Sport Recreation Training

Abstract

Over 150 years ago sports sport and recreation management evolved. Clubs, leagues, and professional tournaments were all started by people credited with the development of sport and recreation management. This type of management mixes the business, management, and marketing aspects of sports into one. There are many colleges that offer some sort of sport and recreation management degree. To find out information about this degree resources can be used such as websites, books, and people in this career. One thing that may be found when researching is that the American Psychological Association is the most common writing style for sport and recreation managers. Writing is one way of communicating to others about sport and recreation management. Verbal skills are also used a lot. From playing baseball with a stick many years ago to hitting with a baseball bat, sports have come a long way. Sport and recreation management is becoming a more popular career the more popular and sophisticated sports get. Do not expect to see this career decline.

Sport Management and Recreation Management

People who share the same understandings and communicate the same way in a professional manner are said to be a professional community. The professional community that offers knowledge about the business aspects of sports is Sport Management. Sport Management is a type of management where people can work in sport related careers dealing with many different levels of sports (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005). Such levels include professional sports, college sports at the division 1-3 levels, high school sports and youth sports in communities or other programs that are offered. A variety of organizations across the country have a need to hire qualified management personnel who possess a theoretical background in sports. Some of the groups currently employed with sport manager positions are academic institutions, major and minor league professional sports franchises, and sporting good companies (Sport, 2007).

Over the past 150 years the organization of sport developed and today still it continues to grow (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005). In the early days, sport managers learned from hands-on experiences to work in the sport industry (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005). Therefore, while the sport industry became more complex, there was a need to train and teach managers in a more formal fashion (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005). From this need the study of sport management emerged. At first it seemed as if one only needed to know about sports in general, but now there are many more things to know. Such things include knowledge in business, management, and marketing. Having education in all these fields only pertained to few sport managers in the workplace when this profession came about. Now it is a requirement for a degree.

Training on how to use a curriculum began to teach sport management personnel the importance and significance of having a solid curriculum. James G. Mason a physical educator at the University of Miami, Florida and Walter O'Malley of the Brooklyn (now Los Angeles) Dodgers discussed this idea in 1957 (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005). The first master's program in sport management started at Ohio University in 1966 and it was based on Mason and O'Malley's ideas about sport management curriculum (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005). A little while after the Ohio University graduate program started up, Biscayne College (now St. Thomas University) and St. John's University founded undergraduate sport management programs. The second master's program started in 1971 at Massachusetts-Amherst (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005). These colleges were the first to start these types of degrees.

The number of colleges and universities across the United States that offer sport management majors grew rapidly (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005). By the mid 1980's the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) figured there were over 40 undergraduate programs, 32 graduate programs, and 11 at both levels offering management degrees (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005).

Today, there are over 200 sport management programs in colleges across the United States. In Canada there are just over twelve programs that offer sport management degrees (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005). The growth of this academic field was prompted by the sport industry's need for well-trained managers, but was also pushed by the universities and college's need to attract students (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005). Colleges and universities that wanted to increase their enrollments in a highly competitive market added sport management programs to their curriculum in the 1980's (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005). People are majoring in sport management today because of the need in the field. It has become quite the popular major over the past years and the continuing growth has created demand for the organized study of sport management practices.

The growth of this academic field drew concerns of qualified workers. To make sure that the right education and knowledge was obtained by managers, two groups were formed to assist in this. The first group was a group of people who examined this issue. They called themselves the Sport Management Arts and Science Society (SMARTS), which was initiated by the faculty at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005.) This group laid down the groundwork for the second organization, known as the North American Society for Sport Management (NASSM) (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005). The purpose of this organization is to promote, stimulate, and encourage study, research, scholarly writing, and professional development in the care of sport management (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005). The sport management programs that are approved by the NASSM include sport marketing, legal aspects of sport, management and leadership in sport, ethics in sport management, budget and finance in sport, communication in sport, and the socio-cultural context of sport (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005).

Sport management exists in other countries as well. There are other groups worldwide that use the same curriculum and promote the same education as the NASSM and SMARTS organization do (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005). It is good that world-wide universities are developing the same things so that graduates can work whereever they desire. It seems as if the program keeps more structured and uniformed every year. Management has a lot of different areas to it, but in sport management there are three areas to include that are most important. The first area is the goals and objectives that need to be achieved, the second area has limited resources, and the third area is to have limited resource with people and through people (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005). As a manager for any kind of business whether it is in sport or not, ones main goal is to get employees involved in what needs to be accomplished. This is an important goal because if the employees do whatever they want to when working, the organization is going to decrease and could end up with unachieved goals.

