COPPERHEADS: The Ultimate Classroom

by Dave Palmer - General Manager, Southern Ohio COPPERHEADS

 August 2007

Anyone who has attended a Copperheads Baseball game knows what a special experience it provides.  Sure, it has top-flight baseball but it is really so much more.

Since the Copperhead’s inception in 2001, the Founders and Board of Directors - consisting of University, business and community leaders - envisioned operating in the tradition of a top-flight professional baseball ballclub.  To do so, alliances were developed with numerous academic programs to offer a real-world working laboratory for Ohio University’s students to staff and operate all aspects of the team’s operation.

Initial development was with the Center for Sports Administration graduate degree program – the heart of our operation.  Since 1966, it has been recognized as the premier graduate degree program for those seeking careers in Sports Administration and Facilities Management.  Next to be included were the undergraduate areas of concentration for students seeking a career in sports.  These programs have received much acclaim as well.  The list of graduates from the graduate (and undergraduate) program and where they are today reads like a “Who’s Who in Sports”. 

Subsequent development was with the nationally recognized E.W. Scripps School of Journalism.  Then it was onto the College of Business and its Marketing Department as well as the unique and innovative Ralph & Luci Schey Sales Centre.  Additional relationships are being developed with the Departments of Sports Medicine and Management Information Services, the Schools of Accountancy, Theater & Telecommunications as well as several Departments at Hocking College in nearby Nelsonville.

With the leadership and guidance of the team’s General Manager and Board Members who are faculty members in the College of Health & Humans Services, College of Business and College of Communications, a typical season provides over 80 undergraduate and graduate students with a hands-on experience that is unequaled in the nation.

Keys staffers meet weekly year round to carefully plan and annually improve each aspect of operation.  The principle areas include:

Sponsorship Sales;

Promotions (on & off field);

Marketing and Community Relations (in and off-season);

Ticket Operations (production and season, group & gate sales);

Concessions (food & beer plus required licenses);

Merchandising,

Media (radio, TV, print & web coverage);

Publications (program, posters, stats, records & news releases);

Team Services (housing, away game transportation, food & accommodations); Equipment and Uniforms;

Field Maintenance;

Accounting.

Our student staffers academically serve as: Graduate Assistants; Interns (paid and unpaid); In Practica and Independent Study; and Volunteers.

Among the Copperheads Board Members who are active participants in the  processes are: Dr. Andrew Kreutzer, Sports Administration; Dr. Catherine Axinn, Sales & Marketing; Dr. John Kiger, Marketing; Dr. James Cox, Accounting (emeritus); Thomas Hodson Esq., Director of Scripps School of Journalism; and Dr. Gary Neiman, Dean-College of Health & Human Services.  Others that have helped tremendously are Dr. David Ridpath, Sports Administration, and Jim Kahler, Executive Director of the Center for Sports Administration.

Is it any wonder that out of our first five seasons, there are already over forty former staffers now filling mid or upper level roles in collegiate and professional sports organizations?  Another seventy are advancing in their careers in the industry of sports.

So the next time you attend a Copperheads game, know too that you are attending a classroom that offers each of their 80 staff members one of the most unique opportunities anywhere in our nation.  The Copperheads… see tomorrow’s pros today!