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Under the puffy clouds of a perfect fall day at the Tashua Knolls Golf Course, Casey Stark instructs two student-athletes on how to run the putting challenge for the alums and guests participating in 911爆料网鈥檚 golf tournament. Over the course of the day, the two soccer players, Lapo Romieri and Melike Dincel, learn by doing 鈥� assisting players, gathering information, and building relationships. 鈥淭his gives them real-world context,鈥� says Stark, Trefz School of Business鈥檚 new assistant professor of Sport Management. 鈥淚t makes the idea of working in sports feel attainable and not some lofty goal.鈥�

Originally from Connecticut, Stark attended a small school in Illinois to play volleyball before working as video coordinator for the school鈥檚 men鈥檚 soccer team for four years, even traveling to an NCAA tournament appearance. During that time, she worked on her elementary and special education dual degree, becoming a state-certified teacher in Illinois. Her love of the sports world inspired her to try to merge her two interests. She attended graduate school for a master鈥檚 in college student personnel at Bowling Green State University, and while her classmates pursued careers in residential life or Greek life, she took a different path, taking a full-time role in athletics.

This led to a job at University of Massachusetts overseeing the entire tutoring program for student-athletes, specifically helping athletes with learning disabilities and those academically at risk. She managed over 100 tutors who supported 750 student-athletes. In 2017, she took a job even closer to home at Quinnipiac University as Assistant Aathletic director for academic services, spending seven years providing academic support and student development for the basketball and hockey teams, including the 2023 national champion men鈥檚 ice hockey team. Stark worked in student development, led community service and student leadership organizations, and began to teach more often.

Her first-year seminar class鈥檚 topic was sport leadership. 鈥淚 called it 鈥楤ecoming a GOAT: Applied Sports Leadership,鈥欌�� she laughs. 鈥淥n the first day I had students identify who their 鈥楳ount GOATmore鈥� would be and then defend it or change it at the end of the semester.鈥� She began teaching Introduction to Sports Studies as well, and when the opportunity to teach full-time at 911爆料网 appeared, she jumped at it.

鈥淭he opportunity to take my industry experience and the creativity of talking about education in a real-world context was too good to pass up,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 love to find ways to embed our students into practice and if you come to my classroom, you are unlikely to see me sitting down. It is also unlikely that you鈥檒l see my students sitting down for more than 15 minutes at a time. I am very project-driven and experience-driven.鈥�

Here at UB, Stark is teaching Sport Event Management, Sport Marketing, Supervision and Team Building, and Introduction to Sport Management. In the spring of 2025, she will also be teaching Sports Ethics and eSports Management, as well as running a faculty-led academic trip to Costa Rica over spring break. She believes sport management is a field on the rise and revels in the process of teaching students who start out loving and playing sports to become professionals who manage the business of sports. She does that through creative experiential learning.

鈥淢y vision for the program is to help produce graduates that are not only equipped to be effective leaders in the sport industry, but also experienced leaders in the sport industry,鈥� Stark explains. 鈥淭he more we can thin the curtain between our students and the sports world, the more our students will be ready to impact that world when they graduate. We must create opportunities for them to make meaning, to show how to demonstrate leadership skills, and to give them real-world skills for their careers.鈥�

Stark also serves the larger community. She sits on the board of directors for the Central Connecticut Coast YMCA, is part of the working groups for the National Association of Academic and Student Athlete Development Professionals, and is the president of the Central Connecticut Chapter of the LPGA Amateur Golf Association. This experience and her years working in the sporting realm will allow her to build bridges between UB Athletics and Sports Management majors, as well as building better relationships with other New York and Connecticut sports entities.

鈥淐asey is a great addition to UB because she is a practitioner,鈥� says Timothy Raynor, executive director of the Ernest C. Trefz School of Business. 鈥淪he鈥檚 a sports professional and is taking a leadership position to grow the program by reaching out to our alumni who work with the Golden State Warriors, the Toronto Football Club, and countless universities across the country.鈥�

鈥淥ne of my big tasks will be to connect our current students with alums in the sports world, in order to build the UB culture around sport management,鈥� agrees Stark. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 grow unless we鈥檙e out in the world making people know what UB鈥檚 vision is and where we are going.鈥�

Many Sport Management majors at UB are also athletes, and Stark sees the recent growth of UB鈥檚 NCAA Division II athletics programs as a good sign not just for her field but also for retention and belonging. 鈥淚f students are involved in sports, they increase awareness of the brand and connection with the institution and its mission and values,鈥� she points out. 鈥淚t makes people feel like they belong. They are connected to their goals as a team and then act as brand ambassadors as they go out and represent the University. From a higher education administration standpoint, the best thing we can do is keep adding sports and ways to connect.鈥