Global Sport Institute at Arizona State University Annual Report 2020-21

A R I Z O N A

S T A T E

Global Sport Institute

U N I V E R S I T Y

2020–21

“In sports, the

shortest distance between two points is rarely a straight line.”

— A G R EG U E RÍA WR ITTE N BY ALB E RTO RÍOS

Arizona State Poet Laureate, Regents Professor, director of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University, and a fan of sport

Our Mission The Global Sport Institute is where diverse disciplines converge to thoughtfully examine critical issues impacting sport. As a crossdisciplinary enterprise, the institute’s efforts are integrated throughout the entire university rather than within a single concentration.

With an emphasis on expanding research, sharing knowledge, supporting innovation and advancing education, the institute’s mission is to use sport to create positive change throughout the world.

Table of Contents

UNDERSTANDING SPORT MATTERS 1

CEO’s welcome

26

Leveling up after the game ends

2

Can we put a “statistical face” on inequity?

28

Education highlights

4

Field studies highlights

32

Bringing innovation to the game

5

Polling highlights

34

Featured ventures

6

Seed grants

42

Entrepreneurship + Innovation partners

7

Featured awardees

44

Past venture winners

12

Global Sport scholars

46

In the news

14

If not in sport, where?

48

Our team

16

Global Sport Matters highlights: Sex, gender and sexuality in sport

51

Message from adidas

52

Sports Equity Research Project

20

Sex, gender and sexuality in sport seed grand projects

53

Support Global Sport Institute

22

The resiliency of sport

54

Thank you

24

Global Sport Matters highlights: Mental health matters

CEO’s Welcome

A message from Kenneth L. Shropshire In sport, as with everyday life, one certainty is that unexplored questions will always remain. As we pondered what to highlight in this year’s annual report, what emerged for our team was the joy of witnessing our work become more contextualized than ever. As we each navigated this year’s ups and downs, we were able to bring several topics we examined into cultural relevance. The wins and losses in sport became a metaphorical mirror of what individuals, organizations and communities were facing at large.

Making our way out of the tumult of 2020, it often felt impossible to take an accurate snapshot of where sport stood. As a society, we learned everything from optimizing a Zoom background to adapting how we work, communicate and play during a pandemic. By the early part of 2021, bustling stadiums and live events had become the norm once again, but the social change that enveloped the United States and much of the world significantly altered the way we consumed and discussed sport.

As an institute, we always ask ourselves, how do we more deeply examine a topic? How can our research and resources be utilized to break the surface conversation and, instead, dig into the solution space?

With that in mind, we reinforced our place in the sporting world: to provide new knowledge and resources that make a positive impact on sport and the people whom sport touches.

Our Field Studies series expanded our examination of race, gender and education level when it comes to who gets a seat at the leadership table in sport. We checked the pulse of the United States public on several sports questions through the GSI National Snapshot Poll. We continued to support ASU’s academic community with seed grants, and we served a number of stakeholders in the sport

industry including athletes, sports entrepreneurs and sports organizations.

Beyond that, we tackled issues that traversed society, both within and beyond the world of sport. The critical subjects of race, mental health, legislation, business and technology are just some of the matters we have earmarked as places where we can best serve. In this report are impactful examples and stories of the people and groups we are proud to have been arm-in-arm with on this work.

“...we reinforced our place in the sporting world: to provide new knowledge and resources that make a positive impact on sport and the people whom sport touches.”

— Kenneth L. Shropshire, Chief Executive Officer of ASU Global Sport Institute

News rushes by these days and the world is constantly facing crises of varying levels. The inclination might be to reach out and grab hold of something, anything. We continue to take pride in being a source of knowledge and innovation in sport. This past year showed that we must continue to remain conscious within our work and trust our instincts as we pursue new lines of inquiry.

Kenneth L. Shropshire Chief Executive Officer, Global Sport Institute and adidas Distinguished Professor of Global Sport

G LO B A L S P O R T I N ST I T U T E

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CAN WE PUT A “STATISTICAL STATISTICAL FACE” FACE ON INEQUITY? Racial equity is an issue that has long stared into the face of sport. Like many parts of American society, big decisionmakers have been slow to take action-oriented plans, not solely to embrace diversity but also to proactively address disparity in many of its dimensions including race, gender and other forms of identity. In large part, sports institutions and those who work within them are facing historic and systemic barriers, so the simple act of determining where to start is a difficult task.

“How do you change people’s hearts?” he asked.

“That’s the challenge of 2021.”

Undeniably, George Floyd’s death had a profound global impact during the summer of 2020 and into 2021. It will forever mark a significant shift for many, including those within the world of sport. We witnessed a number of athletes, brands, teams and governing bodies decry racism and violence at varying degrees of commitment and action.

Some were expected, some were called upon, and many if not all were heavily scrutinized.

— William C. Rhoden, senior visiting practitioner

Perhaps one of the most unanticipated official statements came from the NFL and its commissioner, Roger Goodell, who spoke the words “Black lives matter.”

In February 2021 and during the months after these statements were made, the Global Sport Institute dug even deeper into exactly what kind of progress a large sports league like the NFL had achieved, using the context of how many people of Color were represented in leadership positions on the field. Unique to the NFL? The well-known Rooney Rule, the intent of which was to fill in the racial gaps.

In response to statements like Goodell’s, Global Sport Institute senior visiting practitioner William C. Rhoden said pointedly, “We want deeds. We don’t want any more words.”

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“We want deeds. We don’t want any more words. How do you change people’s hearts?

That’s the challenge of 2021.”

In 2021, another NFL hiring cycle came and went in which just two of the seven coaches hired were non-White.

Meanwhile in the NBA, Becky Hammon, a woman who coaches for the San Antonio Spurs, was passed over yet again for a head coach job. The hiring patterns clearly illustrated by our Field Studies data largely continued.

Yet alongside the increased willingness to address institutional racism in the U.S., there were also notable exceptions to these trends. Nina King, a Black woman, was hired as Duke’s next athletic director, punctuating gains by Black women in Power Five athletic director roles in recent years. Although there were no changes in gender-based hiring in the NBA, seven of eight head coach vacancies were filled by Black men.

Outside the leadership sphere, conversations around race and sport broadened. MLB moved its All-Star game from Georgia in response to recently-passed voting bills, while athlete protests continued at the Olympics as attention turned toward Rule 50 and its ban against athlete demonstrations. The Tokyo Olympic Games provided new context for some of the earliest content released by the

Global Sport Institute, specifically our package on the 50th anniversary of the 1968 Mexico City Games.

The 1968 Olympic Games are remembered as the birthplace of Olympic activism, with athletes like John Carlos and Wyomia Tyus, who joined us on a trip back to Estadio Olimpico Universitario in 2018 to commemorate their protest on behalf of civil rights for Black Americans.

The engagements and conversations we held, inspired by those events, lent even more historical context to more recent demonstrations in Tokyo from Black women like Gwen Berry and Raven Saunders.

In addition to our Field Studies, our National Snapshot Poll became a new instrument to uncover the public’s relationship with our sport systems. As Global Sport scholar Andrés Martinez said in a GSM Live conversation, “We talk a lot about how sport is a microcosm of society . . . it’s also a magnifier.” With each of the polls conducted we were able to measure where individuals stood as sport intersected with issues like politics, diversity and emerging legislation.

“As we begin to see the Global Sport Institute come up with these great studies, and now putting a statistical face on racism, now the ball moves to the court of the institutions and the teams. Will you pay attention to this and make changes?”

Time and again, these topics have gone unchecked and unexamined. The Global Sport Institute continues to provide relevant data and research-based insights, collected at the root of an issue, in order to help decision-makers make steps toward progress.

WI LLIAM C. R HOD E N SE N IOR VISITI NG PRACTITION E R

As Rhoden proposed, “Now the ball moves to the court of the institutions and the teams. Will you pay attention to this, and make changes?”

The Rooney Rule Adopted in 2003, the Rooney Rule is an NFL policy requiring every team with a head coaching vacancy to interview one or more diverse candidates. In 2009, the Rooney Rule was expanded to include general manager jobs and equivalent front office positions. The Rooney Rule is named after the late former Pittsburgh Steelers owner and chairman of the league’s diversity committee, Dan Rooney.

(Source: nflcommunications.com)

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Field studies highlights The root question of our Field Studies series asks: What paths are taken to achieve the highest levels of leadership in sport, and should these paths be re-evaluated? The research takes a deeper dive into the racial, ethnic and gender diversity among the highest ranks in several leagues and sports, or more often than not, the lack thereof.

We began our first Field Study in December of 2019 with arguably one the most visible leadership roles in sports: coaching in the NFL. Following the league’s infamous ‘Black Monday,’ the day known for breaking news on which coaches would be fired, the five resulting vacancies ended with only one person of Color, Ron Rivera, named as an incoming head coach. Moreover, four out of the five franchises with vacancies that year had to that point never hired a coach of Color.

In 2020-21, we increased the breadth and depth of our Field Studies series. We first expanded our examination of the NFL and collected data going back to 2003 and the inception of the well-known ‘Rooney Rule.’ We also included two new collegiate sectors: NCAA Power Five football coaches and NCAA athletic directors. In the years ahead, we will continue to monitor the data in each of these segments and add new studies each year.

In the 2002-03 season and at the inception of the Rooney Rule, 80% of incoming NFL head coaches were White while 20% were coaches of Color.

In the 2019-20 season, that percentage remained unchanged.

The football teams of the SEC have hired the lowest percentage of head coaches of Color, at 64%. Big 12 football teams have hired the highest percentage of head coaches of Color, at 80%.

Within the timeframe studied, incoming Black athletic directors held graduate degrees at a rate of 89% compared to 79% of White athletic directors. At the doctoral degree level, 27% of the incoming Black athletic directors held these degrees compared to 19% of their White peers. All incoming Asian American, Latino and Latina athletic directors held graduate degrees.

“Over the past year, some of the standout findings were revealed when we looked at the intersection of race, gender and sport. We see that legislation requiring people of Color to be interviewed is simply not enough for sustainable change in hiring discrepancies.

SCOTT B ROOKS DI R ECTOR OF R ESEARCH

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This intersectional research remains important to explore.”

Polling highlights When we need quick, reliable data on an emerging topic, the Global Sport Institute often partners with OH Predictive Insights, a Phoenix-based market research company that provides us with public opinion surveys and data analytics. These snapshot polls offer a timely glimpse into the ever-evolving issues impacting sport.

