February 17, 2020
Mr. Moge
Exeter High School
1 Blue Hawk Drive
Exeter, NH 03833
Dear Mr. Moge’,
To choose three careers that I was interested in, it took some time to think about
exactly what kind of idea I want to do with my future in sports management, provided I
end up going down that path. After all of the decision-making, I came across three great
jobs: the field of athletic training, a sports event promoter, as well as the field of athletic
scouting. These careers are very important in the overall world of sports, and it could
not run without them. Athletic trainers are crucial, and advertisers are necessary to keep
fans interested. Scouts are needed to find players to put onto professional sports teams
as well as college teams.
The first career I researched was Athletic Training. Ther job is to deliver athlete
medical care and provide first aid techniques and to perform initial athletic training
evaluations (concussion tests and things like that). They also educate athletes on how
to prevent injuries and they make sure to keep all medical records of every athlete in the
program. The median annual income of this career is about $47,510, or about $22.84
per hour. This health career requires a bachelor's degree at a minimum but a master's
degree is preferable. A bachelor's degree should be earned in a program that has been
accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education. Some
employers will only hire athletic trainers who have undergone concussion management
training and received certification, for example, worked as an intern alongside a high
school athletic trainer that performs these kinds of tests. Listening and verbal
communication skills: You must be able to understand what patients and coworkers tell
you and to clearly convey information to them. The skills that are not only encouraged to
have but mainly required include interpersonal skills and the ability to read patient’s
non-verbal cues, like for example, if an athlete tells you that they are fine but are not by
any means. More skills include compassion, decision-making, critical-thinking skills, and
attention to small details. You also have to have “nerves of steel”, so to speak, as you
should be able to maintain emotional control in stressful situations as you must be able
to effectively manage emergencies.
The second career that I researched was the field of sports advertising and
promotion. Depending on the type of event, a sports promoter will handle activities such
as projecting attendance and revenues, visiting and selecting venues, creating a
budget, selling sponsorships, overseeing marketing, handling on site logistics and
dealing with all of the business activities related to running an event. This includes
advertising during a sports event, for example, the 30-second commercials that you see
throughout the event. The average annual salary of sports managers who promoted
sporting events in 2013 was $67,370. Those who worked directly as managers for
athletes, entertainers and other public figures had an annual mean salary of $101,380 in
the same year. This job is very important because fans not only watch the games for the
gameplay but also watch it for the commercials. Many people only watch the Super
Bowl for the commercials, believe it or not, and that is the sports advertisers jobs to
make those commercials possible even if it costs a millions dollars for 30 second ads.
The third career that I chose was athletic scouting, a very important job when it
comes to drafting and scouting great players. Athletic scouts work for sports teams as
talent evaluators. They watch athletes perform at the high school, college and
professional levels to determine the talent, potential and style of the players. Common
duties of athletic scouts include monitoring news sources, attending games and
speaking with coaches to locate promising players, as well as watching game footage
and studying statistics to determine athletes' potential. They also meet with players to
discuss incentives. Athletic scouts may be self-employed or work for universities,
professional teams or scouting organizations. People in this position often work
outdoors and spend much of their time traveling across the country and sometimes
internationally watching sports games of high school level and college level. Athletic
scouts frequently work evenings and weekends and may work long hours, especially
during their sport's season. The average annual salary for sports scouting is about
$32,270.
With these chosen future paths, there are many different pros and cons to go
along with them. With athletic training comes lots of stress and pressure, in the sense
that when an athlete does get injured, it's your decision to decide whether or not they
can get back onto the field in a certain amount of time. There’s a lot of pressure
associated with that, because if you send them back too early, they will get even more
hurt, but if you wait too long, the player may get annoyed at their lack of play time. A pro
for athletic training would have to be the appreciation that trainers receive for helping
out athletes and getting people healthy enough to get back onto the field. With sports
event promoting and advertising, there is a lot of cost associated. For example, to put
an advertisement or a promotion during the Super Bowl in the form of a commercial, it
could cost up to 3 million dollars for 30 seconds. Another con of sports advertising and
promotion is that when an athlete creates a brand and they do not do well as a player,
the sponsors and advertisers could withdraw their money and their sponsorships and it
would fail the morals of the promotion. Athletic Scouting also has its pros and cons
when it comes to the overall career. It is very helpful and valuable to become a sports
scout because it is what runs the sports world today. If there are no players to be
scouted, there are rarely any players that are going to play in the professional leagues.
A con of sports scouting is that you have to use a lot of your off time watching games of
high school students and making decisions as to which the best players are.
After all of my research, I came to the conclusion that I want to pursue the career
of athletic training. I made this decision because to me, this is the most important career
in the sports as it keeps players healthy and on the field playing all the time. My
experience as an assistant to an athletic trainer at my summer camp really has
prepared me for this position, and I am very confident that I fulfil the strengths and
interest field of this career. I am very good at performing well under pressured
situations, and I am very confident with my voice and I am not afraid to get down and
dirty with serious injuries. This career is very interesting to me because I have seen the
work that athletic trainers do at our school and around the world, and I personally have
been helped by them by getting concussion tested and having myself taped up before a
game due to a minor injury. Honestly, I can really see myself doing this in the future as I
am very interested in this field. Even though you have to truly be certified for this
position and attend a good college to get into the athletic training business, I am willing
to take that path and work very hard to get there.
Sincerely
Mr. Aidan Powley
Exeter High School
1 Blue Hawk Drive
Exeter, NH 03833