The Academy congratulates the following graduates who completed their degrees this month. Because of the Academy’s rolling enrollments and flexible online learning options, degrees can be conferred upon graduates throughout the academic year. Master’s Graduates Eloise P. Miller (Portland, Ore.) – M.S.S. dual degree Sports Management and Sports Coaching, With Honors Denise Romo (Turlock, Calif.) – M.S.S. Sports Coaching, With Honors James B. Holbert (FPO, AE) – M.S.S. Sports Health and Fitness Jarvel M. Noble (Birmingham, Ala.) – M.S.S. Sports Management

The United States Sports Academy’s 2012 International Honorary Doctorate recipient and veteran Malaysian politician Muhyiddin Yassin was named that country’s prime minister this past Saturday (29 February). Yassin earned the Academy’s 2012 International Honorary Doctorate in recognition of his efforts to build his nation’s youth sports programs. Yassin was the serving Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education and in that role directed the implementation of the “One Student – One Sport” initiative that aimed at fostering a vigorous sports program for the country’s youth. The Academy conferred the honorary doctorate degree upon Yassin during his visit to Daphne, Ala., in 2013. During the course of his visit Yassin visited local educational institutions including the Daphne High School campus and met with students from the school’s international baccalaureate program. [...]

The United States Sports Academy is taking the next steps toward earning accreditation for its sports management degree programs from the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP), one of the world’s leading business school accreditors. In early 2019 the Academy became a candidate for accreditation from ACBSP, a leading organization offering accreditation services to business degree programs focused on teaching and learning. Becoming a candidate starts the accreditation process, and candidates must develop an action plan for meeting ACBSP’s standards and criteria. Last year the Academy hired a consultant to help guide the institution through the accreditation process. Recently, the Academy welcomed to campus ACBSP mentor Dr. Kathleen Cornett, who advised the institution on the accreditation process and reviewed data that had been collected by Academy faculty and staff [...]

A pair of American winter sports superstars were named the United States Sports Academy’s male and female Athletes of the Month for January. Figure skater Nathan Chen and alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin took home the Academy’s top honors after stellar performances in the month. The Academy’s reigning 2019 Male Athlete of the Year, Chen won his fourth consecutive U.S. Figure Skating Championship after totaling 330.17 points and landing six quadruple jumps between two programs in Greensboro, N.C., on 26 January 2020. Chen is the first man to win four consecutive U.S. titles since Brian Boitano in 1988. Shiffrin recorded four World Cup podium finishes – two gold medals and two bronze medals – in January, winning the super-G and downhill races in Bulgaria and taking third place in slalom and [...]

Dr. Roch King For the 15th consecutive year the United States Sports Academy is continuing its international sports certification program to prepare students in Thailand for careers in sport. The Academy recently sent Chair of Sports Coaching Dr. Roch King and sports management instructor Jillian Rosandich to Bangkok to teach the post-secondary, non-degree programs to prepare people there for careers in coaching and related athletic professions. King taught advanced sports psychology, while Rosandich taught sports event planning. The Academy teaches the International Certification in Sports Coaching (ICSC) program in Thailand, which includes a wide range of coaching and related administrative skills, and the International Certification in Sports Management (ICSM), a program that includes management topics such as sports event planning, marketing and public relations, and facilities. Jillian [...]

The United States Sports Academy is continuing its program to train physical education teachers and coaches in the Kingdom of Bahrain to meet the needs of athletes with adaptive needs. The Academy’s initial post-secondary, non-degree certificate program in disabled and adaptive sport in Bahrain graduated 223 students in the spring of 2019. Academy instructor Marty Floyd recently returned to the island nation in the Middle East to teach the program again this year for the Bahrain Sports Federation for Disabilities (BSFD). The Adaptive Sports program is a unique course of advanced study designed for coaches and physical education teachers who have or want to have experience working with athletes with varying degrees of adaptive needs. The program has a two-pronged approach that includes working with competitive athletes and developing inclusive programs [...]