WHO WHO IS THE IS THE CENTRE CENTRE FOR FOR SPORT SPORT CAPACITY? CAPACITY?
Samantha Casey
Petro Mastrodimitropoulos
Nick Moroz
Marc Petramala
Daniel Buccianti
Tavon Douglas
Remy Dupoire
Sydney Dury
Max Fraser
Aaron Joseph Golbourne
Matthew Spadafora
Xiaoxia Tan
Lucas Wells
Clarence Wiafe
Skylar Dark
Alessia Di Falco
Hayden Findlay
Sriraj Mallur
Ryan Matthews
Daniel Nardi
Stefano Sinclair
Edward Tu
Erik Wouters
ntent Team
Andrew Bellefontaine
Emma Brown
Taran Flora
Luke Huntley-Brown
Shaneil Lovell
Gleb Platonov
Calum Sacha
Matthew Stechnicki
Eli Trestan
Nathan Wood
Welcome to the first volume of the Sport Issue Magazine!
Thank you to Dr. Taylor McKee and the 33 sport management students who led this new Centre for Sport Capacity publication.
Our goal is to engage students through an issue-focused project they create to address areas of sport that matter to them.
Enjoy!
Selena Racco
Grace Nelson Xiaoxia Tan
CSC Team
2022 - 2023
CSC Director
Dr Julie Stevens
In2002,theCanadianSportPolicyidentifiedtheneed for enhanced capacity as one if its four goals. The policy highlighted the importance of identifying and strengthening sport organizations and all those involved with them to maximize effectiveness. To supportthisgoaltheCentreforSportCapacity(CSC) wasfoundedatBrockUniversity,tohelpbuildcapacity intheNiagaraRegionandbeyond.
Since2010,theCSCisahubthatoperatesunderthree mandates: research, student experiential education, andpracticalsupportfororganizations.
The CSC and its members conduct research to understand needs and address gaps in the Canadian sport system. This research is mobilized through a variety of programs, events, and resources to provide practicalassistancetosportleadersandorganizations.
TheCSCoffersawiderangeofexperiential education(EE)opportunitiestoawayfor studentstogainexperienceandbuild competenciesworkinginoperationalareas suchas,communications,marketing, andeventmanagement.
Students are directly involved with our forums, webinars, community programs, and corporate services. At the beginning of 2022, 125 students had contributed over 5000 hours of experience in the CSC through internships, placements, course-based activities, volunteering, co-op work terms, and research assistantships.
The CSC provides practical support to sport organizations.CSCmembersworkdirectlywithinthethe sportcommunityandindustrytoconductandapplynew research. There are also many initiatives in the CSC that usepre-existingandon-goingresearchtoassistdifferent partnersinbuildingtheircapacity.
TheCSCthrivesoninnovationandbelievesinaforwardthinkingmodel.Itispartofahighereducationsystemthat isunderrapidandconstantchange.Withthismodel,the CSCmustidentifywaystostayahead,adapt,andensure changes at the university help move their mandate forward.
In the future, the Centre is looking to cultivate new programstohelpthegrowthanddevelopmentofpeople and organizations in the community, with opportunities such as youth leadership development and executive training.TheCSCaimstoeffectivelydisseminate itsresourcesandenablememberstoconduct morerelevantresearch,improveteaching, andoffermoreservicestothecommunity.
The Centre for Sport Capacity’s members lead and partake in many different research projects. The projects conducted through the CSC are for educational purposes to understand the capacity of sport organizations in the Niagara region, Canada, and abroad.
Projects include an array of topics which vary based on the interests and expertise of the members such as gender equality, non-profit organizations, the impact of sport in the Niagara region, and how to provide more effective coaching at the provincial sport level.
Additionally, the CSC has published and delivered multiple research papers and is currently working on future projects to share knowledge and improve the capacity for sport organizations around the world.
The Centre for Sport Capacity has many partnerships with different sport organizations and clubs. Some partners also give the CSC the ability to take on academic initiatives and convert previous projects into knowledge mobilization opportunities. Some of these collaborations include the Ontario Amateur Wrestling Association, Sport for Life, the University of British Columbia, and the University of Toronto.
Bowls Canada is one of the projects supported by the Centre for Sport Capacity. Led by Dr. Shannon Kerwin, Associate Professor of Sport Management, the aim is to explore the recruitment and retention of women, over the age of 40 years, in competitive bowling programs. The purpose of this research project is to understand potential factors that influence participants’ decisions. The program also offers insight to improve access for retaining women across many sport organizations.