Sports and politics As both the college football season and the 2020 presidential election approached, there was quite a bit of uncertainty surrounding both. When former President Trump stated that he had played a role in bringing back Big 10 football amid the Covid-19 pandemic, we conducted a poll, shared exclusively with Time magazine, among undecided swing-state voters who identified as college football fans, to determine the influence, if any, of these assertions.

Fans and diversity awareness In conjunction with the release of our newlyexpanded field study on coaching in the NFL and the impact of the Rooney Rule, we began to wonder how much the public knew, or didn’t know, about the NFL and the diversity within its leadership ranks.

Transgender athletes The summer of 2021 brought the discourse around transgender athlete participation to a new high.

With several states introducing new bills focused on sport participation, we were interested in identifying the general public’s viewpoints and overall understanding of the matter.

Among undecided voters in key battleground states who identify as college football fans, 83% said that former President Trump’s statement had no effect on whom they would support in the 2020 presidential race.

NFL fans overestimated the actual number of head coaches of Color in the league. Just 7% of those polled correctly guessed the number (four), while 30% of respondents guessed that over half of NFL teams have a head coach of Color. When asked how many such coaches were acceptable for the league, only 2% said four head coaches of Color was an acceptable number; 55% said the league should have more than 16 head coaches of Color.

Of those who responded, 41% believe that refusing to allow transgender athletes to compete in the category of their gender identity would harm the athletes mentally or emotionally; 10% thought transgender people should be banned from sports; and 49% thought allowing trans girls to compete in girls’ sports would have a negative impact, while that percentage for boys sports was lower, at 40%.

International poll On behalf of the Global Sport Institute at Arizona State University, Latino Decisions in coordination with Lucid implemented an international online survey of adults in February of 2021. Some of the topline data included information on sex, gender and equity in sport.

When asked “Do you believe that women and men should receive the same pay for coaching university teams?,” 72% said yes, 11% said no and 17% said they didn’t know.

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Seed Grants The Global Sport Institute thrives on interdisciplinary work that brings together scholars from across ASU. Not unlike sport competition itself, it takes a multi-skilled approach to make advances. Within ASU’s vast academic network, we look to partner with those whose work is innately or uniquely tied to sport. Since our first year of programming, we have sought to support researchers whose insights can make a positive impact at the intersection of sport and the arts, technology, community development, race, mental and physical health, performance, sociology, history and engineering.

This past year, we took a special look at sex, gender, and sexuality in sport. In exploring these three terms, we consulted with ASU associate professor Marlon Bailey, who explained, “Sport should be opportunity for self-growth, healthy competition, community, and affirmation.”

Despite the challenges of current events, Regents Professor and Global Sport scholar Devoney Looser called for action and said, “This is a time for us to work collectively, and individually for our teams and in the world.”

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letters of intent

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13

applications from colleges and departments

29

full proposal applications

$298,000 funding awarded

course development grant aWardee

Mary Neubauer

Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts Sport was not the only thing that disappeared when the world went into lockdown in the spring of 2020.

Many artists, too, found themselves without access to the supplies and technology they needed to express themselves and create. With both disciplines wandering through unfamiliar territory, creativity reigned. The situation also forced Mary Neubauer, a President’s Professor of sculpture and the head of the art foundry at ASU, to reimagine her course, “The Athletic Trophy and Medallion.”

Funded by a grant from the Global Sport Institute, the course was designed to explore the physical means by which we celebrate athletic excellence through both medal design and the artistic achievement found in sculpting trophies. But during the semester, the pandemic forced students into their homes, most art supply stores closed, and the ASU foundry was shut down. By creatively using the materials they could find at home and calling upon a private foundry in Mesa, Arizona, Neubauer and her students persisted.

Thinking beyond mere sports awards, students were also encouraged to imagine what other physical achievements society values and how to design trophies and medals for them. They also envisioned what future physical feats could be celebrated and how.

“We really tried to bring in the broad idea of physical accomplishment, we tried to tie it to art through teamwork and physical expertise, and then we tried to bring in the history of sport and the way sport has been lauded and valued in society through the physical emblem,” said Neubauer.

By the time the 2021 spring semester arrived, Neubauer again redesigned the curriculum as an add-on to her colleagues’ sculpture courses, creating spin-off assignments and extra credit courses. Enough students were inspired by the idea that Neubauer collected sufficient trophy designs to fill a catalog and create an installation to be shown at Gallery 100, the Herberger Institute’s in-house gallery.

The fits and starts of the past two academic years forced Neubauer and her students to think bigger when it came to executing the course, as well as what it means to celebrate physical accomplishments in society within and beyond sport.

Medallions designed by students which were made into vectors, and then formed into magnesium die plates, a type of sand casting pattern. Photo courtesy of Mary Neubauer

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global sport senior scholar

Michael McBeath

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Prior to the founding of the Global Sport Institute in 2017, researchers at ASU who were interested in sport did not always find funding for their ideas. For Michael McBeath, a professor of psychology at ASU, the resources were scattered here and there, from places like the ASU kinesiology program or outside resources, but there was not a unified support system from inside the university that was solely focused on furthering the academic study of sport.

McBeath, a cognitive scientist who has been with ASU since 1998, explores how humans and animals perceive the world in natural environments. For him, sport was clearly a fertile ground for deepening society’s understanding of how physics and sensory changes affect perception. Once the Global Sport Institute launched, he was ready with ideas.

McBeath was originally funded in 2017 and has used that research to publish four separate journal articles. His original experiment explored human perception in sport, including how accurate umpires are at calling runners safe or out in a baseball game or whether basketball players can correctly judge if a ball has gone out of bounds off themselves or an opponent. These instances show how sight, sound and time collide to impact how humans experience the world.

The experiment has been used to tell many different stories within sport and neuroscience.

In addition to these new research opportunities, McBeath has also found commonality among fellow sport scholars who see sport as a terrain whereby the world can be improved. At events and meetings put on by the institute,

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McBeath has found like-minded researchers within the ASU community who share a passion for sport and a mutual interest in making progress in their field of study by incorporating sport into their work.

“It’s neat that we can look at real sporting events and have these conclusions which are generalizable to more important, real-world phenomena.”

“The way the Global Sport Institute has promoted itself is really expansive to a lot of other areas, where sport can really help in a variety of ways,” McBeath added.

We continue to see funded projects, which are developed further by insightful academics, find homes in publications seen by wider audiences. The most recent seed grants for this academic year are approaching the finish line, with deliverables coming that will broaden how sex, gender and sexuality intersect within sport. Like McBeath and his extensive work, we look forward to seeing these projects flourish in many different areas.

McBeath and Ty Tang worked together on “Why Observers Perceive the Same Event Differently: Testing the Effects of Reference Frame and Conscious Agency in Sports.”

An example of the test ran by McBeath and Tang, which sought to find how bias plays a role in the way humans perceive and interpret out-ofbounds plays in sport.

Photo courtesy Robert Ewing/ASU Department of Psychology

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seed grant aWardee

Betsy Schneider

Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts Throughout her life, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts clinical assistant professor Betsy Schneider connected with friends and family through sport. As a young person, she often would run with her father as a way to bond and exercise. While raising her own children, she became closely involved in their athletic careers, which spanned into collegiate competition.

Now, as a Global Sport Institute seed grant awardee, Schneider is realizing just how strong the bond between self-expression and sport truly is. Her research project, “The Best Girl on the Team,” uses still photographs and video storytelling to document the experiences of athletes who have competed as the only girl on a team full of boys. It’s a formative experience, one that lends itself to intimate portrayals and, Schneider hopes, it will elicit strong memories and responses from those who see the finished installation.

“If I do my job right, I’m going to be able to present connections and create meaning,” said Schneider.

Despite competing in sport as a young person and being disciplined with her body, Schneider compartmentalized that part of her life from her professional career. Prior to earning her grant award from the Global Sport Institute,

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sport was something commercial and cultural but rarely personal for Schneider.

But after a previous project in which Schneider brought to life the experiences of different 13-year-olds and showed the work at multiple museums, she began to realize the power of showing viewers a sincere portrayal of the physical and emotional lives that young people live. How better to do that than through sport?

“I am interested in how we’re formed and what shapes us, and recently I have been starting to think about the relationship of sports to culture in a more profound way than I’ve ever let myself before,” said Schneider.

Schneider’s work shows the possibilities of interdisciplinary sport scholarship and how to make lives and communities better through sport. Moving forward, she envisions a largescale installation that could potentially live in a nontraditional space such as a sports retail store or university athletic facility in addition to a more typical museum installation. This would give those in both worlds the chance to hear these young people’s stories and think more deeply about gender and sport.

Image selections from Betsy Schneider’s Best Girl on the Team, her photography project in progress. Photos courtesy of Betsy Schneider

seed grant aWardee

Madelaine Adelman T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics

As a cultural anthropologist and law scholar, Madelaine Adelman, a professor of justice and social inquiry at ASU, knew sport had a potent role in shaping cultures in societies. But it wasn’t until a wave of bills that aimed to legislate sport participation for transgender youths flooded the U.S. this spring that Adelman set her sights on a project focused in this area.

Half the subjects will put their stories together themselves, while half will be guided by the team. By the end of the upcoming school year, these stories will be circulated on social media and other digital channels to inform interested audiences everywhere. The American public is largely split on transgender issues within and outside of sport, and storytelling remains a powerful way to inform and discover new perspectives.

Weaving her cultural scholarship with the political climate, Adelman set out to craft a storytelling toolkit using grant money from the Global Sport Institute. After working with ASU’s institutional review board to craft an ethical process for interviewing at-risk young people, Adelman and her team reached out to a diverse mix of high-school aged trans athletes across Arizona to hear their stories.

“We want to incorporate storytelling and be able to provide the perspective of youth and their experiences because it’s all of us sort of arguing and talking about it,” said Isaac Akapnitis, a postdoctoral student at the School of Social Work who is assisting Adelman. “We want to always make sure that those that are impacted by it the most have the voice to be able to tell their stories.”

More specifically, the project seeks to contextualize the experiences of gender nonconforming youth who have been affected by these bills not only by broadly disseminating their stories but also by using the experience of storytelling itself as a way for these young people to understand themselves and for society to better understand their lives.

Adelman’s team will also interview parents, educators and coaches who interact with gender nonconforming athletes day-to-day to get the full scope of what has become a hotly-contested system of athletic participation.

Illustration courtesy of Madelaine Adelman

“So many people are interested in collecting stories and circulating them and seeing whether they can change minds,” Adelman said, “but what is it like to actually be the person telling a story?”

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Global Sport scholars Global Sport scholars are past ASU grant recipients who successfully complete a project or launch a new course as a result of funding provided by the Global Sport Institute. Global Sport senior scholars are faculty whom we recognize for their significant research contributions to the institute above and beyond the norm. The diversity of our seed grantees’ schools and colleges demonstrate the vast nature of our interdisciplinary efforts.