Management is a process of using ones knowledge and understanding (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005). In using this process one needs to understand the areas of planning, organizing, leading, and evaluating. The development of this theory went through a number of distinct phases; two of these phases were Scientific Management and the Human Relations Movement (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005). Fredrick Taylor was the first true founder of the management theory (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005). He published a book called The Principles of Scientific Management which was the foundation of scientific management in the 1900's (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005). Working as an industrial engineer Taylor had a big concern on the way that is fellow employees where doing their work (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005). Taylor thought that the scientific method is the best way to perform better while working on the job (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005). In other words the best way for workers to perform better is to reward them with economic rewards. The second phase is human relation. From 1927 to 1932. Elton Mayo was on a team that conducted the Hawthorne studies at Western Electric's Chicago plan (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005). He studied how the workers were motivated during work and examined how the changes in the work environment affected output. Mary Parker Follett is also a person who was popular in the writing and work of human relations movement (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005). Follett was a female consultant in the 1920's; she worked with the male-dominant industrial world (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005). Follett observed workers as people with attitude, beliefs, and needs (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005, p.20). Follett believed that management was better in a partnership and cooperation and to have people skills in the organization was way more beneficial to the organization (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005). Human relations are more beneficial in management because it focuses on the behavior of people and human components in the organization rather than focusing on forming a task, like in scientific management.

Today's society the study is brought upon human behavior within the organization, which fits into the scientific management and human relations approach. This is what is called Organizational behavior, it characterizes the modern approach to management (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005). Organizational behavior studies the application of the human side of management and organizations (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005). Organizations have gone through many changes. Managers have been busy with their organizations because of downsizing, globalizing, installation and usage of information technology. Managers are striving to improve on productivity and competitive challenges that these changes have brought the organization. Through the changes that evolved in these organizations one thing is still clear, the lasting competitive advantage within organizations comes through human resources and how they are managed (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005).

Sport managers perform in many different function areas and work on many activities to fulfill the demands of their jobs. The functional areas that sport managers do are planning, organizing, leading, and evaluating. Planning involves defining organizational goals and determining the appropriate means by which to achieve these desired goals (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005). Organizing is all about having your plans and making sure they are put into use. After organizing sport managers must lead, leading is where the sport manager directs the activities of employees as he or she attempts to accomplish organizational goals (Masteralexis and Barr, 2005). The last step is evaluating, this is where sport managers measure and ensures the progress toward organizational goals.

With the sport management field comes a lot of responsibility and knowledge. All the information provided should help one determine the professional community and how to go about learning everything there is to know about the field.

History of Sport and Recreation Management

The organization of sport management developed over 150 years ago in England (Masteralexis & Barr, 2005). The most popular sports were track and field, all the variations of football, and stick and-bat games such as baseball, field hockey, and cricket (Masteralexis & Barr, 2005). England's popularity in sports grew and soon other countries were adopting such sports. Other sports such as basketball, gymnastics, and golf were developed in other countries and later adopted into England's society. Many years have come since the beginning of sport management. As society changes so does sport management. Managers need to be flexible and consider the changes in society to be successful. Every year the rules and regulations change, thus the management side does too.

Throughout sport management's history there have been specific events and people who have contributed to its success. In this management style there are three structures of sports that are important. They are clubs, leagues, and professional tournaments (Masteralexis & Barr, 2005). The following paragraphs will give a short summary of each of them and what events or people contributed to them, and also other important events and people that contributed to sport management. One of these events is horse racing.

Humans have been interacting with horses for a many decades. It was not until around 1750 that riding horses become a sport. The Jockey Club was founded in London by a group of men brought together by their shared passion for and commitment to horseracing (Maxse, 2007). This club became an effective organization with the management of horse racing. There were approximately 130 members to this club who were elected because of their knowledge and experience of racing (Maxse, 2007). The Jockey Club has grown from one course in London to fourteen courses and hoped to add more. As a person can tell this club was one of the first sports related clubs to come about and it has grown since. Other sports derive from the modern Olympics, which started in 1896.

