Sports leadership concentration added for athletic academics

Since grade school, Kenton Aubrey admits he's always been a basketball junkie-playing, coaching, moving through various levels of positions at different colleges-and now teaching leadership in sports classes as an adjunct professor in the Department of Organizational Leadership at Purdue University Fort Wayne. As proof of his travels and experiences, Aubrey has collected more than 200 pairs of athletic shoes.

With this track record, Aubrey's students better be prepared to lace up their own shoes because they're going to be very busy as PFW continues to grow its recently launched sports leadership concentration. It's the natural progression from the class Aubrey has been teaching for three years, according to Michael Kirchner, chair of organizational leadership.

"We have a lot of student-athletes, athletics personnel, and general students expressing interest in these courses," Kirchner said. "We are definitely in a unique position in terms of how to center a curriculum that touches on all the different aspects of what it looks like to be successful in sports as a non-athlete."

As Kirchner points out, there are many crossovers between organizational leadership and athletics, particularly for former athletes who may want to work in the field when their playing days are finished. After all, it is an area they know and are comfortable with. This kind of formal education opportunity supports their potential professional choice.

Those options could include coaching, administration, support roles, facilities management, marketing, running departments, or as Aubrey said, hundreds of avenues that can be explored.

"I'm just really excited with the opportunity to potentially spark some interest in someone or continue to help someone's passion grow," Aubrey said. "I want them all to understand that there are other options than just being an athlete or a coach."

Aubrey has primarily been a coach, including three seasons as a graduate assistant with the PFW men's basketball team under Jon Coffman. He moved to Arkansas State and recently completed a five-year stint as the associate head coach at Indiana Tech.

Aubrey plans on examining different leadership styles of athletes and coaches, and asking students to write papers on topics such as mapping out their first 30 days as a team's general manager; mapping out the first month as incoming coach of a team; and organizing how they would plan to host an event, be it a conference, fundraiser, kids camp, clinic, tournament, or something else.

"They need to understand that there are a lot of things involved with coaching and such that aren't really coaching," Aubrey said. "There are a lot of things they need to know how to handle because it's likely they will be asked to."

Other courses in the concentration currently include organizational leadership's sports law and conflict management. Students also need to take three of four options offered by other departments, such as principles of public relations, the history of American sports, introduction to sports event management, and sports and public policy. All classes will be held online.

Entering its third year, the sports law course will continue to be taught by Jeremy Herring, a Fort Wayne attorney who is also the athletic director at Marian University in Plymouth. Herring was a college and professional basketball player before starting a seven-year coaching career.

James Platzer, M.S. '21, a continuing lecturer at PFW, teaches the conflict management course. He's a former president and general manager of a Fortune 200 company who joined the faculty in 2017.