Bradley Adame, PhD | associate professor Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Jorge Caviedes, PhD | research professor School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, one of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering Xiangfan Chen, PhD | assistant professor The Polytechnic School, one of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering

Hyunglae Lee, PhD | associate professor School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, one of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering Eric Legg, PhD | associate professor School of Community Resources and Development, Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions

Erin Feser | faculty research associate College of Health Solutions

Robert LiKamWa, PhD | assistant professor School of Arts, Media and Engineering, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts

Angela Gonzales, PhD | associate professor School of Social Transformation, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Devoney Looser, PhD | Regents Professor Department of English, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Masumi Iida, PhD | associate professor T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Vera Lopez, PhD | professor School of Social Transformation, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Victoria Jackson, PhD | clinical assistant professor School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Margaret Luciano, PhD | assistant professor W. P. Carey School of Business

Hanqing Jiang, PhD | professor School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, one of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering

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Chong Lee, PhD | associate professor College of Health Solutions

A N N UA L R E P O R T 2020–21

Tongyu Ma | doctoral candidate College of Health Solutions Andrés Martinez | special advisor to the president Office of the President

Andrew Maynard, PhD | associate dean and professor School for the Future of Innovation in Society, College of Global Futures Troy McDaniel, PhD | assistant professor The Polytechnic School, one of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering Mary Neubauer | President’s Professor School of Art, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts Suzanne Peterson, PhD | associate professor Thunderbird School of Global Management Allison Ross, PhD | assistant professor College of Health Solutions David Schaefer, PhD | assistant professor T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dennita Sewell | professor of practice School of Art, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts Connor Sheehan, PhD | assistant professor T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Kenan Song, PhD | assistant professor The Polytechnic School, one of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering

Kaila Ann Vento | doctoral candidate College of Health Solutions Floris C. Wardenaar, PhD | assistant professor College of Health Solutions Yezhou Yang, PhD | assistant professor School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, one of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering Kevin Wilson | doctoral candidate School of Community Resources and Development, Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions Weiheng Xu | graduate service assistant The Polytechnic School, one of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering Alaina Zanin, PhD | assistant professor Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Wenlong Zhang, PhD | assistant professor The Polytechnic School, one of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering Yanchao Zhang, PhD | professor School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, one of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering Meilin Zhu | undergraduate student School of Molecular Sciences, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Ty (Tim) Tang | graduate student Department of Psychology, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Global Sport senior scholars

Giac-Thao (Alisia) Tran, PhD | associate professor College of Integrative Sciences and Arts

Michael McBeath, PhD | professor Department of Psychology, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Jennifer Vanos, PhD | assistant professor School of Sustainability, College of Global Futures Edward Vargas, PhD | assistant professor School of Transborder Studies, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Barry Bozeman, PhD | Regents Professor and research director Center for Organization Research and Design, School of Public Affairs

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IF NOT IN SPORT, WHERE? “Just hearing lawmakers talk about us in a way that dehumanizes us, that says that we are not worthy of the same experiences as our peers, is detrimental.

It’s not only detrimental to the trans people who hear that about themselves, but it also deeply influences the way that other people treat the trans community.”

— CH R I S MOS I E R, TRANSG E N DE R ATH LETE ON TH E G LOBAL SPORT MATTE R S PODCAST

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From our earliest days at the Global Sport Institute, we have believed that sport could play a positive role in promoting a more inclusive society. Still, when it comes to the evolving landscape of issues related to sex and gender, the battle has played out for years over who gets to participate in sport, from youth leagues to the pros, and that battle only continues to intensify.

Athletes such as the WNBA’s Layshia Clarendon and Quinn of the National Women’s Soccer League came out as gender nonconforming, leading fans, pundits and the media to take a closer look at leagues’ gender policies and how athletes are covered based upon their sex, gender and sexuality. As the Olympics neared, that examination grew more prevalent, with the sports world scrutinizing the International Olympic Committee’s rules over hormone levels and gender classification. What was once a conversation limited to Caster Semenya or Dutee Chand, expanded to become a dominant narrative in Tokyo as several trans athletes who were out competed for the first time.

In the United States, the topic became a political wedge issue. Dozens of bills were introduced at the state level, mostly by conservative legislatures, that specifically addressed young trans athletes’ participation in sport.

To gain a deeper understanding of the issue, the Global Sport Institute polled Americans on their understanding of and beliefs on gender-nonconforming athletes and whether and how they should be able to compete in sport. What we found was emblematic of the fissures we see across American society. The data showed many Americans have limited understanding of what it means to be trans or gender nonconforming and even less consensus on how to approach youth sport in this new day and age.

Of course, apart from gender, queer athletes remained a much-discussed news story in mainstream American sport as well. When Carl Nassib of the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders became the first major active American pro athlete to come out as gay, the Global Sport Institute provided a platform with additional context for the moment and what it could mean for sport by releasing Global Sport Matters’ digital issue “Beyond the Binary in Sport.”

“The presence of queer masculinities puts young men in another place where they are seen as nonnormative,” said City College of New York professor Stan Thangaraj, in a Global Sport Matters Live conversation.

In addition to polling and digital content, the Global Sport Institute funded researchers who were exploring this growing area of sport scholarship. With a call for projects centered on sex, gender and sexuality in sport, we received a number of interdisciplinary proposals that ranged from studying the physical science of trans athletes to telling the real-life stories of gender nonconforming athletes.

As sport and the world around it continues to advance, the Global Sport Institute remains a platform for insightful discourse that shares well-informed data, findings and viewpoints with its audiences.

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global sport matters highlights

Sex, gender and sexuality in sport To amplify inclusivity in sport, the Global Sport Institute released these standout digital issues through our Global Sport Matters platform. “The Power of Women & Girls in Sport” and “Beyond the Binary in Sport” provided multimedia content to share research, insights and stories in impactful ways.

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In this issue: From participation to coaching and shattering leadership ceilings, 2020 was slated to be a year of progress for women’s sport. But then came the pandemic. In our March 2021 Global Sport Matters digital issue we asked “What longstanding barriers and future opportunities still lie ahead?” and “Could 2021 be a significant year of growth for women and girls?”

Read the full issue at bit.ly/GSM32021

“This story was so cathartic for me. While my goal was to share my journey so others could understand the past and appreciate that so much work remains to be done when it comes to female sports journalists, it also brought to the surface some dark moments, ones I had avoided and stashed away. They needed to come out.

PAOLA BOIVI N

PROFESSOR OF PRACTICE, WALTE R CRON KITE SCHOOL OF JOU R NALISM AN D MASS COM M U N ICATION

What surprised me was the strong reaction that followed the story, from female reporters young and old to journalists and academics who wanted to discuss the state of affairs of our business.

It made me realize the reach of Global Sport Matters and also grateful to be included among such thoughtful content on the site.”

Author of “43 Years After Melissa Ludtke, Female Sports Journalists Face the Same Treatment”

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In this issue: The spectra of sex, gender and sexuality challenge our traditional understanding of sport and competition but are increasingly central to the conversation around athlete and fan experience.

With legislation and organization increasing around how these various identities intersect, sport creates a natural landscape for discourse and broadens our knowledge of these conversations.

In our June 2021 Global Sport Matters digital issue, we examined how perspectives are shifting and what we can discover by diving into the multitudes underneath these nuanced topics.

Read the full issue at bit.ly/GSM62021

“I hope people gained an understanding of the intricacies and care that go into reporting on gendered violence and some particulars of those when sports are involved. Whenever I write or talk about this work, I am also hopeful that people will question the status quo ways that we often approach this topic.

“It’s a distinct honor to know that professors will use this work in the classroom and that it therefore has the potential to shape, even in a small way, this work moving forward.”

J E SS ICA LUTH E R JOU R NALIST

Author of “Gendered Violence Cases Challenge Sports Journalists to Consider and Reconsider Each Word They Write”

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Sex, gender, and sexuality in sport seed grant projects A Critical Narrative Analysis of Gender Non-Conforming Athlete Sport Experiences Loretta LeMaster | assistant professor Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences The Best Girl on the Team Betsy Schneider | clinical associate professor School of Art, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts From Hip Whips to Threading the Needle: Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in the History of Roller Derby Devoney Looser | Regents Professor Department of English, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Achieving a gender-specific indoor lighting environment via trainee’s physiological signals for optimum physical training Dongwoo Jason Yeom | associate professor The Design School, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts Exploring the lived experience of sport, gender, and sexuality across cultures Eric Legg | associate professor School of Community Resources and Development, Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions Understanding mechanisms of sex differences in ankle stability and reducing the risk of ankle injury in female athletes with a soft robotic brace during sports activities Hyunglae Lee | associate professor School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, one of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering Tissue Scaffolds for Sportswomen and Transgender Athletes with Pelvic Organ Prolapse (POP) Kenan Song | assistant professor School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, one of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering

Why sex, gender and sexuality?

In June of 2021, the Global Sport Institute released a video where Seed Grant Awardees gave brief overviews of their research projects centered around sex, gender and sexuality in sport. In the video, Global Sport Institute’s project coordinator, Ra Lofton explains the theme.

Watch the full video at bit.ly/SGSSResearch.

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Storytelling for Gender Minority Youth Inclusion in Sport Madelaine Adelman | professor School of Social Transformation, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Black Womxn Thriving: Assessing Work Climate and Stability for Black Womxn Across the Sports Industry Mako Ward | assistant professor T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

A Novel, Contactless Physical Fitness Assessment (CTET) for Healthy and High-Risk Individuals Mark Sprowls | graduate research associate Biodesign Center for Bioelectronics and Biosensors, Biodesign Institute

Relating Gender-Associated Profiles of Resilience, Stress, and Self-Perception to Injury Outcomes in College Athletes and Military Veterans Tamiko Azuma | assistant dean and associate professor College of Health Solutions

3D Printed Structural Knee Orthotics to Prevent Anterior Cruciate Ligament Tears for Female Athletes Qiong Nian | assistant professor School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, one of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering

Tracking and Documenting Fitness and Sport Sessions: A Boxing Case Study Troy McDaniel | assistant professor The Polytechnic School, one of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering

The impact of adequate water intake on exercise performance and mood in women and men Stavros Kavouras | assistant dean and professor College of Health Solutions

Soft Robotic Hip-Knee Exosuit for Coordinated Assistance and Volitional Control Wenlong Zhang | associate professor The Polytechnic School, one of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering

Lived Experience of a Transgender Athlete In a two-part episode of the Global Sport Matters podcast, guest producer Karen Given spoke with transgender athletes Chris Mosier and Chelsea Wolfeabout their experience in sport.

