Sport ExtendED is built by someone who has been inside high performance sport — as an athlete, and as someone who has spent years working to make it better.
When Athletics and Recreation departments bundle high-performance sport credentials alongside student-athlete experience competencies into one role, they are not just describing a complex job. They are, often unintentionally, building a hierarchy into the posting before a single application has been received. This piece explores what that means — for hiring committees, for diverse candidates, and for the student-athletes they are ultimately hired to serve.
The risk I keep returning to isn’t physical. It’s the risk of loving something so completely it becomes you. Of building an identity so fused with a sport, a team, a role — that when it ends, and it always ends, you don’t know who’s left.
"I was in the room in September 2025. I was part of the consultation process. So when I read this report, I'm not just reading recommendations — I'm reading something that reflects what people actually experienced. That matters."