April 6, 1896 was a day where thousands of spectators viewed the first ever modern Olympics located in Athens (Gettings, 2007). The idea of this program was created by Baron Pierre de Coubertin of France (Gettings, 2007). He wanted to create something where all nations could come together because of sports, and that is how it all started. The 1896 Olympics had fourteen nations participate in the following games: track and field, fencing, weightlifting, rifle and pistol shooting, tennis, cycling, swimming, gymnastics, and wrestling (Gettings, 2007). It was said that this was to happen annually and that each year it would be located at a different location world wide. This event is important because it is still currently going on and it has evolved into much more. The modern Olympics were a great program that led to numerous other organizations, such as the North American Society for Sport Management.

The North American Society for Sport Management was started in 1985 to promote, stimulate, and encourage study, research, scholarly writing, and professional development in the area of sport management (Cuneen, 2000). This group focuses on topics such as leadership, motivation, communication, organization, ethics, marketing, professional preparation, and financial administration related to sport and exercise (Cuneen, 2000). The NASSM works with local, regional, national, and international organizations to help stay current and informed of all situations. Most of NASSM's members are sport management educators who teach, research, and serve the institution from both the United States and Canada (Cuneen, 2000). Today this group still exists and it has helped sport managers make decisions and gives them resources. The work of the NASSM has opened the eyes of educational institutions for the need of a sport management program.

The first master's program in sport management was established at Ohio University in 1966 ((Masteralexis & Barr, 2005). Walter O'Malley first thought of the idea of a master's program, but did not have the time to pursue this idea. When James Mason heard of the idea he brought it to life. The program focused in depth on contract negotiation, facilities management, and marketing, which could contribute to more efficiently and effectively running a sports organization (Walter, 2008). This program is still running today and has produced many executives in sports industries. One executive that came from a sport management degree program was Garry Bettman, lead executive of the NHL.

The Stanley Cup is awarded to the NHL players when they win the championship game, the last game of the NHL season. The Stanley Cup is the most desirable championship trophy in all of sports (Stanley, 2008). It has more than one name; people call it The Cup, The Holy Grail and the of course Lord Stanley Cup (Stanley, 2008). The Stanley Cup is the oldest sports trophy in North America (Stanley, 2008). The trophy was donated by former Governor General of Canada Lord Stanley of Preston in 1892 as an award for Canada's top-ranking amateur ice hockey club (Stanley, 2008). In 1915, the two professional ice hockey organizations, the National Hockey Association and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, reached a gentlemen's agreement in which their respective champions would face each other for the Stanley Cup (Stanley, 2008). Since there were a lot of league mergers and folds, it became the de facto championship trophy of the NHL in 1926, and the Cup later became the de jure NHL championship prize in 1947 (Stanley, 2008). Sport management relates to the Stanley Cup because it is a huge achievement to all the people who are related in this profession.

Fredrick Arthur Stanley was born into an upper-class family on January 15, 1841 in London, England (Shea, 2006). For centuries his family played an important task the political life in England. Stanley was the youngest boy of the fourteenth Earl and Derby, who would serve as British prime minister on three separate occasions (Shea, 2006). He served in office on June 11, 1888 after sailing across the Atlantic Ocean with his wife, Lady Constance Stanley (Shea, 2006). His term in office closely paralleled Canada's early history (Shea, 2006). The first Prime Minister Sir John A. McDonald had a stroke, so Lord Stanley took his place traveling coast to coast on Canada's new railways to meet people and give further notice on Canada's new settlement (Shea, 2006). He wanted to keep Canada together because at that time the United States wanted to take over Canada. He also took control over the growth of the great sport hockey. He organized games with other employees and later formed a traveling squad called the Rideau Rebels which helped spread the love of the game into other center's, including Toronto, which had not yet not yet embraced the young sport (Shea, 2006). After watching many games Lord Stanley wanted to donate a trophy to the team that was the best. He decided to put his name on the Cup and now it is the Cup that every hockey player in the world dreams of winning one day.

