Sports Management Commons^™

Redesigning Athlete Leadership, Derek Hunsberger

Full-Text Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation explores the critical role of team captains in fostering effective leadership within athletic teams, utilizing a novel approach that integrates systems thinking and design thinking principles. It challenges the prevailing practice of coaches selecting team captains based solely on athletic prowess or popularity, highlighting the need for a more comprehensive and strategic approach to leadership identification and development.

The research employed an Idealized Design session as a unique methodology to gather insights and perspectives from key stakeholders, including coaches, athletes, and support staff. This approach seeks to uncover latent needs and systemic factors influencing team dynamics, leadership effectiveness, …

Adaptation To Sport Retirement In Division I Student-Athletes, Andrea Cota Powell

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation utilizes a mixed-methods design to explore adaptation to sport retirement among Division I student-athletes. Sport retirement is a major life transition that can elicit changes in support systems, identity crises, and feelings of loss, failure, and grief. Transitioning out of sport is a phenomenon that over 90% of collegiate student-athletes experience when their four years of NCAA eligibility expires. It is a phenomenon that all athletes experience at some point in their lives. To transition out of sports, one must adapt to post-sport life. Study one of this dissertation explored the phenomenon of occupational retirement through concept analysis …