The UNA Department of Health, Physical Education and Recreation (HPER) will offer a graduate concentration in sports management for its Master of Science program in health and human performance in the fall 2013 semester.

Dr. Tom Coates, professor and chair of the HPER department, said he has high hopes for the program.

“We’re looking at someone with a background in business and sports management,” Coates said. “Students will do graduate-level work and be prepared to take a leadership role in sports management.”

The Master of Science program includes 30 credit hours. Students take 12 required hours and may choose to take six elective hours or to write a thesis. 

The concentration will feature three new courses in addition to its current Sport in American Life course: Sport Marketing and Finance, Sport Communication and Media Relations, and Sport Facility Planning and Management.  

“We just got approval on Sept. 14 for this new concentration,” Coates said. “This is a good, strong academic program that we want to grow.”

Coates said he hopes word of the new concentration will get out quickly to students interested in the program.

“I hope people will find out about and be interested in the concentration,” he said. “We hope to get our students in the field. It has the potential to be very productive. I think we’ll start attracting students from other schools who are interested in sports management.”

The coursework for the new concentration includes courses like Research Methods, Critical Analysis of Professional Literature, Legal Issues and the Health and Physical Education Professional, and Administration of HPER Programs.

Students in the new concentration may choose from a variety of elective courses, including Drugs in American Society, Tests and Measurement, Advanced Coaching Techniques, Advanced Methods of Teaching Physical Education, Stress Management, Scientific Basis of Health and Human Performance, and a seminar and internship.

As a component of their program of study, all graduate students who are accepted into the new concentration will be required to complete a comprehensive examination or prepare a thesis as a culminating experience.