Luther Halsey Gulick was an asset to the history of sport management. Throughout his life he was always involved in things relating to sports. He started college in 1884 studying physical education (Winter, 2004). He was always interested in physical education and hygiene (Winter, 2004). He began his career as the physical director at the YMCA in Jackson, Michigan. The following year he became head of the gymnastics department at the Young Men's Christian Education's Springfield Training School (Winter, 2004). There he had one of his students help him come up with a set of rules so they could design a game with them. This game became known as basketball. At the same time he was also the international secretary for the physical training department at the YMCA as well as the secretary of the American Association for the Advancement of Physical Education (Winter, 2004). In 1903 he became the first director of physical education in the public schools of New York City (Winter, 2004). He was also on the Physical Training Lecture Committee. In 1904 he initiated the Public School Physical Education Society and the next year founded the informal Academy of Physical Education. He was on the committee for the Olympics in 1906 and 1908 (Winter, 2004). He became one of the founders of many associations related to physical education. He was president of the American Physical Education Association for three years, president of the Public School Training Society for three years, and president of the Playground and Recreation Society of America for four years (Winter, 2004). He also founded the girl scouts program and published many books. Gulick's last job was to serve as chairman of the YMCA's International Committee on Physical Recreation of the War Work Council (Winter, 2004). With this job he traveled internationally and surveyed soldiers on their moral and physical well being. He died in 1918 at age 53 (Winter, 2004). Gulick made many contributions to the sport management field. He started up and directed many programs and organizations and has influenced many people. Gulick was one of the people who started basketball. He is a type of person like Fred Corcoran, who was on of the first founders of Ladies Professional Golf Association.

Fred Corcoran was born April 4, 1905 in Cambridge, Massachusetts (World, 2008). In the years before World War II, Corcoran helped found the Ladies Professional Golf Association, the World Cup and Golf Writers Association of America (World, 2008). His knowledge and ideas brought out the best in him. He was one of the founders of the World Golf Hall of Fame. He was one of the sports first agents, managing the careers of Babe Zaharias, Tony Lema and Sam Snead (World, 2008). His biggest achievement in this sport was leading it to its Golden Age.

When Corcoran was nine years old he got his first job in golf (World, 2008). He was a caddy at Belmont C.C. near Boston (World, 2008). When he was twelve he moved up to a master's caddy and from there he kept moving up the ladder. When he was a teenager he was an assistant golf secretary for the Massachusetts Golf Association at Belmont (World, 2008). This was a turning point in Corcoran's life; he put tournament scoring into history. He was the one that kept spectators and the media up to date on the tournament's progress (World, 2008). He was then made the official scorer for golf.

After being golf's official scorer he moved on to Pinehurst and worked as an assistant golf secretary in the office of Donald Ross, the golf course architect (World, 2008). In 1936, the Professional Golf Association (PGA) of America hired Corcoran as tournament manager of the professional tour (World, 2008). Corcoran was twenty-eight when he took this job. The deal was he would run and promote the tour (World, 2008). Corcoran was always in the right place at the right time. For the next forty years, he would manage many people including baseball hall of famers and golf professionals (World, 2008). Corcoran was inducted into the Golf Hall of Fame and his name is a legacy for the sport of golf. Corcoran is a person that contributed to sport management because he started so many professional leagues like the LPGA and the PGA. He contributed his life to make the sport of golf the way it is today. Corcoran was a major tribute to the world of golf. Another person who is a big part of sports would be Ford Christopher Frick.

