coaching job
• Important to be an assistant at one point in your career for networking purposes
• When you go into an interview have a plan for what you want to do with that specific program
• You go into coaching for relationships not winning

Guest Speaker Bill Popp

     Today Coach Bill Popp, the Head Athletic Director at Reinhardt University came to speak in our class.  Previously the Head Baseball Coach, he is the first full-time Athletic Director Reinhardt has ever had.  The first thing he mentioned is that he does not have a graduate degree, however, he recommends getting one.  As part of his job, Coach Popp keeps up with all of the athletic department finances, eligibility rules, equity reports, and budgeting (uniforms, travel, NAIA dues, etc.).  He created the athletic department mission statement with the help of Dr. Isherwood.  Along with the mission statement, he created the athletic department policy and procedures handbook.  He stated that each coach at Reinhardt has goals each year that they strive to accomplish, for example: recruitment.  New this year is a recruiting "funnel" called Frontrush.  It helps tremendously with recruitment, and networking.  It also helps Coach Popp keep up with what each coach is doing recruiting wise. 
     Since Coach Popp has been at Reinhardt there have been quite a few improvements, for example: baseball and softball fields, parking lots, locker rooms, fitness and weight rooms, lights, walkways, and the Annual Reinhardt University Golf Tournament.  Some of the questions asked are:

• Will there ever be a graduate assistance program? - Maybe, every academic department has to approve this.  Not only athletes can get graduate assistance.
• What will be completed by next fall in regards to the Field house?- field layed, field house built, walk ways, lights, etc.

I find it very interesting that the NAIA has an honesty policy.  If you screw up, you take blame instead of waiting for somebody to call you out on it.  The NCAA is not under this same honesty policy.

Welcome To My Blog

Hi. My name is Katelyn Prester and I am a Sports Studies Major at Reinhardt University.  I hope to eventually be the Head Athletic Trainer at a college or university in the future.  In the meantime I play Lacrosse at Reinhardt and work at the YMCA.  A random fact about me is that I love dolphins.

Reinhardt