The Pipeline Project

By Ehren R. Green (she/her), PhD

Happy National Girls and Women in Sports Day! Cheers to all my fellow female athletes, former athletes, administrators and advocates of women sports! We hope everyone has an opportunity to celebrate women in sport today and every day. Now for the blog…

As a fan of any college sports team, you’d have no idea they exist. To you, you see the players, the coaches, and maybe some administrators working in facilities and/or with the media. But to those within the athletic department, it’s a coveted role – a role that many administrators want, that usually comes with an inconsistent description, often vague expectations, and little to no training for how to be successful in the role. This is the role of the sport supervisor.

Before diving into the role itself, I’d like to provide some context as to why I’m so passionate about this role. I worked in intercollegiate athletics for just shy of a decade and, in that time, I always aspired to be a sport supervisor. I didn’t know what it really was, but the elusiveness of the role made it even more intriguing. Then, I went on to marry a college coach and I was able to see the real weight of what it meant to be a sport supervisor and what the role meant to a coach. It fascinated me – how did an athletic department professional get to become a sport supervisor? What was a sport supervisor supposed to do? Who selects who should be a sport supervisor and for which team(s) – and what is that selection process? What skills and characteristics are important for a sport supervisor? Are people trained– if so, what does that training entail? Do sport supervisors understand how important they are to coaches? Do coaches know how to best work with sport supervisors? Thus, when it came time to write my dissertation for my PhD, I knew what I wanted to focus on – I wanted to better understand this role, but more importantly, I wanted to provide some research on the role to help both coaches and administrators.

With that context in mind, I’d like to share what I learned from talking to both sport supervisors AND head coaches:

• The sport supervisor role is a CRITICAL organizational connector
• The sport supervisor role is a PROFESSIONAL NECESSITY if you want to advance as a college athletic administrator
• The sport supervisor role is POORLY DEFINED within the industry
• The sport supervisor role is a true MIDDLE MANAGER
• The sport supervisor role requires a high level of EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
• Most coaches WANT sport supervisors to be around – BEING PRESENT is important

Based on our research and to help provide some clarity to the role, we developed a definition of the sport supervisor, “The “sport supervisor” in NCAA Division I athletics is a role held by athletic administrators whose function is to be a partner with the head coach by providing support, advocacy, and oversight and evaluation of the program(s) they supervise.”

Our new research from The Pipeline Project shows that while this role is critical AND a professional necessity for advancement, women are severely underrepresented in the role. Of the 1,922 sport supervisors in NCAA Division I, only 36% are women. And furthermore, less than 50% of the revenue generating sports in NCAA Division I are supervised by women. The lack of opportunity for women to serve in this critical role as a partner to head coaches creates a leak in the advancement pipeline for ALL women.

So now what? Here’s my plea to the industry – be more intentional with the role!

• Be intentional about who is supervising which team – is it a good partner for the coach/for the supervisor? Don’t assume every great department (i.e., marketing, ticketing, etc.) administrator will make a great sport supervisor.
• Include women when considering sport supervisors for all sports, but also the revenue generating sports.
• Be intentional in thinking about how you are helping people grow professionally?
• Be intentional about providing training for current sport supervisors AND athletic department employees you feel could fill your sport supervisor pipeline, and recognize this training isn’t just about NCAA Compliance, but about team building, leadership, conflict management, and emotional intelligence.

The sport supervisor role can be one of the most rewarding within the college sport environment, but it is also challenging. As a critical organizational connector, it’s time to give this role the attention and intentionality it deserves.