Ford Christopher Frick was born December 19, 1894 in Wawaka, IN (Fleming, 2007a). In 1916, he went to Colorado Springs to become an English teacher (Fleming, 2007a). He wanted to take a different route for a career and started working for the local newspaper. In 1919 he opened up his own advertising agency and wrote the editorial column for the Colorado Springs telegraph (Fleming, 2007a). After working in Colorado Springs for three years he moved out to New York and worked for the New York American (Fleming, 2007a). One year later he wrote the evening journal. He would eventually move up in the world of being a writer and wrote about the New York Yankees and became Babe Ruth's number one writer. In May of 1930, Frick worked with radio and became a sportscaster (Fleming, 2007a). He worked in sport casting until 1934 when he was elected the new and first director of the National League Service Bureau, which was the publicity outlet for the National League (Fleming, 2007a). Frick was elected president after his term as director ended. His first thought for the sport of baseball was to include a Hall of Fame to honor baseballs great players. Frick was an inspiration to baseball. He was elected commissioner in 1951 and kept teams from going bankrupt (Fleming, 2007a). He was the commissioner for one of the most memorable times in baseball when Roger Maris and Mickey Mantel were going for the home run record to break Babe Ruth's record in a single season. In the time that Maris and Mantel played they had more single season games than Ruth did, so as commissioner of baseball Frick could make rules. He made a rule that Maris and Mantel had to break the record in the same quantity of games that Ruth played. He resigned a commissioner in 1965 after being the commissioner of baseball for fourteen years (Fleming, 2007a). He was seventy one at the time he resigned (Fleming, 2007a). He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1970 and passed away in 1978 (Fleming, 2007a) After his death an award was dedicated in his name for baseball broadcasters with distinguished careers (Fleming, 2007a). This award is given to broadcasters who are inducted into the broadcasting side of the Hall of Fame. Frick is probably the most memorable person in the sports industry. His dedication working with the media, being a director, president and commissioner is a great thing for sport management. Fred was a huge part of baseball and contributed a lot of time to the game, another man who did the same is William Hulbert.

William Hulbert was born on October 23, 1832 in Burlington Flats, New York (Fleming, 2007b). William was the President of the Chicago White Stockings. He put together some of the best teams in baseball (The First Major League, 2008). He was a businessman so all he wanted to learn to do was make money (The First Major League, 2008). Hulbert felt that the teams were not organized the right way. The teams that lost out in the first rounds would go back home and play showcase games against teams that were not in the league. The association was made in the east and this made it difficult to play teams that were located in the west. Hulbert came up with a plan, he organized eight teams, four in the east and four in the west that was committed to a full championship schedule and had the teams not play teams outside the league to avoid complication (The First Major League, 2008). The eight teams that were in the association had a meeting in New York City on February 2, 1876 (The First Major League, 2008). At this meeting all the teams sat down and talked and agreed on to form a new organization, the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, which was to become the first true major league (The First Major League, 2008).Hulbert contributed to sports management by being the President of the Chicago White Stockings, putting together a plan to have teams play for a championship, and being one of the first people to make baseball a major league sport.

The people that I talked about all have something in common. They all were involved in sport management in some kind of way. These people lived it and dedicated themselves to do the best job they could do for sport management and sports. These guys are good at what they did and know one can take that away from them.

Sport and Recreation Management Resources

As a sport and recreation manager, like any other job, one will not know everything there is to know about ones career. There will need to be people, books, websites, and other publications that one uses to get answers and advice from. All of these are good ways to approach situations and it is good to get many views and choose the one that works the best.

One resource sport and recreation managers use is other managers in their field. Many managers who have been working in the position for a while have been through the same experiences. Since they are experienced they would know how to do things and be able to answer questions. Managers might also refer to other resources they use, such as magazines, websites, local radio stations, books, and employees.

Mr. Kleven is the Director of Park and Recreation here in Crookston. He uses resources like National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA), Minnesota Recreation and Park Association (MRPA), Crookston Youth Basketball Association (CYBA), Youth Activities, and Crookston Youth Soccer Association (CYSA). These are the main resources that Mr. Kleven uses on a daily basis that help him do his job well.

The National Recreation and Park Association is an association that has been around for years. In places across the United States the NRPA has been building parks and recreation areas for people to ride bikes, hike, play catch, or even have their pets run around and play with. Their mission is to “Advance parks, recreation and environments conservation efforts that enhance the quality of life for all people.” (About APRS, 2007). The values they believe in are to offer good quality facilities, employee's that meet the standards of good services to bring out a better community, and have responsible programs for the youth (About APRS, 2007). The NRPA is the nation's largest professional and citizen organization dedicated to advancing park, recreation, and conservation efforts that enhance the quality of life for all people (About NRPA, 2007). There are over 20,000 professionals, citizen advocates, educators, and students from diverse backgrounds with the same passion for promoting healthy lifestyles and livable communities (About NRPA, 2007).

There are associations that branch off from the NRPA. One of these associations is the American Park and Recreation Society (APRS). According to the National Recreation and Park Association, this association is the largest professional branch of the National Recreation and Park Association, which consists of more than 8,500 members. The NRPA also states that the APRS consists of professionals who work in the local delivery of park, recreation, and leisure services. This branch has members who symbolize character and concerns for park and recreation. There mission is “To strengthen the park and recreation profession; to enhance the quality of life.” (About APRS, 2007).