The Niagara Sport Database project started in 2018 and is led by Dr. Julie Stevens, Professor of Sport Management. The project addresses the need to gather information about the impact of sport within the Niagara region. Dr. Stevens, with the support of a student research team, has gathered data from sport events, facilities, and organizations from across the region. The data are analyzed to inform evidence-based decisions about the social and economic value of sport in the region.
Led by Dr. Michelle K. Donnelly, Associate Professor of Sport Management, the Biathlon Canada project involves a gender audit of the national sport organization. This project focuses upon the athletes, coaches, technical officials, decision makers/leaders, staff, programs, policies, and budget of Biathlon Canada. The purpose of the gender audit is to research how gender is taken into consideration within the organization. The findings shed light on areas where gender equity policies and practices can be improved in Biathlon Canada and other sport organizations.
So far at Brock, I have been fortunate to teach SPMA 1P93 – Diversity and Inclusion in Sport Management, 1P94 –Professional Engagement for the Sport Industry, 2P06 – Sport Policy, 3P05 –Management Concepts in Non-profit Sport Organizations, and 4P97 –Advanced Analysis of the Sport Industry: Hockey.
Each of these courses have been an exciting opportunity for me, and I am fond of each for separate reasons. For some courses, it gives me the chance to have challenging discussions and allow students to consider sport from different perspectives.
Others, like 3P05 for instance, allow students to be directly involved with the sporting community and forge lasting connections in the sport industry.
n developing the 3P05 course I saw a great deal of wasted potential as we only ocused on the conceptual side of nonprofit sports. I felt that by having students work directly with non-profits hey could gain valuable first-hand experience in a variety of areas that would help build skills for the future.
For instance, with the North American ndigenous Games, students are learning about how the a non-profit governance model works. They’re meeting the people that fill the roles of Vice President, Secretary, Director, and earning that those people are professionals in other fields. They’re earning these people are extremely committed, extremely capable and I hink delivering the course in this way is a great deal of a lot more interesting han listening to me blabber for three hours a week.
Partnering with the CSC for this course seemed like a natural fit because they work with so many non-profits it allows or students to assist many sport organizations at once.
Dr. Taylor Mckee
"Onethingthathasbeen truesincearrivingatBrock though:it’sstillhardto shakethefeelingof 'Iam soluckytobetalking aboutsporteachand everyday."
Journal of Emerging Sport Studies:
In 2018, Andrew Pettit, Jared Walters, and I founded an open-access journal called the Journal of Emerging Sport Studies (JESS) with the goal of providing high-quality scholarship at no cost to authors. We accept submissions from established and emerging scholars and one of the JESS’s mandates is to help people just starting their academic careers through the grueling publishing process.
JESS helps to get research to the public free of charge at no cost to the researcher. Since initial publication, we have created an open-access, manuscript publishing imprint, hosted digital symposia, produced a publicfacing series of discussions and interviews called “Emerging Discourses,” and published six volumes of sport scholarship from emerging and established scholars around the globe.
Indigenous Hockey Research Network: I am so fortunate to be part of the IHRN. We are a collective of researchers dedicated to uncovering and engaging with hockey’s Indigenous past, present, and future. We aim to cultivate critical understanding of hockey’s role in Indigenous and non-Indigenous relations in Canada.
Through archival research, personal interviews, data analysis, and Indigenous community-led approaches, we take up hockey as a site for community building and Indigenous empowerment, as well as a vehicle for the pursuit of reconciliation between Indigenous Peoples and other Canadians.
Calgary Flames
Indian Horse by Richard
WagameseMany internship, placement, and volunteer students have completed experiential opportunities with the
Centre for Sport Capacity. Many of the students have highlighted various skills and experiences they have had while working with the CSC. Soft skills such as communication, teamwork, and leadership. Hard skills like content creation, event planning, and marketing were also mentioned by the students.
skills and Brock’s core competencies such as critical thinking, knowledge application, and community
engagement. A key benefit to students’ CSC experiential education experience is professional growth. The following page highlights some student profiles who completed an experiential opportunity with the CSC describing their contributions and where they are now.
An analysis of the text from the student blogs reveals benefits that include the development of several employability
Additionally, you can find blogs written by the students by scanning the QR code above.
