Find out about the types of jobs you could pursue as an assistant athletic director. Read on to learn more about career options along with job outlook and skills information.
What Is an Assistant Athletic Director?
Assistant athletic directors provide support for athletic directors in schools, colleges, universities and recreation departments. At the collegiate level, they tend to focus on a particular aspect of athletic administration, such as recreational programs or sports information distribution. In a high school, middle school or elementary school, assistant athletic directors may perform more diverse duties, ranging from determining athlete eligibility to coordinating sports schedules to scheduling playing field use. They are also expected to attend all games. Within a recreation department, assistant athletic directors may help athletic directors organize clinics and tournaments, schedule facility use and prepare publications to advertise the department's upcoming events and offerings.
The following chart gives you an overview about entering this field.
<table border="1"><tr><th> </th><th>Assistant Athletic Director (College) </th><th> Assistant Athletic Director (K-12)</th><th> Assistant Athletic Director (Parks and Recreation)</th></tr>
<tr><td><b>Key Responsibilities</b></td><td>Implement athletic programs and policies, ensure compliance with regulations, help with budgeting and finances </td><td>Communicate with athletes, oversee coaches, promote academic achievement, oversee programs</td><td>Organize athletic leagues, create rules and policies, communicate with the public</td></tr>
<tr><td><b>Skills Required</b></td><td>Ability to work with others, organization, financial knowledge</td><td> Ability to work with young individuals and adults, organization, recruiting skills</td><td> Public relations knowledge, commitment to detail, organization</td></tr>
</table><h3 id="section---WhatWouldIDoAsAnAssistantAthleticDirectorAtTheCollegiateLevel">What Would I Do As an Assistant Athletic Director At the Collegiate Level?</h3><p>As an assistant athletic director, you would answer to the athletic director and help with various duties. At the collegiate level, your administrative tasks could include helping implement athletic programs and policies. You might also ensure compliance with school, National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and regional athletic codes. Additionally, assistant athletic directors might help maintain required documentation, including eligibility records. Event management, marketing, promotions, media relations and fundraising are also typical duties of an assistant athletic director.
</p><p>You could be in charge of a specific sport or department, such as basketball, football, track or intramural club sports. Assistant athletic directors also aid the director in budgeting, and you could act as chief financial officer of one of these departments. When working on a budget, you'd review previous years' budgets and expenses and forecast expenditures for the coming year. You also might monitor monthly expense reports and financial statements and address errors or discrepancies.
</p><h3 id="section---WhatWouldIDoAtTheK12Level">What Would I Do At the K-12 Level?</h3><p>Some school districts hire assistant athletic directors to help develop programs, manage department budgets, communicate with athletes and oversee coaches. They also might administer local, regional, school district and interscholastic athletic association rules. As a K-12 assistant athletic director, you could help organize and supervise the whole athletic program, monitor athlete's academic records, promote academic achievement and monitor Title IX compliance. You could also help recruit coaching, training and other athletic staff and execute in-service education for them.
</p><h3 id="section---WhatWouldIDoForAParksAndRecreationDepartment">What Would I Do For a Parks and Recreation Department?</h3><p>As an assistant athletic director for a department of parks and recreation, you could organize athletic leagues and create rules and policies. In planning events, you might hire appropriate officials, schedule and officiate games and keep score. Knowledge of public relations could be helpful since you might be in charge of advertising league registration deadlines, communicating events to the public and speaking at meetings and conferences. You also might oversee details from ordering tournament trophies and concessions to ensuring proper maintenance of facilities and equipment.
</p><h3 id="section---WhatAreSomeRelatedAlternativeCareers">What Are Some Related Alternative Careers?</h3><p>If you are looking for a job in the athletic department of a college or university, you could also consider becoming a sports coach. In this job, you would be involved in recruiting, athlete training and game strategy development. Most college coaches have a bachelor's degree. If you would prefer to get a job in a recreation department, you could consider becoming a recreation worker, in which you could teach fitness-related classes--like sports or dance--to groups of community members. Recreation workers usually need to have at least a high school diploma.</p>