The Minnesota Recreation and Park Association (MRPA) is an organization structure that includes members, Board of Directors, Executive Director, membership services, and recreational sports teams (Strategic Plan, 2005). The MRPA has a recreation service function that is attentive and accountable for the recreational services that they provide (Strategic Plan, 2005). Minnesota Recreation and Park Association provides sports like Adult and Youth Softball, Volleyball, Basketball, Broomball, Booth Hockey, Touch Football, Hershey's Youth Track and Field, and they have a Select Special Event programs that allow the youth to go spend the day with the Timberwolves, Lynx, Twins, Swarm, and the Golden Gophers (MRPA 2005-2010 Strategic Plan, 2008). This organization is an organization that supports recreation both in youth and adult, this is why they have a good reference of success.

Crookston Youth Basketball Association (CYBA) promotes enthusiasm for basketball and emphasizes skill development and fun (About CYBA, 2008). The CYBA was formed in the early 1990's by a group of individuals interested in encouraging participation in youth basketball (About CYBA, 2008). This association promotes kids from ages nine to fifteen to travel and play basketball. CYBA encourages kids in the summer to shoot and keep track of how many baskets they make and then rewards them with a prize relating to the number of baskets made. This is a way to keep the youth basketball players on track with their skills during the months that there are not practicing. In this program participating youth families must pay a $20.00 fee, but anyone who supports this program can be a member and pay $20.00 a year, even if they do not have kids in the program (About CYBA, 2008).

Crookston Youth Soccer Association (CYSA) is an organization that is made up of a board of directors. It consists of individuals, families, coaches, and referees (Welcome, 2008). The CYSA promotes summer soccer for 3-12 graders. During the months one can not play soccer outside, they have a facility to play soccer indoors. This organization raises money for the youth players and the fields they play on. They help support high school and junior high boy's and girl's soccer also (Welcome, 2008). The CYSA is a strong organization that wants kids to play soccer. They do a lot for these youth to help them grow up to be good athletes, especially playing soccer.

Many people in the community find out about sport issues through the radio and television. Different news and sport broadcasters let the public know about upcoming games and events. Sport and recreation managers, like Kleven, use these resources to obtain some information and statistics from games, events, and meetings. Crookston has a local radio station called KROX. This is a type of resource that Kleven uses for his job. KROX keeps the community updated on events and has a great sports section for people who like sports around the community. They involve all levels of sports from youth leagues, varsity, and adult leagues and have daily and weekly shows with sports players and their coaches. KROX is also very good and broadcasting live games or local sporting events, no matter where they are located. When there are two games played at the same time they usually have a broadcaster at each game and record one and play that after the other game is finished. They keep a current website available at www.kroxam.com. This website gets many visits a day. The sports page gives all the information needed about any Crookston sports team or Minnesota professional teams. It even has live web casts for people that live out of the radio stations range, so they can listen to selected games on the computer broadcasted live from KROX. This radio station is a very good resource for various teams and information.

The Crookston Park and Recreation Department offers sport programs for youth. Some summer programs include baseball, softball, tball, golf, tennis, others. In the winter they offer basketball, hockey, and indoor soccer. The City of Crookston hires students from around the community to work with children and also to be role models. The youth program involves youth from grades preschool through ninth grade. The City of Crookston is a well know town for there youth programs. The Park and Recreation workers work hard to maintain fields, tennis courts, and other parks around the town. This is a great resource for other towns to look at because they can get ideas of things that are successful in Crookston.

Resources are such an important part of anyone's career. It makes things easier for the manager if things can be done the correct way the first or second time. With all the information out there now, including the internet and brochures, there should be a way to find out whatever kind of information you need.

Communication Paper

One of the largest components of a sport and recreation managers' job is one's ability to communicate. Communication is a vital role in many circumstances. It shows how one reacts to certain situations and how effectively one's job is done. There are different ways to determine what kind of communication skills are being used or should be used.