“Sport is beautiful and uniting. In motor control research, we see how the brain and the body unites beautifully to achieve performance. In the bigger picture sport also unites different people and different minds.”

Listen to the full episodes at bit.ly/GSMPodS4E8.

Gender differences in expectancy effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on motor performance Sydney Schaefer | assistant professor School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering, one of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering

PE IYUAN BOKI WANG G LOBAL SPORT I NSTITUTE SE E D G RANT CO-AWAR DE E

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THE RESILIENCY OF SPORT When the 2020-21 academic year began, the conversation around the world and especially in sport focused on what was possible. Could sport successfully and safely execute games and competitions? Could leagues and governing bodies rebound financially? What would be different forever?

As the year continued and sport pushed closer and closer to normalcy, the 2021 Super Bowl set off what would become a relatively recognizable sports calendar, with packed arenas, cheering fans, and full seasons. But the return brought baggage.

Like all of us, athletes who were now able to train and compete again struggled to move on from the upheaval of 2020 as well as the disturbance in their routine that was brought about by the pandemic and the summer’s social uprisings.

When it came time to hear from these elite competitors once again, their voices were often speaking out for others. Naomi Osaka displayed the names of Ahmaud Arbery, Tamir Rice and others on her face masks during the U.S. Open. The WNBA dedicated its 2020 season to Breonna Taylor and the Say Her Name movement. NFL players stood together behind the Black Lives Matter movement. Overseas, players and coaches in the Premier League, like the NFL and NBA, knelt before matches.

Across all of it, the story expanded past activism or protest and into mental health.

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alisia (giac-thao) tran Amidst a rise of anti-Asian attacks in the U.S., Global Sport Matters spoke with Global Sport scholar Alisia Tran about her research work around Asian American and Pacific Islander athletes and their mental health. When it comes to meeting student needs, Tran noted, “What athletic and academic stakeholders have to take into account is that Asian and Pacific Islander and multiracial American student-athletes may be at higher risk relative to other groups, and they may also be very good at hiding and performing through it.”

As the Olympics neared, athletes like Osaka, Simone Biles and Sha’Carri Richardson again centered the conversation on mental health and wellness. Biles pulled out of multiple events because she feared for her safety due to mental health struggles. In the NFL, Dak Prescott will take to the field once again since opening up about the depression he faced after his mother’s death. The effects of the past year persist not only in society but on sport fields everywhere.

“Getting mental health treatment is becoming a part of the fabric of being an athlete,” said Dr. Amber Cargill of the NFL Players Association in a November edition of GSM Live.

The Global Sport Institute has long sought to incorporate mental health into its exploration of the athlete experience.

Our two-page resource guide works as a living document to inform and educate readers about athlete psychology and its effects on performance. Funded researchers like Masumi Iida and Alisia Tran continue to explore how intersectional identities interact with mental health to generate different

psychological outcomes for gender-minority athletes or athletes of Color. Content such as our GSM Live panels delved deeper into how sport stakeholders view mental health and how our integrating storytelling and research can act as an aid for those working in the space.

No longer is sport considered purely a physical spectacle.

Being able to compete at a high level involves psychological might in addition to a healthy body. While mental health’s place in sport is growing, athletes still often speak out about the challenges they face operating in the current landscape.

For all of the great progress that has been made in removing the stigma, fans and media are still quick to criticize mental health struggles as weakness, which detracts from creating a more open, honest environment in sport. The Global Sport Institute will continue to keep the mental health conversation at the forefront as we explore new perspectives from across the globe.

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global sport matters highlights

Mental health matters The intersection of sport, athletes and mental health remains a significant area of work for the Global Sport Institute. We’ve had the opportunity to offer our Global Sport Matters platform for discussion and solutions through resources, audio and video content.

Mental Health Resources This Global Sport Matters post initially published in December of 2020 lists several resources for mental health and wellness that are sport and non-sport related.

See the growing guide at bit.ly/GSMMentalHealth.

Sports Professors Podcast: Naomi Osaka’s Decision and the Fallout for Tennis In this episode of the Global Sport Matters podcast, professors Kenneth L. Shropshire and Scott Rosner discuss Naomi Osaka’s decision to forgo press appearances after the 2021 French Open.

Listen to the podcast at bit.ly/thegsmpod.

“This is not just a ‘I don’t want to talk to the media.’ There’s something deeper going on here. And I think that the public opinion has really by and large been very much in her corner.”

SCOTT ROS N E R

PROFESSOR AT COLU M B IA U N IVE R SITY AN D CO-HOST OF TH E G LOBAL SPORT MATTE R S PODCAST

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A Story Bigger Than Basketball in Haiti In July 2020, Global Sport Matters published a short documentary by producer Rhasaan Nichols and his partner Dave Fils-Aimé that took a closer look at a burgeoning youth basketball program in Haiti, and how sport can create a sustainable economy for future generations.

Watch the short doc at bit.ly/gsm-nichols.

“What I found were people with immense pride and an incredible work ethic. There’s a hustle in the air, an energy in the streets of Port-au-Prince that rivals even Manhattan. And the children have so much heart.

The story that brought me to Haiti is bigger than basketball.”

R HASAAN N ICHOLS

FI LM MAKE R AN D G LOBAL SPORT MATTE R S CONTR I B UTOR

The State of Mental Health This Global Sport Matters Live episode included several thought leaders discussing sport and mental health. Guests included Rebecca Mehra, professional runner, public policy professional and campaign manager; Dr. Megan Roche, ultramarathon runner, and author with a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience; Ian Pickup, pro vice chancellor and COO at University of East London; and, Amber Cargill, director of wellness at the National Football League Players Association.

Watch the event recording at bit.ly/GSMLive112021.

“Mattering as a human is not conditional.

We matter because we are here, because we are going through these challenges, because we are striving each day to be athletes and that mattering is not conditional on an outcome.”

D R. M EGAN ROCH E U LTRAMARATHON R U N N E R AN D G U EST ON G LOBAL SPORT MATTE R S LIVE

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LEVELING UP AFTER THE GAME ENDS If research forms the strong roots that anchor the Global Sport Institute, education and continuous learning are important branches that are crucial to fulfilling the journey for those who work and play within the world of sport. A person’s initial exposure to sport often happens during their youth in the form of a simple game with no agenda other than enjoyment. From that first spark, whether it ultimately fizzles or starts ablaze, the next steps on their sporting path depend on a myriad of factors: access, mentorship and coaching, environment, culture, and so much more.

We are keenly interested in understanding how the experience of sport for individuals, communities and organizations can be deeply valuable rather than a means to an end product. How can it be nurtured into a catalyst for growth?

Imagining this in terms of a chronological timeline, there are many forks in the road of a sports journey. According to the Aspen Institute, the average child stops participating in sport at age 11. At the college level, the NCAA’s own research data has shown that of the hundreds of thousands of college athletes only a small percentage will make it to a professional level.

For those who do, the question is what happens when you’ve poured substantial portions of your physical, mental, and financial resources into a sport and then it suddenly ends?

Along that spectrum, we’ve seen some of our sports heroes go on to have great success in other fields, while others have ‘fallen from grace’ in many different fashions. The Global Sport Institute wants to help identify what preventions and interventions are in order to provide support along the way.

From an organizational standpoint, the journey can be seen through many different lenses. For example, what role and responsibilities should leagues or teams have in terms of care for athletes’ physical and mental health? For governing bodies, how should they respond to calls for action when it comes to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging? For sports businesses, how does an organization balance bottom lines with fan affinity, growing technology, and the expectation to respond to social and political issues?

Through the combination of research, invested and committed partners, and bespoke services, the Global Sport Institute has begun to move sport in a way that it can be greater than the sum of its parts. We will continue our work on developing instruments and methodologies to improve sport outcomes at various levels and in multiple formalities. To this end, we invite diverse stakeholders to collaborate in meaningful ways.

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What is the ‘post-sport journey’?

Collegiate and professional athlete transitions can be difficult due to the intense level of identity and connectedness that happens when an individual’s focus has been centered entirely on being an athlete. Education, which could allow an athlete to gain a fuller sense of self, often becomes secondary. We know that the earlier someone transitions away from his or her dream, the more time they have to focus on the next pathway. Similarly, transition is eased for athletes who engage in continuous learning and when a plan is in place before an athletic experience ends. The Global Sport Institute continues to explore ways we can be a resource in this area of work.

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leveling up after the game ends

Russ Hinder “Unless you’ve walked into a room where 15,000 people are chanting your name, you’re never really going to know what that feeling’s like,” says Russ Hinder.

After spending a bit of time at the University of San Francisco and then over a decade playing pro basketball in Australia’s National Basketball League, Hinder had never put much thought into what he might do after retirement. When his wife said she wanted to move back to the United States to be closer to family, Hinder felt even more lost. The routine and thrill of competing for a living was hard to find elsewhere.

When the couple landed in the U.S., Russ’s wife, Jen, found a job at the registrar’s office at ASU and quickly discovered the tuition-reduction benefits included with the role. When she saw the name “Global Sport Institute” mentioned in a campus email, she passed the information along to Russ, thinking this might be the missing piece of the puzzle that would help him get on the path to completing his degree.

Hinder met with our team and shared his story, which was not at all uncommon: a young athlete in an unfamiliar space, a focus on sports rather than academics, and an educational pathway with a few starts and stops. Our team was able to direct Hinder toward resources within the university who were eager to become his advocates and find a solution that worked with both his current life situation and his future goals. Hinder ultimately chose to tap into his interest in history, geography and other cultural studies, enrolling in a Liberal Studies program.

“The Global Sport Institute team was great, they had a better understanding of the mental struggle with what I was about to embark on, and they were just there as support for me,” Hinder said.

Going back to school wasn’t solely a career move. Hinder stayed employed full-time and helped raise a family while earning his degree. Enrolling at ASU was a means of reintegrating

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Russ Hinder with his family. Photo courtesy of Russ Hinder

routine into his life while showing his children the importance of education. It was the beginning of a process by which Hinder found new meaning in his life for the first time since retirement.

“It’s so hard to stop being a professional athlete,” Hinder said. “Unless you’re part of the .001%, most guys will never be on TV again, will never walk through the grocery store and have someone stop them.”

Since graduating from ASU, Hinder remains a friend of the institute as well as a vivid example why it is vital to treat an athlete’s life as a dynamic and long-lasting plant to be watered and tended to. He continues to run a pool maintenance company in the local community. Athletes typically leave the popular consciousness when they leave sport only to pop up again if tragedy strikes. But just as important is the transition from seeing oneself as “only an athlete” to a greater sense of self-worth that will last a lifetime.