April 2021 – September 2021
During Hazel’s time as the Forum and Webinar Coordinator (Experiential) she staged a successful webinar and organized a three-day forum, Athletes First: The Promotion of Safe Sport in Canada.
After her internship, Hazel worked as a Sport Program Administrator and an Administrative Assistant to local sport associations. She continued her studies at George Brown College completing a certificate in Digital Media Marketing
During Bobby’s time at the CSC he developed all the promotional content that the Centre used through programs such as Canva and Adobe Illustrator. He was also instrumental in the successful roll-out of the 2021 "Athletes First" Safe Sport Forum, communicating with OUA teams to ensure all parties were informed about the event effectively.
After completing his role with the CSC Bobby worked as a Research Assistant and is currently completing a Master of Arts in sport management at Brock University.
September 2020 - April 2021
During Emma’s time as the Marketing and Communications Assistant (Intern) at the CSC, she worked a great deal with improving the Centre’s social media outreach. She even created a booklet outlining best practices for social media strategies that is still used today.
After graduating, Emma worked as the Communications and Events Assistant at the Grimsby & Lincoln District Chamber of Commerce and is currently the Communications Cooridnator at the Alzheimer Society of Niagara. EMMAFEDORCHUKBA2021
Marketing, Communications & Business Development Coordinator
May 2021 – August 2021
During Ryan’s time as the CSC's Marketing, Communications and Business Development Coordinator (Intern), he worked a great deal with social media. He created and distributed over 50 posts in four months and drove strong growth in CSC followers. He also worked in a data analytics role for Community Researcher's projects and was able to help CSC partners improve their offerings.
Ryan worked as the Sports Information Assistant for Brock Sports. Ryan is currently the Strategic Projects and Communications Intern in the Faculty of Managementat at Dalhousie University where he is completing an Masters of Business Administration.
During Noah’s time at the CSC he developed and launched the Centre's website. He also worked closely with Dr. Stevens on her research project Niagara Sport Database and helped to create the CSC’s social media presence on Twitter and LinkedIn.
After completing his role with the CSC Noah worked as the Editor-in-Chief at The Brock Press and is currently completing as Masters of Arts in Political Science at Brock University.
As one of the three mandates of the Centre for Sport Capacity, student experiential education is an important factor in the operations of the CSC. The experiential opportunities available to students has grown from two in 2018 to more than 40 opportunities in February of 2022. This growth provides students with the opportunity to develop both soft and hard skills in areas such as communications, marketing, social media, and event management to name a few.
The Centre for Sport Capacity has a range of different experiential education opportunities available to undergraduate students and graduate students in any program. Opportunities include volunteer
positions, placements, internships, coops, and course related service learning. In total, the CSC offers ten of Brock University’s experiential learning categories.
Sport management experiential education coordinator Michael Fawkes says that “experiential education is a key piece of the learning model; experiential learning goes beyond using what you have learned in the classroom and applying it into a work setting” says Fawkes. “Ideally, experiential learning is both a reflective and cultural undertaking where you can embrace your curiosity, present creative solutions to issues or ideas, and expand your knowledge of the industry.”
In the future, the CSC is focused on catering toward student needs. The Centre wants to become a driving force for experiential education at Brock. This goal will be achieved by expanding the number of unique opportunities for students to work with the CSC, as well as listening to students' ideas to help develop more innovative and engaging programs that appeal to the student population.
Internships
8 Placements
6 Course-based Activities
65 Volunteers
19 CO-OPs
2 Research Assistantships
34
The Centre for Sport Capacity (CSC) brings a variety of different actionable objectives that provide services to the neighbouring communities of Brock University.
TheCentresuccessfullyestablished a new initiative with the help of sport management and recreation and leisure students to provide supportandguidancetolocalsport organizations. This initiative is called the Sport Support Team (SST). The SST is comprised of a small group of enthusiastic undergraduate students who apply their and skills to help local sport organizations. In 2021-2022, students supported the St. Catharines Minor Baseball Association, the South Niagara Canoe Club, Niagara United Basketball, and the St. Catharines TennisAlliance.
"As I reflect upon my time at the CSC as the SST Lead, I am extremely thankful for the opportunities present to not only refine but develop transferable skills that will aide as I move into my last year of my degree."
Mandisa Lau Sport Support Team Lead
The CSC webinars provide education to Brock students and community members on crucial, emerging topics in the sports industry, such as sport and the environment, sport gambling, e-sports, and innovation in sport. Dr. Julie Stevens, Director of the CSC prides herself on being a “Servant Leader”. She highlightswhatbeingaServant Leader means to her, and how this philosophy has shaped the CSC.