Communication Styles

There are three basic types of communication styles: aggressive, passive, and assertive. Each style will best fit each individual. Aggressive communicators think everyone should be like them. They often have trouble listening and seeing other people's point of view. They are bossy and impatient to others. On the other hand, passive communicators always agree with everyone. They let others make choices and they feel powerless. The kind of communicator a good sport and recreation manager should obtain is the assertive style. Assertive communicators are effective listeners, trust self and others, and are confident in their choices. They have good enthusiasm and are able to motivate others (Sherman, 1999). This will help them with the communication skills that they will use.

Communication Skills

With assertive being the style of communication that best fits this profession, next the communication skills need to be acquired. Some good communication skills include speaking, listening, interviewing, reading, writing, giving feedback, and being interview (Communication skills, 2008). These would all be ideal for every sport and recreation manager to have.

Speaking is the most commonly used form of communication. Sport and recreation managers need to speak to their employees, the community, and people utilizing the activities provided. It is done to explain things, to provide information, or just to have conversations. There will need to be meetings that are put on where the manager speaks on issues. There will also be phone calls, interviews, and feedback reports that should be a verbal type of communication. Speaking is an effective way to communicate with anyone.

To let people know one has full attention, good listening skills are needed. Employees, the community, and people utilizing activities want to know that the manager cares about what they have to say and will deal with their concerns. Situations where one would use this skill would be in meeting, general conversations, interviews, grievance issues, questions, and concerns.

All managers need good interviewing skills. There will always be the need to hire employees. They need to be sure that they get the right applicant for the job through the interviewing process.

There are many different things to read. One will get emails, notices, letters, faxes, bulletins, brochures, etc. To understand the information or what is being asked of one needs to be able to read efficiently. The sport and recreation manager will have things that may be read out loud to other people or to themselves.

For all the different ways to read things one may also write them. The sport and recreation manager will have to send letters, emails, etc. out to the employees, community, and people utilizing activities. They need to be updated and informed on matters that concern them. They may write things down while someone else is talking, which would also require good listening skills, or they can just write down information that they have questions on or to remember things better.

When employees do good and bad things, feedback should be given to them. They need to know what is being done right and wrong so they can perform to the sport and recreation managers standards. Feedback is done at least annually and can be done whenever needed or observed.

There will be times in a sport and recreation manager' career where they will be interviewed. Whether it be for a news station, paper, or for a students research paper they need to be on top of what is going on and be able to answer questions on the spot.

These styles of communication are used not only as a sport and recreation manager, but for many types of professional communities. The styles cover almost every kind of communication style commonly used.

Communication on a Regular Basis

Verbal and written communication will be used everyday. There will be certain things that are not communicated as commonly as others, but still used.

On a daily basis a sport and recreation manager will have mail to open, emails to read, meetings to attend, and people to talk to. Weekly will most likely use the same communication skills. On a monthly basis there will be other kinds of meetings or events to utilize communication skills at. There will also be quarterly reports that need to be read and explained to other employees. Yearly there are usually annual meetings to attend.

These are just some of the more common types of regular basis communication skills used by sport and recreation managers throughout their career. A good person that uses these tasks every day would be Dr. David Rolling.

Dr. Rolling is the Sport and Recreation Manager Program Coordinator at the University of Minnesta, Crookston. He attended Bemidji State University in Bemidji, MN, to get a bachelor degree in Sport Management and a master's degree in Sport Studies (David Rolling, 2008). He got his Ph.D. in Sport Administration at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, KS (David Rolling, 2008).

Dr. Rolling was also an athlete. He played minor league baseball and hockey growing up. After he was done playing he coached. He has coached at division 1, 2, and 3 levels for hockey and baseball. He currently is the UMC Golden Eagles assistant hockey coach. He also has worked in the professional level for football. He was a player compensation for the Kansas City Chiefs, which deals with player's contracts and negotiations.

Dr. Rolling currently works at the University of Minnesta, Crookston as the Sport and Recreation Manager Program Coordinator, a professor and is the advisor for all of the Sport and Recreation Management degree students. He teaches six classes a semester. Some of those classes are Seminar in Sport and Recreation Management 4099, Exercise Physiology 3320, Sports Marketing 3006, and Sport and Recreation Law 3002. Rolling has been here on campus for two and a half years.

As stated earlier, one of the largest components of a sport and recreation managers' job is one's ability to communicate. Now that all the styles, kinds, skills, and ways of communication have been presented one can really see how often communication is used. The perfect candidate would have all of these traits, but let's face it, no one is perfect!

