A sports media course taught by former New England Sports Network editor Ben Wantanabe this spring will be the latest expansion to the Sport Leadership and Administration program.
Sports media, “was always in the plan,” said Dr. Joseph N. Cooper, the Dr. J. Keith Motley Endowed Chair of the program. The course is part of how the program, established in 2019, is expanding its reach.
“We’re hoping that by developing this course we’ll be able to see who’s interested on campus. We could develop a sports media club, a student association,” he said, adding, “Honestly, I just would like to build it out as a concentration within the major.”
Now that the curriculum’s foundation has been laid out, the department is working to add more “niche areas,” Cooper said, to further expand the program. He mentioned sport business and psychology as potential tracks and concentrations the major could explore adding.
The program has also submitted a formal proposal to add a minor, and are waiting on approval.
The five-year-old operation has support from many, but none more important than New Balance. The athletic company gifted $5 million to help found the program in 2019, and has since gifted $10 million toward starting the Institute for Innovative Leadership in Sport at UMass Boston, a related, but separate, program.
New Balance’s relationship with UMass Boston continues to be strong, partnering with Beacons Athletics earlier this year for an exclusive apparel rights deal. Cooper did not say UMass Boston is a New Balance school, but the partnership is one that comes from an alignment of values.
“They understand that making investments in certain communities, making investments in certain institutions, and making investments in certain people is more important than making sure everybody knows what you’re doing… that’s not their why,” Cooper said.
The Sport Leadership and Administration program’s growth symbolizes the path they see for UMass Boston’s athletics. “Dr. Shuman just added two women’s sports, which I think will be great to bolster recruitment and visibility. I know there’s a concerted effort to improve current facilities, but also to get additional capital, campaign funding for new facilities,” Cooper said. Dr. Jacqueline Shuman is the director of athletics at UMass Boston.
He pointed out the baseball team, who shares a field with Boston College High School, along with other shared or dated facilities. While recognizing the challenges in building something new, Cooper did say, “the conversations did come up” with New Balance.
Cooper believes that under Shuman and Tiffany Alford, the Director of Community Engagement and Excellence and a former NCAA employee, the right moves are being made for the future.
He said, “I look at the success of the Athletic Department, the SLA program, and the Institute for Innovative Leadership in Sport as being lock-step in part in parcel. I believe, and I know for a fact that our program being here, and doing what we’ve been doing over the past five years, it definitely helps athletics — and vice versa.”
This article appeared in print on Page 3 of Vol. LVIII Issue V, published Oct. 21, 2024.