To ensure equal opportunity and accessibility for all stakeholders in the community, the Centre for Sport Capacity provides open-access resources on its website. By enabling everyone to use the information, the Centre hopes to inform and assist organizations dealing with the pressing matters facing the sport industry.
One of the most important goals for the CSC is to provide resources that share new, interesting, and useful knowledge from industry professionals and experts to the community. The CSC offers a variety of learning opportunities in the form of webinars, open to anyone to attend and gain knowledge. For example, the Centre for Sport Capacity offered webinars that featured important sports-related themes on Sport Gambling and Sport and the Environment.
“I enjoy providing and giving service to others as a way to enhance their experiences and what they might gain through an education or by workin higher institu says J “One things enjoye being comm a lot of my research was done to support organizations in the community and face the challenges that are all around them.”
Julie Stevens Sport Management Professor and CSC Director
“This webinar series considers practices, politics and preferred futures related to sport and the environment,” says , peakers have been invited to discuss environmental considerations in sport, ranging from the everyday practices of individuals to the climate change mitigation and adaption practices of organizations, and beyond.”
Brad Millington Sport Management Associate Professor and CSC member
The "Sport and the Environment" webinar series was presented in collaboration with the University of British Columbia’s Centre for Sport and Sustainability and the Centre for Sport Capacity hosted by Dr. Rob Millington and Dr. Brad Millington.
This first webinar of the series focused on “Politics, Practices and Preferred Futures” in sport and the current state of the climate emergency and sport’s impact on climate change. Speaker, David Goldblatt, Professor at Pitzer College in Los Angeles, Calif., shared his knowledge about the sport industry and the actions governing bodies are taking to limit the negative impacts sport has on the environment.
The second webinar in the series was titled “Tackling Environmental Issues in Canadian Sport.” Speaker Dan Wilcock, currently the Manager of UN Global Compact Network Australia and Founder of Canadian Alliance on Sports for Climate Action, joined to talk about the impact climate change has on Canadian sport and shared his experiences in bringing effective long-term change to Canadian sport organizations.
The Centre for Sport Capacity has developed a partnership with students to provide two methods of e-learning. The first learning resource that was released was “Sport: A Connection to Health and Society” and the second was “Evolution and Development of Sport in Canada”.
The e-learning methods were developed for Ontario high school teachers to better integrate sport content into their classroom. These resources were
developed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Institutionallearningatall levels was forced to transition online and this e-learningresourceoffers an additional form of learning that teachers may use with their students.
Asthedaytodayroutine formanypeoplechanged drastically, the CSC looked to provide an open-access resource to help ease the burden on teachers. This form of learningwasnewtoboth studentsandteachers.
To be able to share these supplementary resources to assist in learning shows only upsides. “Our goal when creating this resource was to ease the burden felt by our whole education system, as we had to quickly pivot to an online learning format,” said team member and Brock graduate Rachael Holmes (BEd ’20). “During these challenging times, everyone needs a little extra support from their community. Our intention in creating this resource was to provide a small ounce of that support.”
The Centre for Sport Capacity continuously seeks new ways to develop and expand. There are plans for the CSC to offer consulting, professional development, and corporate training services for all types of organizations in a variety of sectors. Sport is integrated in a unique way when providing these services to deliver an engaging and team-building environment that provides participants an opportunity to develop professional and life skills. Currently, the CSC is working hard to create new training options while already offering some very exciting programs.
Canada Summer Games Edition
A unique program offered by the Centre for Sport Capacity as part of its Sport Leadership Academy. This successful threeday leadership development program was for girls aged 11-13 years who were involved in any level of sport. The program provided an opportunity for girls to “learn to lead” and develop valuable leadership and life skills, all within the context of sport. Participants took part in an interactive classroom sessions and had the experience of attending women’s events at the Niagara 2022 Canada Summer Games.
One of the Centre’s newest initiatives is the Sport Conference Day. This day gave high school students a behind-the-scenes look at the business side of the sport industry through a keynote speaker, workshops, and panel involving Brock University faculty and students. Not only was this open to all secondary school students, but it also gave the opportunity for Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM) students to complete many of their program requirements. There were group workshops that dove into the 2022 Niagara Canada Summer Games with topics including communications, marketing, sponsorship, and event management.