Igniting a passion for continuous learning The most impactful sports story of the academic year may be the fracturing of traditional amateur sport, most notably in men’s basketball, where pro leagues such as Overtime Elite and the NBA G League have begun to offer young adults an alternative to college hoops. The G League Ignite team, recognizing our long track record of research and education regarding athletes’ life journey, is partnering with the Global Sport Institute to offer a Business of Basketball course to the young men who signed onto the team.

Through sessions with 2021 NBA draft picks such as Jalen Green and Jonathan Kuminga as well as a new class of stars in the summer, the course aimed, like all Global Sport Institute initiatives, to prioritize knowledge.

“They come in as mini brands already, so from the time they are very young, the business of sports, marketing and selling, without them taking part in it, has already been in motion,” said G League President Shareef Abdur-Rahim.

“So just alerting them and helping them understand their place in the business and in the system is, I think, important.”

Ignite players are 17 or 18 years old, and they typically spend one year with the team, as NBA players must be 19 years old by the end of their draft year. Chief executive officer Kenneth L. Shropshire and director of research Scott Brooks, who teach the course, are taking advantage of the short time frame that athletes are in the G League pipeline before they begin their full careers. They instruct these recent high school graduates on how basketball operates in a business sense and what they need to know to succeed in that environment.

“This has been a gratifying task to deliver on the post-sport journey work being done by the institute,” Brooks said.

“These outstanding young men have the unique opportunity to gain college exposure and credits while launching their professional career.”

By crafting a course that is centered on the skills they will need during their playing careers, the education program takes the same approach as the Ignite team as a whole.

Rather than using a wide-angle view of education, Ignite players are given the tools they need to succeed in the career they have already chosen. That individualized approach bridges some of the gap created when athletes bypass college to go pro while building off the preexisting relationship between ASU Online and the G League.

“No matter how much further they go with college learning, deeper knowledge on the business they are entering will prove invaluable,” Shropshire said. “They also received vital insights on entrepreneurship, professional relationships and, broadly, life beyond sports.”

The business of basketball is expansive, so naturally the Global Sport Institute course was as well. In addition to pure sports business lessons, Ignite players learned how to create and innovate off the court, manage relationships in the corporate world and strategically develop a business around their profitable brand. That broad mission took the goals of the Global Sport Institute and applied them to the new opportunities young pro basketball players face.

With this important partnership, we have the ability to reach out to some of the youngest pro athletes in America at the ground floor, when the impact is most profound and lessons are most valuable.

NBA G League players during a practice game. NBAE/Getty Images

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Gaining extra yards with Sun Devil Athletics In the fall of 2018, the ASU athletic department set out to expand its Championship Life program to incorporate additional entrepreneurial-focused programs and opportunities around the university and local business community. The Global Sport Institute, already armed with expertise on the educational and professional needs of athletes as well as a network of partners, stepped up to the plate to provide assistance.

Previously, Sun Devil Athletics had organized a speaker series for student-athletes, but the missing piece was connecting the students to the necessary resources when it came to innovation and entrepreneurship. The process of integrating the Global Sport Institute with the various athletic programs wasn’t immediate. But once the experience became more personalized for student-athletes, the program began to gain momentum. As name, image and likeness legislation came down the pike and recognizable faces like ASU alumnus Jake Plummer became involved, the uptake became much quicker across SDA. When in-person classes returned in 2021, different athletic programs across ASU reached out to the institute’s associate director of innovation programs, Jeff Kunowski, to set up individual mentoring sessions. This type of one-onone entrepreneurship coaching is the type of alignment not often seen between the athletic and academic sides of a university. For the Sun Devil athletic department, it’s something that will eventually be used in recruiting messages in addition to how it’s used to educate the current student-athletes.

Beyond the applied, student component, the latest Sun Devil Athletics partnership called the Global Sport Venture Challenge offers a structured pathway for the athletic department to investigate new products pitched to them, in addition to creating opportunities for student-athletes to uncover outward channels for their products and ideas.

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“The venture piece has always been connected, but we quickly learned that not everyone has the desire to launch a venture while they’re an athlete and still a student,” said Kunowski, who is cross-appointed with the J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship and Innovation Institute.

As a result, the relationship between SDA and the Global Sport Institute expanded to include outside ideas that could be used to improve and inform different athletic programs.

Venture challenge winners Phlex, Organic Robotics Corporation and Nextiles will be utilized respectively by the ASU football, baseball and triathlon programs in the coming months.

At the same time, every program at ASU is staring down the barrel of a new economic landscape in college sports in which athletes are able to earn money from name, image, and likeness agreements. While these interactions must be carefully handled through the SDA compliance group, the resources and track record of the Global Sport Institute, along with a keen understanding of the expansive opportunities that name, image, and likeness legislation could bring, provided a means for continued opportunities for student-athletes to develop a business around their personal brands and ideas.

“With the added engagement on NIL conversations, it’s exciting, because more and more now, innovation is something that student-athletes are really seeing as a tangible way for them to leverage their brand,” Kunowski said.

With NIL taking center stage in the world of college sports this fall, the Global Sport Institute and J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute have given Sun Devil Athletics a leg up by providing our student-athletes with access to people and partnerships that few universities can offer.

“These are free knowledge, free exposures and these things don’t come lightly when you graduate.

You may not have these opportunities so I recommend that you take it and run with it.”

J E M I N ISE PAR R IS Parris is an ASU alumna, where she competed in Track and Field. She is a winner of the Global Sport Institute’s Global Sport Venture Challenge for her mobile application, Fair Future Co.

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BRINGING INNOVATION TO THE GAME With its origins traced back to ancient Greece and the Olympics, many of sport’s rules and structures are steeped in deep tradition. Change to such staples can be seen as a threat to the integrity or contradictory to what makes a game subjectively great. The first competitive sports included wrestling, throwing and running. Many new sports have been invented and, over time, they’ve earned a sacred place in the bodies, hearts and minds of many. But what happens when a massive disruptor comes into play?

While the COVID-19 pandemic emptied stadiums and cancelled games for a time, sport emerged not only as a signifier for where each nation stood in terms of its coronavirus crisis plan but also as a launchpad for new ideas, where communities and the sports business industry had no other option than to adapt. We saw stadiums retrofitted as vaccination and voting centers and installed with new technology to simulate fan noise and presence, and with the NBA bubble we witnessed experimental safety protocols and new standards on how to continue play.

So how does sport continue to evolve as the world becomes more interconnected through culture and technology? How can we embrace the footrace to solve critical issues communities and organizations alike are facing?

In continued partnership with the J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute, the Global Sport Institute offers a variety of funding tracks to award sport-related start-ups with the support needed to raise their ideas to the next level.

Our flagship track, the Global Sport Venture Challenge, is positioned to support those who are at a very early stage.

Since it kicked off in 2017, we have rewarded a vast variety of ventures, including meal planning apps, wearable tech that measures performance, and sports equipment storage systems made from sustainable materials.

Our partnered tracks, the Sun Devil Athletics’ Venture Challenge and the Arizona Coyotes Venture Challenge, are bespoke to their respective organizations. Unique to these challenges is the built-in opportunity for real life application. Winners of these challenges are granted the ability to beta test within the respective facilities or by directly interacting with key contacts. Our hope is that with these joint efforts, we can help incubate effective solutions for now and in the future.

The saying goes that all design is redesign, but with our venture programming we aim to find true innovation that will make a positive impact for those who consume, play and work within sport.

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“Though the past year has been challenging, we’ve seen a lot of creativity and resilience shine through from our ventures. They’ve adapted to the new norms by refining their pitches, embracing the digital world and becoming more efficient at virtually interacting with customers. We’ve seen improvements not only in the quantity and diversity of applicants for our programs but also in the quality of ideas. We’ve gained significant interest from external organizations and have launched new partnership-driven initiatives for the next year. We’re excited about the value, resources and exposure that these partnerships will provide for our ventures.”

J E FF KU NOWS KI ASSOCIATE DI R ECTOR, I N NOVATION PROG RAMS

J E FF KU NOWSKI, ASSOCIATE DI R ECTOR, I N NOVATION PROG RAMS G LO B A L S P O R T I N ST I T U T E

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venture feature

Organic Robotics

Founded by Rob Shepard and Ilayda Samilgil Organic Robotics Corporation specializes in making soft and stretchable fiber optic sensors dubbed Light Lace™. Rob Shepard and Ilayda Samilgil started the company with the original intent of building sensors to enable robots to feel their environment.

“Robots don’t work so well right now, and top performance athletes work extremely well,” said Shepard. They quickly added the monitoring of human motion, which they found was also a much more fun application of the technology.

In April 2021, the venture came out as the winner of the first Sun Devils Athletics Venture Challenge, a bespoke pitch competition the Global Sport Institute forged with the J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute and Sun Devil Athletics.

On the judging panel for the competition were key Sun Devil Athletics personnel integral to making the connection between Organic Robotics’ technology and the university’s athletics programs. Jeff Kunowski, associate director of the Global Sport Institute’s innovation programs, recounted that Joe Connolly, head coach of football performance, and Gerry Garcia, associate head athletic trainer, saw immediate potential to improve their athletes’ multiple training regimens, reduce and prevent injuries, and gain a deeper

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understanding of impact at different angles.

While the department already deployed some technology for monitoring, these were typically chest-mounted and not as flexible as Organic Robotics’ offerings.

As an integral part of their winnings, the venture will have the chance to beta test Light Lace™ with a group of football players from ASU. Samilgil said that, so far, they’ve only had the chance to use the technology on their own employees and that this opportunity will be one of the first times they’ll get to test outside of their lab.

Through kinematic and forced interactions, they will measure locations of interest. By sending light to the area they want to measure, they will interpret it as biometric information. Shepard estimates that with those measurements, they’re capturing them one hundred times faster and with more precision than other products. “We believe we can do things that no one else can,” Shepard emphasized. “We just want to do that with the players who need that information.

You’re [Global Sport Institute] our next step.”

After planning in the summer of 2021, Organic Robotics and Sun Devil Athletics aim to begin the process of the beta testing phase in early 2022, with approximately 10 to 20 athletes.

Illustration courtesy of Rob Shepard and Ilyada Samilgil

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venture feature

Future Form

Founded by Nathaniel Fink and Jason Figueroa Future Form is the Tesla of activewear, according to co-founders Nathaniel Fink and Jason Figueroa. While performance is the fulcrum of what they focus on, what’s also important to them is exuding cool in both the physical and metaphorical sense. Also central to their company are practices based in sustainability.

