You’ve loved sports ever since you were a child, and now you want to work in sports – somehow. You aren’t clear on what options you have, and although sports management sounds like a great degree, there is still the question of what jobs you can get with it. You don’t want to be stuck in a career you don’t like, after all. The good news is, there are a lot of different jobs you can get with a sports management degree, many of which allow you to work with children.
Athletic Director
Athletic directors at high schools or colleges often start out coaching a team for one of the institutions and working their way up, until they are in a position to handle the more paperwork oriented side of things. While not as exciting as being on a field, this job is necessary. Athletic directors have to work out budgets for the team, their travel schedules, their insurance paperwork, and more. The directors are also in charge of making sure that all locker rooms and storage areas are cleaned and that all items are accounted for. This position isn’t the most glamorous, but it pays well, and those who work it do so because they love sports and the players.
Talent Scouts
These are the guys that young athletes get equally excited and worked up about when they arrive at a school. These scouts work for the major and minor leagues of all sports, keeping an eye on rising talent to see who they can recruit to their team. Scouts are usually allied with a specific organization, and when the come knocking they are attempting to recruit players to that organization. The job of a talent scout involves staying up to date on statistics of all relevant players, and a lot of travel to see them in action. And not all talent scouts work with professional sports; some middle and high school teams take their sports seriously enough to recruit extraordinary talent from surrounding schools.
Referee
The title is essentially the job. As a referee, you would stand alongside the players and watch closely to make sure the game is played fairly. The requirements are minimal, with the exception that you must know the technical aspects of the rules inside and out for ambiguous players, and have a certain amount of patience to deal with upset children and parents who take sports too far – not to mention a love of the black and white striped outfit.
Team Coach
For children who take sports seriously, their coach becomes another father figure. The reason there are so many feel good movies featuring a coach as the protagonist is because that is how it often works out. As a coach for children, you would be a role model, teaching them how to get along with one another and to better themselves. A degree is required to serve in any sort of educational role. While the pay for middle and high school coaches isn’t fantastic, this job is often taken out of a passion for the career.
There are many types of jobs available for those who want to work with children and sports at the same time, far more than the four listed here. Working with children is a rewarding experience, and playing sports alongside them is a career from which the fun never dies.
Here is a look at the “Top Ten Sports Management Salary“.
Related Resource: What are the Different Types of Sports Medicine Jobs?
