This is my first written communication as the third president of the Academy. I am preceded in leadership by Dr. Thomas P. Rosandich (TPR), our founder, and his son Dr. Thomas J. Rosandich (Dr. T.J.) from 1972 to 2022. The Rosandich family led 50 years of distinctive leadership and distinguished service marked by a meteoric rise to international prominence as the preeminent sports university in the world.
With regional (SACSCOC) and the prestigious business school (ACBSP) accreditations, our university continues to be the Gold Standard for those in the profession of sports and athletics. We enter a new time and space in higher education and the Academy leads with online degree programs specifically designed and tailored for working professionals and priced with affordable tuition competitive with any university in the United States. With our high-quality instruction and dedication to excellence as the nation’s leading professional life skills university for sports, the Academy stands poised and ready to compete. Just ask our alumni.
We will begin competitions with our first intercollegiate sports programs this fall: men’s soccer. With Board approval, the Academy is recruiting student-athletes right now. We aim to play our first trial-year as club sports then transition to intercollegiate NAIA programs by 2024.
In addition to soccer and volleyball, our long term plan calls for adding baseball, track, and softball all in the 2024-2025 academic year as well. This activity means bringing some classes back to campus. Our student athlete plan calls for practice from 8-9:30 a.m.. and classes from 11: a.m.-2: p.m. on campus. They will take two courses per term online and two courses in a traditional setting.
We are also pursuing “naming” opportunities for some of our donors with the chance to do something substantial and dramatic for future coaches, working adults, and women leaders in athletics. We are building interest and substantial momentum with our university advancement program starting with our alumni website and led by some special giving opportunities identified by our Board of Trustees in honor of Academy medal winners and graduates.
We are embracing the challenges facing small, higher educational units like USSA. We will continue our commitment to sport art and professional services.
We will re-invent our curriculum to reflect today’s market trends while paralleling what we are famous for and considered the Gold Standard in the field.
As we seek to enroll and retain more students in our degree programs, we will leverage the legacy provided by our leaders locally, regionally, and internationally. We will create new windows and pathways for sport education and provide minor concentrations in fields that are important in the sports field and other professional fields as well. All this while carrying the USSA banner with pride and dignity. Soon these signs will appear in the form of uniforms on our athletes and banners on our community facilities.
For 50 years we have served as the Gold Standard for higher education life skills in sports and athletics!
We are the Eagles!
Steve Condon
USSA President