For Fink, an ASU alumnus, it was the university’s emphasis on sustainability that inspired integrated efforts ranging from choosing local partners to utilizing eco-friendly fabrics and recyclable packaging.

The pause of the pandemic brought a unique change to their production process. After a couple of nonstarters with sportswear specialists, they were pleasantly surprised to be matched up with a Phoenix-based manufacturer of dance wear, lingerie, swimwear and club wear. While this niche apparel company might not have been the most obvious route, the two founders were aligned in understanding how to skillfully work with form-fitting fabrics.

They’ve also had the opportunity to improve greatly since their first beta launch when they pitched to Global Sport Institute. The funding allowed them to entertain new ideas and dive deeper into constructing their garment from start to finish. “We’re not just printing on existing shirts,” Fink said. “This has allowed us to create something that we are truly proud of.”

Fink and Figueroa have big dreams of brushing with the likes of well-established brands like adidas and Nike. They even reached out to fellow entrepreneurs in the Global Sport Institute’s venture roster and are discussing ideas around a collaborative brand video. In the near future, they hope to partner with ASU and give back to the community that helped give them their start.

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Photos courtesy of ASU Thrive

venture feature

Fanalyze

Founded by Juan Juan A longtime fan of fantasy football, engineer Juan Juan wanted to provide a one-stop app where fantasy football team managers could aggregate and compare all the player stats they needed while planning out their rosters. Drafting the team was fun, and so was winning. Although doing research and compiling numbers ahead of time typically led to winning, Juan found it was much too time consuming.

As luck would have it, a fellow fantasy football friend also happened to be an engineer, so the two co-founders set out to build a faster way to get to the excitement.

With growing legislation allowing for more sports betting across the United States, the two budding entrepreneurs recognized the impending surge in the market and considered those measured risk-takers. They quickly started to include team data for those diving into the betting side.

They’ve since been able to secure a marketing partnership with major sports betting operator DraftKings and are finalizing licenses to launch in Colorado, Indiana, New Jersey, Tennessee, Michigan and Arizona.

“We want to be the platform to get sports data quickly through search,” said Juan. “We want to be the Google of sports data.”

As each major sports league has resumed play, the Fanalyze team is on the ready to upload more and more data as players either make or break their fantasy team owners.

They’re not only focusing on U.S.-based sports but also would like to expand globally, starting with a look into cricket.

The initial value for a Fanalyze user is being better positioned to win at sports betting. But as Juan thoughtfully points out, the intangible benefit is for users to win back more time to enjoy friends, family and the game itself.

Images courtesy of Juan Juan

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venture feature

Barrage Striking Sleeve Founded by Ricky Johnson Ricky Johnson holds a black belt in karate, the result of hundreds of hours of precision training and sparring. Unfortunately, Johnson noticed, training on his own didn’t always produce the same results as when he would work out in-person with his instructor.

He couldn’t conjure up the combinations fast enough to build the physical and mental response and improve his form. Another issue?

Most automated training systems that could replace a coach were extremely costly. From an accessibility standpoint, Johnson saw how martial arts and boxing training on their own can be expensive, often making the sport out of reach for those just starting.

As luck would have it, however, Johnson has also always held the mindset of a problemsolver and inventor.

In hopes of overcoming these barriers, Johnson created the Barrage Striking Sleeve. Adaptable as an add-on to any standard hanging punching bag, and with hit sequences programmable via mobile app, he prototyped the product with the bare minimum of materials he could find.

In the fall of 2019, he pitched an early version in Global Sport Institute’s Global Sport Venture Challenge and won $13,000. The funds went directly into taking the prototype

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from the original bootstrapped version to an updated model he was proud to show when pitching for even more funding and investment opportunities.

Just as he was hitting a stride, the pandemic arrived. Johnson was initially on the path of manufacturing the product on his own. His original vision included seeing gyms filled with Barrage-outfitted bags as part of their equipment offerings. But COVID-19 closures, along with the explosive growth of Peloton and Mirror, sparked new ideas on how to position the sleeve as an in-home exercise solution instead.

Johnson moved to an emphasis on licensing and began outreach to relevant brands that could scale it at large. He’s currently in discussions with a major brand to do just that.

When asked if more solutions were on his mind, Johnson acknowledged his passions could very well inspire more ideas, whether it was inside or outside of sport.

“I just like solving different issues I come across,” Johnson explained.

After his potential licensing deal is solidified, he hopes it will free him up to move on to that next invention.

Photo courtesy of ASU Thrive

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venture feature

Navajo Mountain Bike Initiative

Co-founded by Peter Bugala Community development, eco-tourism, chemistry, engineering, youth and health. These are just a few of the elements integrated within the Navajo Mountain Bike Initiative, a collaborative effort between the ASU club Engineers Without Borders and the Navajo Nation. Co-lead of the venture, Peter Bugala, loves mountain biking, so when it came to pursuing a project for the club, he envisioned an effort that could help mitigate the major issues facing the Tuba City community, little more than three hours away from Tempe.

To honor the community’s request to remain isolated for safety, the club pivoted into using that time to work internally.

“We absolutely respected that, so we tried to do as much education with our members as we could.” Bugala says that they took small group trips to other closer locations so that, when it came time to resume, the students would have a better understanding of how to best construct the trails and tracks.

The two areas the city self-proclaimed as its most critical crises were economic hardship and health. The Navajo Mountain Bike Initiative hopes to mitigate these struggles by simultaneously providing a source of ecotourism as well as recreational outdoor activities for children to utilize after school. The plans include building two large tracks and additional pump tracks as well as utilizing a hardening agent for durability of the soil which is being developed by Edward Kavazanjian, an ASU Regents Professor and the Ira A. Fulton Chair of geotechnical engineering at the ASU School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment.

The project has received great support from ASU’s Engineering Projects in Community Service program, known as EPICS; Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez; and the Global Sport Institute.

To sustain the trails and their community use, the Navajo Mountain Bike Initiative is also developing an operations and maintenance document for the Tuba City schools to utilize once the track is finished. With their funding from the institute, they hope to allocate funds for the heavy duty equipment needed for building the trails and add a supply of bikes for those who do not have access to one.

With respect to the significant impact that COVID-19 has had on the Navajo Nation, on-location activities came to a halt.

“We got, to put a rough estimate, about 60%, 70% done,” Bugala said.

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Youth from the Tuba City community test out the mountain biking trails.

Photo courtesy of Peter Bugala

With Tuba City positioned geographically between two popular mountain biking haunts in Sedona, Arizona and Moab, Utah, the group envisions trail fanatics adding the new trails as a desired destination to visit.

“Hopefully it will give them national recognition and really give them a boost,” Bugala said. At the same time, they want to inspire the youth not just to get involved but [to be] excited to compete with an organized high school racing team.”

While the project was on pause, Bugala and his club members remained positive and maintained progress. In August 2021, they received approval to return to the site and complete the pump track.

venture feature

Skip NN’ Hole

Founded by Jaron Lodge What do you get when you cross the nostalgic activity of stone skipping with the more recently popular game of cornhole? For entrepreneur and Global Sport Venture Challenge winner Jaron Lodge, it’s a game called Skip NN’ Hole.

The idea originated among his high school friends at the time, with whom Lodge often discussed future business ideas. One fortuitous day between classes, a friend suggested a problem that needed a solution: You spend so much time finding the perfect stone to skip, only to throw it into the water and never see it again. What if you could retrieve it or create an unlimited supply?

Lodge dived into background research and quickly found that stone skipping went far beyond leisure. In fact, there were quite a few organized groups and competitors in the realm. He began prototyping the perfect stone with an aim toward making a standard for the sport. The first iterations that used clay and even compressed fish food as the main materials didn’t quite work. Lodge reached out to Guinness World Record holder Kurt Steiner (his record: 88 consecutive stone skips) and worked together with him on the ultimate design.

Shortly after that, Lodge would again become successful in pitching and winning funding from the Global Sport Institute. In one year, Lodge brought his game to 17 events, improving not only the product but also the experience it provided every time. He has since held a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign raising far more than his $11,300 goal, ending with $53,378 from 676 backers. Skip NN’ Hole has also been made available at Big 5 sporting goods stores, and Lodge is actively working to bring the game to many more major retailers’ shelves.

Images courtesy of Jaron Lodge

Presenting this idea for a nontraditional sport in front of the Global Sport Venture Challenge judging panel, Lodge’s enthusiasm and creativity earned him a first round of seed funding. Ultimately, what started as simply a stone eventually became the game of Skip NN’ Hole.

Then came another pivotal moment. Lodge had the opportunity to demo Skip NN’ Hole at ASU’s Sun Devil Marketplace pop-up with various event attendees. “When I started getting feedback, that’s when everything started changing, because it wasn’t just about what I wanted,” Lodge said. “It was about what my customers wanted.”

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Entrepreneurship + Innovation Partners J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute Since the inception of our innovation programming, J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute at ASU has partnered with us on our efforts to support ventures that are providing new solutions in the world of sport. Each spring and fall we co-host the Global Sport Venture Challenge at ASU Demo Day. We jointly seek out partners like the Global Sports Innovation Center and the Arizona Coyotes to expand our programming even further. Together, our partnership has enabled us to provide resources and education to early startups, our previously funded ventures and ASU’s collegiate athletes seeking more information on entrepreneurial pathways.

“The collaboration between the Global Sport Institute and the J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute has been instrumental in advancing the development of scholar-athleteentrepreneurs through Sun Devil Athletics at ASU, and more broadly harnessing the synergy and kinetic energy between high performance sport and the arena of entrepreneurship.

J I M I CHOI VICE PR ESI DE NT, ASU KNOWLE DG E E NTE R PR ISE, FOU N DI NG EXECUTIVE DI R ECTOR, E DSON E NTR E PR E N E U R SH I P + I N NOVATION I NSTITUTE

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We’ve increased access to resources, rewarded ideas and solutions to a broad range of problems and markets, and fostered additional partnerships with like-minded organizations thus even further increasing support for entrepreneurs and new venture development, particularly in the world of global sport.”

Global Sports Innovation Center In February 2021, the Global Sports Innovation Center powered by Microsoft, the Global Sport Institute and J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute at ASU signed a global collaboration agreement. The goal was to enhance knowledge sharing, develop activities that will foster sports startups in the U.S., and aggregate each entities’ individual value to their ecosystems.

