Posted in Metroplex forum as well..

Does anyone know of any good sports internship for a younger person looking to go into sports management? Preferably in West DFW.

I worked in sports for several years before changing industries. Still have a good amount of contacts. What exactly are your interests?

Anything involving basketball, football, basketball.. mainly involving management involving the sport

I've worked in sports my entire career and can help answer some questions.

How old is this person?

"Management" is probably still way too broad. Are we talking management on the business side of the organization like ticketing or marketing? Or maybe managing the facility/stadium? Or are we talking managing the roster and working in player personnel?

What level are we talking about? Youth, collegiate, professional?

Not only is working in sports a grind, but just getting your foot in the door is an uphill battle and that journey is a grind itself. Your best bet at being successful will require some more research on what types of roles are out there and then narrowing the scope down to something a little tighter than "management of football, baseball, or basketball."

I'll say this as well. The "fun" or "cool" jobs typically pay the least and have the worst work/life balance. If I could do it over again, I'd major in computer science and then look to work for a service-provider company such as PFF. Still a "cool" job that is sports-adjacent, but better work/life balance and significantly higher pay.

15 years old looking to major in sports management in college. Eventually want to get up to being a coach in high level high school or the collegiate level. Just looking to get some experience to build a resume for getting into sports management in college

GigEmAgsCaleb said:

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15 years old looking to major in sports management in college. Eventually want to get up to being a coach in high level high school or the collegiate level. Just looking to get some experience to build a resume for getting into sports management in college

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I would start by talking with high school coaches about how they got to where they are. Research the background of high-level college coaches.

You don't need a sports management degree to be a coach.

Quote:

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You don't need a sports management degree to be a coach.

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This.

Like the others have said, you 100% do not need a sports management degree. As someone with a sports management degree myself, I'd highly suggest going a different route. In my experience, sports management degrees are just watered down general business degrees. There's nothing you can do with a sports management degree that you couldn't do with just about any other degree out there, and all it ends up doing is pigeon-holing you into sports or very basic/entry-level non-specialized roles that don't have the best opportunities for growth. It really just makes your career progression more difficult.

This person is still very young and honestly there's probably not too much that can be done right now that would really make too much of an impact on a future career as a coach. Like powerbelly said, it'd be worth the time to look up coaches at different schools around the country and compile biographies to see what a lot of these coaches have in common. You'll notice at the bigger schools (such as A&M) the vast majority of coaches played their respective sport at a very high level and then (based on their sport) began their coaching career as an assistant coach or graduate assistant and slowly worked their way up.

Regardless if this person wants to go down the coaching path, the administration path, or the operations path, the most critical part of the process will be gaining experience as soon as they get to college. Right when they figure out where they're going to school, they need to be reaching out to the department/team they're interested in to see what volunteer opportunities are available. Most big athletic departments will have an army of interns in various roles and it's critical that this person gets in that group and starts gaining experience and contacts as soon as possible.

At 15, best bet would be to find a batboy/clubhouse assistant job - maybe for one of the college wood bat league teams (though they will be wrapping up their seasons soon). Gets you around the action.

www.teamworkonline.com

Search for internships. Be aggressive in search. Best way to stand out.

On the football side, if the kid is not on varsity, they can ask to help out with stuff on the weekends and go from there. There is always some form of laundry or folding to be done, copies to be made etc.

They also always need kids who can be trusted to be in charge of x, y, or z on Friday nights because it's one less thing they have to worry about and allows them to have their coaches focus on something more important.

My daughter started refereeing high school basketball games at age 16. She went on to get a degree in sports management with a minor in business from A&M. All of the sports need referees. There are ref training camps in the summer. Referee associations assign the games. The YMCA hires refs too.