Nationally acclaimed sports administrator and high performance director Scott Novack has been named the United States Sports Academy’s 2018 Alumnus of the Year. Novack, a Colorado native, earned his Master of Sports Science degree in sports management from the Academy in 1997 and participated in a mentorship at Brunel University in London, where he met other students and administrators who helped to spark his interest international sports like rugby. He was recently hired as the program operations manager for the USA Rugby Men’s Eagles Sevens team. The Alumnus of the Year Award is given to the year’s most outstanding Academy graduate and the honoree must represent the ideals of sport and of the institution. Novack has more than 18 years of experience as a sports administrator, managing Olympic and national [...]

United States Sports Academy alumnus Dr. Brandon Spradley has been promoted to chair of sports management at the Academy. Academy faculty members are promoted based on years of service as well as their performance and publication record. Spradley previously served as director of sports management.  He has served the Academy through his teaching, research and outreach, and has been especially involved in the Academy’s efforts to address the issue of concussion in sports. “During Dr. Spradley’s time as director he demonstrated excellence in many ways,” Academy Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Tomi Wahlstrom said. “His teaching evaluations were remarkable and he published several noteworthy articles, including co-authoring a recent manuscript in concussion prevention. His overall service to the Academy has been exemplary. He has served in a variety of [...]

New Colby College men’s and women’s tennis head coach Adam Reeb said his United States Sports Academy master’s education was practical and helpful as he advanced in the collegiate coaching ranks. Reeb, who earned his Master of Sports Science degree in sports studies from the Academy in 2010, was recently hired by NCAA Division III Colby College in Maine after spending the previous three years in the same position at Seattle (Wash.) University. “The Academy was a blessing for me because I was able to continue working as a coach while I learned the skills that would immediately help me in my career,” Reeb said. “I was able to mentally dive right into the material, then immediately use what I learned the next day on the court. Everything I learned [...]

United States Sports Academy alumnus Byron Cunningham has been promoted to director of rehabilitation and assistant athletic trainer for the award-winning athletic training program of the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League (NFL). Cunningham, who earned his Master of Sports Science degree in sports medicine from the Academy in 2002, spent the previous eight seasons as a physical therapist and assistant athletic trainer for the Rams. In his new role, Cunningham is responsible for the care, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of player injuries in coordination with the head athletic trainer. During his tenure with the Rams, Cunningham has overseen several critical player rehabilitation programs, including former wide receiver Brian Quick who suffered a potentially career-ending shoulder injury in 2014 and returned to the field in 2015. “I’m honored [...]

DAPHNE, Ala. – Bryan College head baseball coach Clint McAuley said his United States Sports Academy education was “relevant, convenient, and practical” and helped him advance his career in the coaching profession. McAuley, who earned his Master of Sports Science degree in sports management from the Academy in 2006, recently was named head baseball coach at Bryan College in Dayton, Tenn., after spending the previous seven seasons as associate head coach. The Bryan Lions compete in the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC), part of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). “I have always recommended the Academy to young coaches looking to get their online degree in sports,” McAuley said. “It’s the most relevant, convenient, and practical master’s degree you can have as a coach. “I knew about the Academy because [...]

DAPHNE, Ala. – Santa Fe College associate athletic director Richanna Lindo said the United States Sports Academy’s online approach and sports-only master’s degree program suited her needs after she entered the workforce with a bachelor’s degree. A native of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Lindo earned her Master of Sports Science degree in sports management with an NCAA compliance emphasis in 2010, after she earned dual bachelor’s degrees in sports management and business administration from Pfeiffer University in North Carolina in 2004. Armed with her bachelor’s education, Lindo entered the workforce and took Academy master’s degree courses in her spare time. “I chose the Academy because I was intrigued by a school whose entire focus was on a base of athletics and athletic management, and it also offered the online degree option, which [...]

DAPHNE, Ala. – Veteran college football administrator and United States Sports Academy alumnus Mike Vollmar has been named the senior associate athletic director for football administration at Kansas University. Vollmar has more than three decades of college football administration experience at the highest levels as part of some of the sport’s most storied programs at the University of Alabama, the University of Tennessee, the University of Michigan and Michigan State University. He has been part of teams that went to 20 bowl games, won a national championship and won four conference titles. Vollmar earned his Master of Sports degree in sports management in 1989 from the Academy and was selected as the institution’s 2010 Alumnus of the Year. He is also a member of the Academy’s Alumni Board. A native [...]

DAPHNE, Ala. – United States Sports Academy alumnus Grant Watley said his Academy master’s degree taught him more than just the “x’s and o’s” of coaching, which he says has contributed to the advancement of his career by recently being named head cross country and track and field coach at Midland University in Fremont, Neb. A native of Lincoln, Neb., Watley earned his Master of Sports Science degree in sports coaching in 2011. He previously earned a bachelor’s degree in health and fitness with a minor in coaching from Nebraska Wesleyan University. “The United States Sports Academy does a great job of making each and every class practical to the sports world,” Watley said. “Coaching is a lot of work outside of the x’s and o’s with the amount of [...]

DAPHNE, Ala. -- United States Sports Academy alumnus Greg Walker, whose volleyball coaching experience includes leading the U.S. Men’s Sitting Volleyball Team in the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games, has been named assistant men’s volleyball coach for the University of Southern California. Walker earned his Bachelor of Sports Science in sports coaching cum laude from the Academy in 2012 and served the past three years the head men’s volleyball coach at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut, an NCAA Division I university in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association. Prior to joining Sacred Heart, Walker was head men’s coach at Alderson Broaddus University in West Virginia from 2014 to 2015. He led the Battlers to a 21-6 record. Four of his players earned all-conference honors. Walker was a women’s assistant coach at Mississippi [...]

DAPHNE, Ala. – Veteran collegiate athletics administrator and United States Sports Academy doctoral alumna Dr. Kristene Kelly has been named the senior associate athletics director and Senior Woman Administrator at the prestigious Ivy League school Dartmouth College. Kelly started her work at Dartmouth in Hanover, N.H., on 1 August 2018 after spending the previous two years as the athletics director at Keene State College in Keene, N.H. She has extensive experience in athletics administration at the college level, including seven years in various administrative roles at Saint Augustine’s University in Raleigh, N.C. A native of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, Kelly earned her Doctor of Education degree in sports management with a sports leadership specialization from the Academy in 2014. She credited the flexibility of the Academy’s online education options [...]

DAPHNE, Ala. – Daniel Prevett wears many hats at Brewton-Parker College in Mount Vernon, Ga., as the vice president for athletics and student development and head men’s basketball coach. The United States Sports Academy alumnus said his work there would be “nearly impossible” without his Academy master’s degree. A native of Louisville, Ky., Prevett earned his Master of Sports Science degree in sports management in 2014 while he worked as a basketball coach at Asbury College in Wilmore, Ky. He said he was unable to get his foot in the door for collegiate athletics administration jobs until he got his Academy degree. “I interviewed for a lot of coaching positions in different places and most of the time fell short of being offered those jobs because I didn’t have a [...]