AMERICAN PRESS, Applied Research in Coaching and Athletics Annual #39 (2024)

ARCAA Contents & Abstracts, Volume 39, 2024

ISBN 978-0-89641-639-0
$50.00 (includes shipping)

The Perceived Impact of the New Rules Regarding Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) on Intercollegiate Sports — Michael McCall, Sam Fullerton, Ronald Dirk, Ron Wade — College athletes can earn significant income from promotions and the sale of promotional items that bear their name, image, or likeness (NIL). The short and long term impact of NIL remains a topic of debate among coaches and athletic observers and is proving to be a fertile new area for academic researchers. The purpose of this research was to better understand the impact of NIL at the consumer level. A purposive sample of 404 students from five American universities in three states provided feedback regarding their perceptions of nine NIL-related considerations: the impact that the new NIL rules have had on several potential beneficiaries of the new rules, college sports, the school, and the athletes who participate in collegiate sports. Several interesting findings emerged: (1) university students generally have a favorable impression of the benefits that NIL provides to student athletes, recruiting efforts and the institution. (2) There was considerably less agreement about the impact of NIL on Title IX considerations. (3) Results were mixed regarding the impact of NIL on amateur sports. These data begin to offer insight into the kinds of issues surrounding this dramatic shift in amateur sports with a particular focus on intercollegiate sports. The overall sense that athletes should be able to capitalize on their NIL was consistent across multiple institutions. Future research might consider this preliminary effort an early data point in an attempt to better understand the mid and long-range effects of this SCOTUS ruling. (1-30)

The Impact of Spirituality on Servant Leadership: A Case Study — Sean Dahlin, Kirby Boehm, Charles H. Wilson — Burton and Welty Peachey (2013) proposed a call for implementing servant leadership in intercollegiate athletics to better empower athletes in sport. Through the lens of empowerment, servant leadership also appears to have connection with spirituality and religiosity (Sendjaya et al., 2008; Greenleaf, 1970). Thus, the purpose of this study was to make meaning of one Christian college head baseball coach’s servant leadership behaviors and examine his perception of coaching effectiveness. By way of thematic analysis, a qualitative case study was used to examine one baseball coach and his program with the following themes identified: 1) external issues/dynamics, 2) love, 3) internal dynamics. The findings highlighted the participant integrated the concepts of love, development, and the implementation of religious gospel principles with his athletes. Additionally, the participant’s perception of coaching effectiveness was not related to winning, but on “what the kids do after” playing baseball in his program. Keywords: servant leadership, coaching effectiveness, sport coaching, spirituality (31-65)

Prevailing Priorities for Interscholastic Athletic Directors Pre-Recession, Post-Recession and Post-COVID: Part 1 — Eric W. Forsyth Michael Fraina, James E. Johnson, Zachary C.T. Evans, Warren A. Whisenant — The purpose of this study was to investigate: a) the issues most pertinent to interscholastic sport pre-recession (2006-2007), post-recession (2016-2017), and post-COVID (2023); b) pertinent issues that overlapped during those three time periods; and c) the importance of those issues to interscholastic athletic administrators. The data for this study were comprised of three national studies of athletic administrators from the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA) collected in 2006 (n = 297), 2016 (n = 170), and 2023 (n=680). The issues identified were divided into three categories: coaches, finance, and officials, and the data were subject to Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to determine significant differences among recurring issues over the three time periods. This work is part one of two studies that each presented approximately half of the total data set. (66-95)

Prevailing Priorities for Interscholastic Athletic Directors Pre-Recession, Post-Recession and Post-COVID: Part 2 — Eric W. Forsyth, Zachary C.T. Evans, James E. Johnson, Warren W. Whisenant, Michael Fraina — This work is the second part of two studies comprised of three national samples of athletic administrators, with the current study representing approximately half of the data. The purpose of this study was to investigate: a) the issues most pertinent to interscholastic sport during three time periods, namely pre-recession (2006-2007), post-recession (2016-2017), and post-COVID (2023); b) pertinent issues that persisted across those three time periods; and c) the salience of those issues to interscholastic athletic administrators. The participants were athletic administrators from the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association membership. The resulting issues were categorized into parents, participation, scheduling, and specialization. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were utilized to assess whether there were any statistically significant differences among the identified issues across the three time periods. Games-Howell post-hoc test yielded a total of 19 significant differences. (96-129)

