Students hear from sport industry professionals, share research at annual summit

Liberty University hosted its fourth annual Sport Leadership Summit in Williams Stadium Oct. 26-27, providing sport management students with the opportunity to interact with industry professionals as well as present research to their peers.

The event included nine different panel sessions composed of various speakers such as staff from minor league teams, collegiate coaches and staff (including Liberty Softball Head Coach Dot Richardson), and sports organizations. Mulitiple Liberty alumni working as sport management professional returned to campus to speak. Started in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sport Leadership Summit allows students to step outside of the classroom and hear firsthand experiences from professionals.

“Our students love the opportunity to network,” sport management Professor Chris Amos said. “We’ve had several students get internships out of this event, which has been amazing. But even just hearing from people who aren’t professors, hearing from industry professionals, regardless of whether that person is doing what they want with their career, there are still a lot of great nuggets of advice that they can receive and work through as they are trying to figure out what their future career will be.”

Drew Boe, executive director of Uncommon Sports Group, served as the keynote speaker on Oct. 26. His organization works to train and coach sports professionals to boldly live out their Christian faith in the sport management field.

On Oct. 27, Lori Waran, track president for Richmond Raceway, provided the keynote address. Waran shared an overview of her career and the road that has brought her to her current position.

“I am here today to tell you that (the road to the top) is messy,” she told the students. “It can be crazy. I had no idea how to get here when I was sitting in those chairs in college. I didn’t even know for a lot of the time what I was going to major in. I’m really excited that you guys already know what you are doing.”

Waran said that she originally was hesitant to accept the daunting position of president at Richmond Speedway, which boasts 1,100 acres and welcomes over 1 million guests each year. She said she decided to take the job after hearing an announcer describe a restrictor plate, which helps limit maximum speeds for racecars. This caused Waran to consider what was holding her back in her life and career and gave her the courage to embrace the unknown.

“Success is an imperfect race to the finish,” she said. “You will make mistakes getting there. You will have moments of regret and a lot of moments of self-doubt. You will feel like you are going 200 mile per hour at times, and sometimes you will feel stalled at pit road. You will have moments that will feel and become your restrictor plate, but then you will have times that you take the checkered flag and end up in victory lane. And it’s worth it. Taking the ‘W’ once makes all of the ‘Ls’ feel like nothing. And then you are going to start again. How bad do you want it?”

Other segments at the summit included faith in sports, NIL, Virginia Amateur Sports, E-Sports, young professionals, women in sports, a coaches panel, minor league sports, and international sport management.

The event also included a poster presentation session where students shared current research they had either proposed or conducted throughout the semester.

“Students are very proud of their work,” said Dr. Laura Hatfield, Department Chair for Hospitality & Sport Management at Liberty. “They have worked very hard to put their posters together. When I think of the research process, one of the things I think about is ‘This is the time you are spending in the weight room. This is the time you are spending conditioning.’ This is building all of those valuable and useful critical thinking skills. To apply those to a specific topic and share those results or share their process with their classmates is important and rewarding.”

Students presented a wide range of topics including sports betting, coaching styles, issues surrounding performance-enhancing drugs, conference realignment, and more. For senior Zane Bloom and his team, this meant proposing research on the value of NFL trade regarding players in expiring contracts.

“The main thing that (presenting the research) does is bring to light something that people hadn’t thought of before,” Bloom said. “People coming in and saying, ‘This is an interesting subject that we haven’t necessarily thought of before. Even in the professional world, there hasn’t been a whole lot of studies done on this type of stuff, so it’s bringing something to light and giving a new perspective on some things.”

The Sport Leadership Summit was hosted by students in Liberty’s Hospitality Management program. Hospitality Management students managed the creative elements and logistical details of the event.