Annual Sport Leadership Summit connects students with current leaders in the field

Liberty University hosted the sixth annual Sport Leadership Summit Oct. 27-28, providing sport management students the chance to hear from industry professionals and build their professional network.

Held in the Carter Tower at Williams Stadium, the two-day summit featured a variety of guest panelists from the sport industry, including representatives from collegiate and high school athletics, professional consulting, the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, FIFA World Cup 2026, NHL, NFL, professional motor racing, collegiate officiating, event management, and more. Panel discussions included breaking into the industry as a young professional, development and fundraising, event workforce management, networking, graduate assistant work in athletics, professional sales, and more.

“We really build our program on the principles of education, experience, and professional network,” said Dr. Laura Hatfield, chair of the Department of Hospitality & Sport Management. “We’re hoping that through guest speaker interaction and the stories that are told, students will gain secondhand experience. Then, they certainly have the opportunity to meet an industry professional and get connected with them to build their professional network.”

Speakers and panelists included Jason Penry, founder and principal of Penry Advisors; Daniel Rodriguez, senior manager of Workforce Operations for the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games; Morgan Skillman, volunteer manager with FIFA World Cup 2026; Aaron Freeman, senior director of Membership Services with Monumental Sports & Entertainment; Jaime Logan, inside sales manager for the Carolina Panthers; Landon Owen, vice president of Consumer Sales for Bristol Motor Speedway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway; Leo Cardenas, vice president of Sales and Service at On Location; and Liberty Men’s Soccer Head Coach Kelly Findley.

Monday’s session included a keynote message from Penry who emphasized the important role relationships play in the sports world. Penry Advisors provides consulting on fundraising to college athletic programs. Penry encouraged students to establish a continual three-year plan for their careers as they seek work after graduation.

On Tuesday, Findley urged students to find their primary identity from their faith in Christ instead of the various job titles they may hold. Findley will retire from his coaching position at the end of the 2025 campaign and plans to join a movement called Coaches on Mission and the Pre-College Development Academy.

“If you don’t know your identity, it’s impossible for you to fail because you’re scared that will be a judgment on you,” he said, encouraging students to discover God’s calling for their lives. “But guess what you won’t do? Try new things. You will never know what works and what doesn’t work because you’re always operating out of fear and worry.”

The role of faith in a successful career remained a consistent underlying theme throughout the summit.

“Working in the sport industry is very demanding,” said Hatfield, who has experience in collegiate coaching, development and fundraising, event management and more. “We want our students to have a good understanding of what that is like. We want them to be able to find their identity in Christ and find that faith-centering, so when the hours are long and they may be asked to make some questionable decisions, they know who they are in Christ, and they are able to live out their true identity in their profession.”

Through hearing from fellow Christians working in sports, students were encouraged to be bold about their faith and proudly stand for what they know is true.

“The sport industry is traditionally a very secular industry,” senior Nehemiah Hamlin said. “So, being able to look around and see the faith-based implications and how they incorporate that into the content we have at the Sport Leadership Summit is really powerful.”

The summit also provided students the chance to present their own research. Hamlin, alongside senior Lachlan Smith, worked with a team to analyze the role of private equity investment in revenue generation for Power 4 athletic programs, using the University of Kentucky as a baseline model.

“We want students to develop their skills, be able to ask good questions, to develop a plan for collecting information to help them answer those questions, and to be able to make data-informed decisions,” Hatfield said. “The research presentation is a formal way for them to do that.”

One new event at the summit this year was a speed networking session, where students could meet with guest panelists and other industry professionals.

Smith said he appreciated this opportunity, noting the high number of Liberty alumni who participated.

“I was able to connect and be in the same vicinity as people who are already (in the field),” he said. “They are already in a place we are looking forward to being in in the future. We were able to pick their brains on a more individual and personal level. That was a really cool experience.”

“You never really know who you are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with,” Hamlin added. “It could be a future employer, it could be someone cool, it could be someone you connected with on LinkedIn and didn’t remember. It’s valuable and a really, really cool event the school puts on. I’m very grateful for it.”

The summit was hosted in part by hospitality management students, who helped plan and decorate for the event and assisted with check-in and other tasks. Many of the students work events throughout the school year, such as the annual CEO Summit.