United States Center for SafeSport: A Case Study on Wrestling Coaches’ Perspectives — Rachel S. Silverman, Chris Corr, Michael S. Carroll — The U.S. Center for SafeSport (SafeSport) was founded to prevent sexual abuse in sport and provide educational training around abuse prevention. According to SafeSport’s centralized disciplinary database, 80 USA Wrestling coaches have been listed as ineligible, suspended, restricted, or permanently ineligible from 2005 to 2023. This case study sought to examine wrestling coaches’ perspectives on SafeSport and its effectiveness in preventing sexual abuse in the sport of wrestling. Twelve wrestling coaches participated in semi-structured interviews and described the effectiveness of SafeSport, how SafeSport should be enforced, and strategies to successfully implement SafeSport. Participants indicated the value of SafeSport to bring awareness and mitigate sexual abuse in the sport of wrestling, but also suggested that the level of reporting ambiguity and lack of pursuance upon filing a report contributed to perceptions of SafeSport’s ineffectiveness. Recommendations for the future implementation and effectiveness of SafeSport are discussed. Keywords: coaching, sexual abuse, abuse prevention (130-146)

Teaching and Coaching: The Synergistic Balance — Ty Whitworth, Ryan Zimmerman, DeeDee Mower, Mandy Kirkham — Although coaches are often teachers in educational settings, there has been little investigation into the dual role that these educators play. This research examined the need to understand the dual role and why having the teacher-coach is either an advantage or a disadvantage. A qualitative research method was utilized to understand how teacher-coaches view their role as serving dual-roles, understand the decision-making processes, and the benefits and conflicts that are different from other faculty. Three teacher-coaches were carefully selected for interviews with questions based on role theory and the Coaching Issues Survey (Kelley & Baghurst, 2009). Based on the findings, the participants stated positive reasons why they teach and coach were involvement, employee worth, personal fulfillment and relationships. While time constraints and role conflict were found to be disadvantages. Further exploration of dual-role teacher-coaches is needed to determine if schools should continue to hire dual-role employees. (147-175)

The Impact of International Athletes at the SEC Swimming and Diving Championship — Robin Hardin, Aleksey Tarasenko — This research examines the transformative role of international athletes in the Southeastern Conference Swimming & Diving Championships. The scoring results from 2019 – 2023 championships were analyzed to determine the impact on both the men’s and women’s championship results. Several women’s teams relied heavily on international athletes to bolster the competitiveness of their teams, which lead to conference championships for selected women’s teams. Several men’s teams also relied heavily on international athletes but the impact on determining the conference champion was not as prevalent. International athletes had the most success in swimming freestyle, and there was also a heavy influence in diving scoring. The findings demonstrate the reliance on international athletes to improve team success and competitiveness in collegiate athletics. Keywords: college athletics, NCAA, athlete migration, competition(176-192)

Extending Sports Wagering Studies beyond the Intercollegiate Athlete Population: Gambling and Sports Wagering Behaviors among Interscholastic Athletes in the United States — Robert P. Mathner, Christina L.L. Martin, Chris Corr — As research suggests athletes are more often risk-takers compared to their non-athlete peers, gambling and sports wagering has been posited to serve as a gateway behavior for adolescent gamblers. While gambling and sports wagering among intercollegiate athletes has received copious attention in both scholarly research and popular media, many intercollegiate athletes’ first gambling experience occurs during or even before high school. To further explore the pervasiveness of gambling and sports wagering in interscholastic athletics, the present study sought to examine the gambling and sports wagering activities and behaviors of athletes currently competing in interscholastic athletics in the United States. From a national sample of current high school athletes, 39% indicate engaging in sports wagering activity during the past 12-months. Implications and recommendations are provided to preserve the integrity of athletic competition and the long-term health of the adolescent aged athlete population. Keywords: addiction, high school, betting, adolescent (193-213)

BOOK REVIEW

Victory Outside the Arena: How Athletes Can Go
from Isolated to Inspired Once the Applause Begins to Fade
Reviewed by Dr. Warren K. Simpson (214-218)

A Call for Papers and Subscriptions (219-224)

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