APA Compared to MLA

Paper formatting is based upon the rules of the particular style one is using (Paper, 1999). There are many different ways to format a paper. All styles define how a paper should be written, the format of the paper when printed, and how references are cited (Paper, 1999). One may ask, why the need for all of this? The answer is to give credit to the author or publisher for their original work and to let others know where the information was obtained so they may utilize it too. Two of the more common types will be discussed and compared. The first style is used by sport and recreation managers and the second is used by other career fields.

American Psychological Association (APA) is the most selected writing style. APA style specifically points out names and order of headings, formatting, and organization of citations and references (APA, 2008). This style points out the arrangement of tables, figures, footnotes, and appendices, as well as other manuscript and documentation features (APA, 2008). APA provides the basic guidelines for documenting print and electronic resources (APA, 2008). In an APA style paper there are certain sections that should be included in the paper, with each section starting on a new page. The sections include: title page, abstract, body, references, author note, footnotes, tables, and figures (APA, 2008).

Modern Language Association style (MLA) requires that specific rules be followed for formatting manuscripts (Enzine, 2008). This style provides writers with a system that is suitable to cite references, the usage of which enhances the writer's credibility by listing outside sources in order to give recognition where it is due (Enzine, 2008). One advantage of this style is that it provides a writer protection from plagiarism.

There are many other things that differ between APA and MLA. The guidelines for APA are:

• Assignments must be typed double-spaced on 8.5 x 11 inch pages.

• The title page must include bylines, titles, or running headers.

• Page numbers must be included (similar to MLA) followed by 5 spaces, then an abridged version (2 words) of the paper's title.

• Some instructors require students to prepare an abstract which is a 75 to 100 word overview of the chosen topic highlighting the major points of discussion in the paper. It must be set up on its own page with the word "Abstract" centered at the top of the page, and placed right after the title page.

• Headings are not specifically necessary but can be helpful in navigating through a paper. Every word of the heading must be capitalized with the exception of articles such as 'the', 'a', and 'an', and certain conjunctions such as 'and', and 'but'.

• Visuals such as tables and figures including graphs, charts, and drawings may be included; however, each must be labeled with an Arabic numeral i.e. Table 1, Table 2, etc. Titles must be flush left; each inserted illustration must include its source.

• Lists of all references must be included on its own page at the end of your written work. Each reference should be centered, starting at the top of the page (also double spaced) and listed in alphabetical order according to the author's last name, editor, or by the title of the work (excluding the words A, An and The) (Ezine, 2008).

Guidelines for MLA are:

• Assignments are to be typed on pages no larger that 8.5 x 11, double spaced, with either Times New Roman font, or Courier.

• One space must be inserted between all punctuation marks.

• Margins must be set to one inch on all sides of the paper.

• All paragraphs must be indented one inch (one tab) from the left margin of the page.

• Headers must be inserted on each page in the upper right hand corner displaying the page numbers of the essay consecutively (some instructors will ask that a student's last name follow the page number on each page).

• If endnotes are included in your work, they must be placed on the last page, right before your works cited page (Ezine, 2008).

APA and MLA references are cited two different ways. When citing from books in MLA one writes: Welch, Ben. Football Plays for Youth Football. 4th ed. Minnesota: Football, 2008. When citing from books in APA one writes: Welch, B. (2008). Football Plays for Youth Football. Minnesota: Football Basics. Journal articles for MLA are written: Donaldson, Scott. “Protecting the Troops from Hemingway: An Episode in Censorship.” The Hemingway Review 15 (1995): 87-93 (MLA, 2008). Journal articles for APA are written: Baptista, L. F. (1984). Song leargning in the anna hummingbired. Ethology, 84, 15-26 (MLA, 2008).The citation list for MLA should have a titled page called Works Cited. In APA style the titled page for citation should be called resources. Citing in text is also done differently. When you cite one author in APA style you cite (Henneberg, 2008, 9). In MLA format you cite (Henneberg 9). They are very similar to each other and could easily be mixed up.

In conclusion MLA and APA look similar, but specific guidelines make them different. MLA and APA are great ways to write papers. Students, writers, and professors across the world use these style manuals to write papers, books, journals, and other documents. These styles are great for all people to use, because of the basic rules to follow.

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