Week 2: May 9-12

There are several different duties and responsibilities I will have during my mentorship at Cayuga Community College, I will be attending coaches meetings, creating a master schedule for the next athletic season, creating and receiving contracts from other colleges, eligibility, and budgeting.  Since the college is trying to start both softball and baseball programs, Pete has talked about me creating a budget sheet for the equipment needed to field both teams.  Creating a master schedule is important for all coaches to know when they have gym availability especially with the New York weather.  We do not need practices to cross with each other and one team gets less practice time than another team.  As for creating contracts with opposing teams, this is very beneficial for when I become an Athletic Director of a college.  Without receiving a contract there would be no contest being played.  With the setting up of a contract the college then has to set up officials for each contracted game. 

After working in the Athletic Department for 2 weeks now, I am learning a lot and enjoying everything I am doing.  It is nice to know that Pete is easily approachable and is a great guy to talk to.  He has so much knowledge because he was once in my shoes.  He explained to me that he used to work at Cazenovia College (ironic) I know and he did a lot of the work that the Athletic Director at the time never really wanted to do.  He told me that leaving Cazenovia and coming to Cayuga was one of the best things he could have done for himself.  He has also explained to his goals when he first got here and that was to bring in both softball and baseball programs, and as of right now that goal has not be accomplished. 

This past week I finished working on the academic records.  This was no easy task and was very time consuming, but it’s helpful to know the difference in GPA of students who do not play any sports vs. the students who are involved in sports.  This is a great tool to use when trying to bring in prospective student athletes.  If there is minimal difference in the GPA of students vs. student athletes then it shows that the college supports the athletics programs and works hard to make it a level playing field for all students to participate in sports.  Although I finished up the academic records they are not fully completed yet because grades for the spring 2011 semester are not due until next week.  Once grades are in I can finish up the academic records and send them to my mentor. 

This week I also worked on eligibility for the upcoming seasons in the fall.  I told to look at all the rosters and mark who was eligible and who wasn't.  Students who taking at least 12 credits are considered eligible and those students who have 11 credits or less, I had to look at their overall amount of credits.  For instance if the student was a freshmen and took 15 credits their 1^st semester of their freshmen year, and only took 9 credits their 2^nd semester of their freshmen year, they would still be considered eligible.  Also I had to look at the classes they took because it the student athlete took a 099 class it is not added into their overall GPA.  At Cayuga Community College student athletes must maintain a 2.0 to be eligible to play sports, if they do not maintain a 2.0 during the season it does not affect them.  However if they bring their GPA up after the season and their overall GPA is above a 2.0 they are considered eligible.