The Madrid, Spain-based GSIC describes itself as a center that “facilitates synergies and provides its members with value-added services that enable sports entities and companies to grow and develop with the help of experienced professionals in the sports tech ecosystem.” With a global network of more than 200 members in 35 different countries and more than 100 best practices for reducing the gap between startups and big sports entities, the main goal of GSIC in this collaboration is to add this value to entrepreneurs in the state of Arizona and throughout the United States.

“We understand that the USA is one of the most important markets in the sports industry, both sports and technology wise. Ten percent of our members’ network is composed

by American startups that we are already helping to grow on the international market.

It is very important for us to create strategic alliances with startups, accelerators and programs such as the one from Arizona State University because we are sure that together we will help the industry to grow faster in digital transformation processes.”

Arizona Coyotes In April 2021, the Arizona Coyotes, the Global Sport Institute and the J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute at ASU announced a new initiative — the Arizona Coyotes Venture Challenge. The Arizona Coyotes Venture Challenge will help establish new and innovative sport concepts that can be launched, piloted and scaled within the Coyotes’ various facilities.

This program will provide a foundation for aspiring entrepreneurs while keeping the Coyotes on the forefront of new sportrelated innovation.

“Now, more than ever, sports teams must develop and leverage cutting-edge technologies to engage fans in and out of their arenas, deliver unique and compelling content, and operate as best-in-class business enterprises. This challenge aligns with our key focus on innovation, and we look forward to being presented with many great concepts in December.”

XAVI E R A. G UTI E R R E Z PR ESI DE NT AN D CEO, AR IZONA COYOTES

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Past venture winners Accelerated Cycles Founded by: Cole Brauer, Jude Brauer, Seth Altobelli Accelerated Cycles makes biking safer, more accessible and fun so that more people can experience the joy of biking.

Barrage Striking Sleeve Founded by: Ricky Johnson The Barrage Striking Sleeve is a wraparound for free standing or hanging punching bags that has LEDs and pressure sensors embedded within it to indicate where to strike.

Baseball Rules Academy Founded by: Christopher Welsh Baseball Rules Academy is a site where users can look up any rule in baseball, access articles and find other baseball information.

Billibars Founded by: Trevor Heder Billibars makes detachable handlebars that reduce a bike’s width when not in use and creates a unique storage mount to hold the bike.

Fair Future Co. Founded by: Jeminise Parris Fair Future Co. is a mobile application that helps students from the Caribbean apply to U.S. universities by matching prospective athletes with interested coaches.

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Fanalyze Inc. Founded by: Juan Juan Fanalyze is a sports search engine and analysis platform designed to speed up research for fantasy sports and sports betting while providing users with aggregated relevant data to help with winning decisions.

Force Impact Technologies Founded by: Bob Merriman Force Impact Technologies provides wearable mouthguard technology for young athletes, to enhance their performance through better tracking and reporting of head impacts.

Freebowler Founded by: Pratheek Palanethra Freebowler is revolutionizing the future of cricket by creating the first nonelectric and portable ball thrower.

Futbar Founded by: Rachel Masterson Futbar is a sports and entertainment venue that combines the fast-paced game play of 3v3 soccer with food and beverage, video entertainment and family activities.

FutureForm Founded by: Nathaniel Fink, Jacob Figueroa FutureForm manufactures activewear that utilizes next-generation materials to bridge the gap between sustainability, performance and style.

GMDY Inc. Founded by: Danny Harris GMDY Inc. is a premier real-time consumer and analytics engine that gives athletes the ability to monetize their social capital and measure their true brand influence.

GoSurf Founded by: Aleksei Stojanovic GoSurf is a database, service and review application focused on connecting all resources in the surf industry.

HAT-TAC LLC Founded by: Domenic Fotino HAT-TAC produces customizable hat racks that can be mounted on walls, helping hats maintain their shape.

Hoolest Performance Technologies Founded by: Nicholas Hool, John Patterson, Sami Mian Hoolest Performance Technologies develops drug-free technologies for athletes to help reduce stress, anxiety and boost performance.

Hourglass Swimwear Founded by: Demetra Mary George Hourglass Swimwear provides and designs swimwear that focuses on shape to fit every woman’s body.

Keep the F.A.I.T.H Founded by: Ceci Shell Keep the F.A.I.T.H. is a program that teaches life skills to young athletes through a curriculum that can be offered in schools.

Liquid Fuel Founded by: Kyle Coleman Liquid Fuel provides healthy sports drinks and hydration beverages for consumers who seek optimal health, performance and energy balance.

Meal Plan Ninja Founded by: Tanner Tegtmeyer Meal Plan Ninja is meal planning software that helps busy people eat healthier in less time. The software generates new meal plans with grocery lists each week that are personalized to an individual’s tastes and diet.

Murphy Mobility Founded by: Garrett Murphy, Luis Castillo Murphy Mobility supplies patented technology that helps track exercise performance for patients’ recovery.

Navajo Mountain Bike Initiative Founded by: Peter Bugala The Navajo Mountain Bike Initiative works closely with members of the Navajo Nation to develop a series of bike trails in their communities, creating opportunities for ecotourism and providing outdoor activities for the children of the community.

Nextiles, Inc. Founded by: George Sun Nextiles makes fabric that captures everything related to movement and force.

Organic Robotics Corporation Founded by: Rob Shepherd, Ilayda Samilgil Organic Robotics Light Lace™ offers biomechanical analysis on the field without any constraints on location or temperature.

Using sensors that are soft and stretchable and rely on photonics instead of electronics, Light Lace™ can easily be integrated into garments or shoes to help athletes avoid injuries.

Phlex LLC Founded by: Luke Torres The smallest, most intuitive device that is revolutionizing the way you train, measure progress and enjoy every swim, the Phlex Edge is a premium swimming fitness tracker in a seamless, goggle-worn design that features heart rate feedback, stroke analysis and professional workout planning.

Temp Defender Founded by: Abigail Davis Temp Defender combines wearable technology with athletic equipment to provide innovative, real-time data that communicates with the athlete during their performance and its design protects the body, aiding them in sustaining a healthy athletic career.

Power House Foods Founded by: Miguel Carrillo Power House Foods serves healthy food options to those active in the gym.

Trestle Automation Founded by: Tarek Salama, Ryan Brown, Ahmed Ahmed, Mustafa Salih, Devan Shivers Trestle provides sustainable and solar-powered skateboard racks for campuses that allow students to lock and unlock their skateboards with their RFID-enabled student IDs.

REV Canvas Founded by: Rebecca Varney REV Canvas uses sport and expressive arts to allow athletes to find, believe in and reach their full potential.

Speedy Castillo Founded by: Luis Castillo Speedy Castillo produces molded carbon fiber plates designed to attach to a bike wheel and increase its aerodynamics.

Streaker Founded by: Nick Vandam Streaker is a sports betting platform that uses blockchain technology to validate the results of bets, allowing players to sell their picks.

Wager Champs Founded by: Rayan Vatti Wager Champs is a risk-free, social and competitive way to experience sports betting.

Wild Portals LLC Founded by: Michael Anthony Wild Wild Portals creates immersive mobile experiences for entertainment and sporting events.

Skip NN’ Hole Founded by: Jarron Lodge Skip NN’ Hole is the world’s first floating cornhole game set that combines the fun of stone skipping with the gameplay of cornhole.

Strax Gear LLC Founded by: Sean Dicke Strax Gear helps you organize and display your gear, while helping to save the environment.

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In the news Athlete Activism Against Police Violence Reminds Ken Shropshire Of ‘85’s ‘Sun City’ wbur.org Aug. 28, 2020 “For Only A Game regular Kenneth Shropshire, this week’s events have reminded him of the year 1985 ... and a song.

There were a number of entertainers engaged in divesting from South Africa and trying to end Apartheid in South Africa. And there was this great song, ‘Sun City,’ and the hook was: ‘I ain’t gonna play Sun City.’ ...

“They [the athletes] said, ‘We’re not going to play.’ And they said, ‘We know that we are providing entertainment, that there’s a value to our Black bodies being on display. And the idea that there’s some gain you get from our being entertainers, and the power that we have to say, ‘We’re not going to entertain. If that helps to move the needle in terms of how you focus on these men that aren’t us, that aren’t players on the floor, then this is a step we’re willing to take.’ You know, maybe in a sense they said, ‘You know, I might not play Sun City if this keeps going on.’

I woke up, you know, the day after the players successfully boycotted and said, ‘You know, there’s a connection here.’”

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President Trump Bet on College Football to Help Win Key Swing States. A New Poll Shows Fans Aren’t Buying It time.com Oct. 23, 2020 “‘We got Big Ten open,’ Trump told sports journalist Jason Whitlock in an interview released on Thursday.

But the play hasn’t worked very well, according to a new poll from Arizona State’s Global Sport Institute that was shared exclusively with TIME. The survey of undecided voters who identify as college football fans and live in closely contested Midwest swing states with Big Ten schools or other key states found that just 2% of this cohort would be ‘much more likely’ to vote for Trump because he’s claimed credit for Big Ten football’s return. Another 7% said they’d be ‘somewhat more likely’ to vote for him.

But whatever gains Trump appears to have made among this small subset of the electorate were mostly offset by those turned off by his boasting: 7% of those surveyed said Trump taking credit for the Big Ten restart made them ‘much less likely’ or ‘somewhat less likely’ to vote for Trump. In the end, 84% of respondents said the Big Ten strategy had no effect on whom they will support.”

The NHL’s Arizona Coyotes Partner With ASU to Launch a Startups Pitch Competition sporttechie.com “The NHL’s Arizona Coyotes, in conjunction with Arizona State University, have launched a sports tech pitch competition to identify startups that can be implemented within the hockey organization.

“ASU’s Global Sport Institute and the J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship and Innovation Institute are supporting the Arizona Coyotes Venture Challenge, which is accepting applications beginning in July.

“Coyotes executives will select one or more winners, who will receive up to $40,000 in funding as well as support from the university institutes in the form of promotional resources, workshops, and mentorship.”

Help Wanted theringer.com Feb. 10, 2021 “A new study from researchers at Arizona State and the University of Central Florida recently found that since the adoption of the Rooney Rule in 2003 through the 2020 season, only 18.3 percent of the hires for 115 head-coaching vacancies went to Black candidates.

Two vacancies went to the same Latino candidate, Ron Rivera. Only 26.9 percent of 208 coaches hired as defensive coordinators were Black. Only 8.7 percent of the 242 offensive coordinators were Black, just 21 men in 18 seasons.

