After the program launch was postponed last March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States Sports Academy is working with its education partners in the Philippines to resume a 100 percent online version of the institution’s renowned post-secondary, non-degree International Diploma in Sports Management (IDSM) program there.
The sports management program – traditionally delivered onsite and in person by Academy faculty – has been on hold in the Philippines due to the pandemic. Now, the Academy hopes to deliver the program in an online environment starting this Spring. The Philippines Sports Commission (PSC) signed a Protocol for Cooperation with the Academy in 2017 that started the planning process for the sport education programs to be taught by the Academy there. The Academy has a long history in the Republic of the Philippines dating back to the early 1980s.
“The Academy is looking forward to resuming our work with assisting in the development of the national sport effort in the Philippines through our programs in education, research and service,” Rosandich said. “I personally taught a course on Sport Facilities in Manila some 35 years ago and so this is a program that is particularly meaningful to me.”
The IDSM program consists of ten modules of instruction each of which covers different aspects of sport administration. Courses on a wide range of sport management subjects will be taught to support the development of sound sport management principles for the PSC and its’ affiliates.
The restarted programs come on the heels of Academy President Dr. T.J. Rosandich’s recent participation in the PSC’s virtual National Sports Summit in January 2021. The event brought together hundreds of sports educators, athletes, coaches, coordinators, national sports associations, and other stakeholders for online conference sessions tackling 25 sport-related topics. This edition of the National Sports Summit was originally scheduled to be held in Manila in February 2020 but was postponed due to the global disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Rosandich presented on the first night of sessions with a lecture on “Sports Success from a First World Perspective.”
Rosandich also participated as an official observer at the 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games held in the country in December, 2019 as a guest of the PSC.
Founded more than 45 years ago, the Academy has delivered quality sport education and service programs in 67 countries around the world. These have varied in scope from the full-charge conduct of a nation’s entire national sport effort to individual coaching clinics, seminars and symposia. As a not-for-profit, independent school of sport, the Academy has been able to provide a combination of expertise expected from a sports university combined with the experience gleaned from applying expertise in this field.
Clients of the Academy have included central sports organizations, (CSOs, such as ministries of youth and sports), national Olympic committees, ministries of education (for physical education and interscholastic sport programs) and sport associations and federations. Many of the details of this work can be found by visiting the Academy’s website at https://ussa.edu/international/