Between 2017 and 2018, there were 33 offensive coordinators hired by league clubs, all of whom were white. Over the past four NFL hiring cycles, only three of 27 vacant coaching positions were filled by a Black candidate. “‘When you look at the data, there isn’t much progress,’ said Rachel Lofton, a coauthor of the study and project coordinator at Arizona State who analyzes NFL hiring data. ‘It’s going to be white people in power that’s going to be the changemakers. They need to keep their peers accountable. Black coaches know they’re great candidates.

Now, we need to convince the people in power.’”

How the G League’s Ignite has started revving up its lotterybound talent to NBA speed theathletic.com Feb. 11, 2021 “Ignite players have access to future college scholarships or accredited courses now through a G League partnership with Arizona State University’s Global Sport Institute, where longtime academic, author and sports industry leader Ken Shropshire serves as CEO. A speakers’ series featuring the likes of John Rogers, the founder and chairman of Ariel Capital

Investments and one of the most successful African-American mutual fund investors in the country, provide the players a sense of the possibilities of their future wealth.

NBA players of recent vintage such as Jamal Crawford and Alvin Williams put some meat on the bones of what their lives in the public eye will be like.”

It’s time for a racial reckoning in college sports: Knight Commission releases plan to create racial equity for Black athletes knightcommission.org May 12, 2021 “We thank those at the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics for their work and the release of their latest report, ‘Achieving Racial Equity in College Sports.’ This broad effort focused on diversity, equity and inclusion at the college level is much-needed, and particularly heartening are the specific steps aimed toward improving the college sport landscape. Our work at the Global Sport Institute is inherently aligned, particularly with our initiatives to focus on athlete education, increase opportunities for promotion and development, and take a deeper look at the hiring and firing patterns of college leadership at the highest levels. Through our Field Studies series, we examine these pathways and ‘pipelines’ for Power Five football coaches and NCAA athletic directors, with even more sports sectors to come. To add to our collective impact, we

plan to grow this work even further with best practices and action items gleaned from our research.

Insights like those from the Knight Commission help move us toward our shared goals of greater equity in sport.”

Why banning fans at the Olympics isn’t a total financial loss finance.yahoo.com July 12, 2021 “According to Kenneth Shropshire, CEO of the Global Sport Institute and professor of global sport at Arizona State University, the construction of new sporting venues is by far the largest of the expenditures for hosting the Olympics. “‘It’s hard to comprehend how you really get into the billions in terms of construction, but that’s really what it is,’ Shropshire told Yahoo Finance.

‘When you look at whatever football or baseball stadium you’re familiar with locally, [they may cost] $1 billion, $1.5 billion, or $2 billion dollars, for the largest ones. And you’re doing multiple venues for the 20+ Olympic sports.’”

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Our Team

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Kenneth Shropshire chief executive officer

Karina Bohn chief operating officer

Scott Brooks director of research

Jeff Kunowski associate director, innovation programs

Karen Gallagher senior researcher

Chrisal Valencia manager, marketing and communications

Kendall Jones manager, events and programs

Brendon Kleen digital communications specialist

Stephon Preston executive assistant to the CEO

Rosemary Rutkowski business operations specialist, senior

Luke Brenneman postdoctoral researcher

Rachel (Ra) Lofton project coordinator

Vignesh Krishna graduate service assistant

William Rhoden senior visiting practitioner

Robert Turner II global sport visiting scholar

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Additional Staff Amanda Andalis research and entrepreneurship programs assistant Fletcher Archibald research and entrepreneurship programs assistant Aidan Corrales marketing and communications assistant Katie Cross special projects assistant Edward Kole research and entrepreneurship programs assistant Andrew Kooreman research and entrepreneurship programs assistant Kate Nelson events and programs assistant Julia O’Connell marketing and communications assistant Bidur Pantha research and entrepreneurship programs assistant Sage Piccolotti marketing and communications assistant Emily Rosenthal research and entrepreneurship programs assistant Vikram Reddy Sankepally research and entrepreneurship programs assistant Natalie Skigen marketing and communications assistant

Global Sport Institute affiliated faculty The Global Sport Institute affiliated faculty designation recognizes an interdisciplinary group of ASU professionals who have advanced the study of sport through teaching, conducting original research, publishing in academic journals, presenting at conferences and seminars, or otherwise demonstrating alignment with the institute’s goals.

Barry Bozeman, PhD Regents Professor and research director Center for Organization Research and Design, School of Public Affairs

Xiangfan Chen, PhD assistant professor The Polytechnic School, one of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering Natalie Diaz Maxine and Jonathan Marshall Chair in Modern and Contemporary Poetry, associate professor; Department of English director, Center for Imagination in the Borderlands, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Robert Gray, PhD associate professor The Polytechnic School, one of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering Victoria Jackson, PhD clinical assistant professor School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Jeffrey W. Kassing, PhD professor School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Shawn Klein, PhD lecturer School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Eric Legg, PhD associate professor School of Community Resources and Development, Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions Vera Lopez, PhD professor School of Social Transformation, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Joseph Marsit principal lecturer College of Health Solutions Michael K. McBeath, PhD professor Department of Psychology, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Lindsey Mean, PhD associate professor School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Enrico Minardi, PhD senior lecturer School of International Letters and Cultures, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

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Michael Mokwa, PhD Pat Tillman Foundation Distinguished professor W. P. Carey School of Business

Glenn M. Wong Distinguished Professor of Practice Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law

Kelly Nelson, PhD principal lecturer College of Integrative Sciences and Arts

Yezhou Yang, PhD assistant professor School of Augmented Intelligence, one of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering

Molly Ott, PhD associate professor Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College Sada Reed, PhD assistant professor Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication Allison Ross, PhD assistant professor College of Health Solutions Brent Sebold, EdD executive director, Venture Development at Enterpreneurship + Innovation, Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development Connor Sheehan, PhD assistant professor T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Kenan Song, PhD assistant professor The Polytechnic School, one of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering David Swindell, PhD associate professor and director Center for Urban Innovation, School of Public Affairs, Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions Colin Tetreault instructional professional Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Giac-Thao (Alisia) Tran, PhD associate professor College of Integrative Sciences and Arts Nicholas Wise, PhD assistant professor School of Community Resources and Development, Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions

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Alaina Zanin, PhD assistant professor Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Global Sport Fellows Global Sport Fellows are experts outside of the ASU network who have an official affiliation with the Global Sport Institute. They contribute in multiple ways to enrich the services of the institute including speaking engagements, teaching and more.

Kenneth Bacon Co-founder of RailField Partners, Chairman of the Board of Welltower, a publicly traded REIT, and serves on the board of directors of comcast, Ally Financial and Arbor Realty Trust.

Mori Taheripour Globally recognized and highly sought-after speaker, award-winning educator and negotiation expert. Author of “Bring Yourself: How to Harness the Power of Connection to Negotiate Fearlessly.”

Anthony Weems, PhD Weems’ research focuses on the sociocultural aspects of sport, with an emphasis on the politics of diversity and social justice.

A message from adidas Over the past four years, our Global Sport Alliance with ASU has led us to adapt, evolve and improve the ways in which we utilize sport as a conduit for positive change. Working with the Global Sport Institute continues to generate knowledge and insights, bolstering our key initiatives with relevant education and research.

We continue to support entrepreneurship in the sport landscape through the institute’s flagship funding track, the Global Sport Venture Challenge. We’ve been present since the beginning of this program and we’re proud to serve on the judging panel while witnessing these inventive sports solutions come to fruition. Through virtual visits and coaching sessions, we hope to enrich the experience for these burgeoning innovators.

A highlight of this academic year came in the form of a Global Sport Institute-hosted Title IX roundtable conversation. We gathered athletes and faculty from ASU, key adidas team members and leaders from our nonprofit partner organizations to discuss the issues, impact and opportunities surrounding this landmark sportequity legislation. With these important stakeholders, we identified several ways we can continue to break barriers for women in sport and honor Title IX’s 50th anniversary in 2022.

As we move toward our fifth year of engagement with ASU and the Global Sport Institute, we do so with continued enthusiasm for the possibilities ahead.

Participants from the Global Sport Institute-hosted Title IX roundtable conversation with athletes and faculty from ASU, key adidas team members and leaders from nonprofit partner organizations.

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Sports Equity Research Project The Global Sport Institute seeks to place a spotlight on the pervasive inequalities within sport. In order to achieve this, we will need to work hand-in-hand with organizations on a national and international stage, at multiple stakeholder levels.

What actions can you or your organization take to bring about equity for all in sports?

We invite industry partners to join us in our Sports Equity Research Project. Our long-term goal is to end inequities in sport that are based on race, sex, gender, religion, disability and other unique characteristics. Over time, the Global Sport Institute will lead research and develop best practices in this space.

This will begin with The Business Case for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Sport.

Premieres the first initiative of the Sports Equity Research Project Identifies metric-based drivers for individual business decisions Provides data in response to the threshold question of why a sports business should devote resources to diversity and inclusion We invite the participation of any entity or individual seeking to share in this research in order to move toward actionable change.

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Support Global Sport Institute Your investment into the work of the Global Sport Institute is a step toward making a positive impact on the world through sport.

Research and Innovation Our research and innovation programs tackle real problems facing sport, and we address them by working internally and collaborating with experts in the field.

You can be a catalyst for change by supporting seed grants that will allow more issues to be explored or by creating funding tracks that will ignite burgeoning ventures and entrepreneurs who are creating exciting sport solutions.

Global Sport Matters Amplify the message that sport goes beyond the playing field. Through our innovative approach to digital content, you’ll help us tell important stories, encourage dialogue and share information with those who need it the most.

Global Sport Outreach Help support important conversations by underwriting one of our many, powerful events held throughout the year. These activities make our research come alive through lived experiences. Or, be an advocate for an athlete’s future as we build pathways toward long term success. Help us discover the best resources and solutions to support athlete empowerment in the post-sport journey.

For more information on how to support the Global Sport Institute, please email GSIdevelopment@asu.edu.

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Thank you.

The Global Sport Institute is proud to collaborate across disciplines, from networks within and outside of Arizona State University. Below are those we’ve engaged with through our innovation and education programs.

Special thanks to Arctos Sports Partners and Morgan Stanley for their support of the Global Sport Institute’s work overall.

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Contact us Global Sport Institute

Global Sport Matters

globalsport.asu.edu

globalsportmatters.com

globalsport@asu.edu

globalsporteditor@asu.edu

@globalsportasu

@globalsportmatters

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Art Belonging Biomechanics Business Communication

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Culture Diversity Doping Entrepreneurship Equity Ethics Exercise Gender Genetics Health History Identity Inclusion Journalism Law Leadership Media Mental health Nutrition Performance Policy Politics Psychology Race Safety Science Sexuality Society Sociology Success Sustainability Technology Tourism