When Tara Parker started at Kennesaw State University (KSU), can you guess the size of her team?
The answer is one.
About 25 years ago, Parker transferred from the parks and recreation sector to be the Intramural Sport coordinator at KSU. Through her time spent at the university, she’s had a variety of roles before landing where she is today as the executive director of Sports and Recreation, overseeing a 20-plus person staff.
It’s been a road of evolution for KSU Sports and Recreation. For example, Parker shared when a building on campus was vacated in the mid 2000s, they were able to gain a dedicated recreation space complete with a fitness floor and contracted group fitness classes. Then, in 2010 Sports and Recreation became a department. Soon, the Nature Bound Program, club sports and more found their way under Parker’s supervision.
In 2015, the newest rec facility opened, expanding the department’s capacity even further. Finally, KSU consolidated with Southern Polytechnic in 2016, gaining what’s now referred to as the Marietta campus and its 23-year-old recreation facility. This year, that 33,000-square-foot space underwent a renovation to expand the strength and conditioning spaces, update the goal systems and flooring in the gymnasium, and add a climbing and outdoor fitness space.
And Parker has been through it all. “I feel like it’s never a dull day,” she shared. “That’s why I tell people I’ve been here 25 years, but I’ve been in different roles and have grown professionally and personally through these experiences.”
Parker isn’t the only one at KSU who is part of the exponential evolution. The entire Sports and Recreation team is constantly innovating throughout its various programs.
Program: Outdoor Adventures
Ed Baltes, the assistant director of Outdoor Adventures, arrived at KSU in 2008. At that time, neither Outdoor Adventures, the KSU Bike Shop nor the climbing gym existed. He explained Nature Bound was a small club run by the Campus Activities Board that met once a month.
Since then, Outdoor Adventures has exploded. The three-person team runs trips, outdoor gear rental and more. The Bike Shop offers Free Flite Bikes for three-day to semester-long rental periods, clinics and bike services. A climbing gym outfitted by EP Climbing has 3,722 square feet of climbing space. Plus, Baltes shared they have Experiential Education which is a team building and group development offering. Customers can specify desired outcomes and will be guided through a low-ropes course, paddling, climbing, backpacking trips or another activity, depending on the client’s wants.
With this, Baltes said they’re working to obtain accreditation for this program from the Association of Experiential Education (AEE). “Our AEE accreditation is the next step in our evolution,” he said. “We will be a legitimate AEE program within a division of Students Affairs. There are very few non-academic programs with such an accreditation. We will be an industry leader that sets the standard for programs in our field.”
Program: Competitive Sports
From mostly league-based activities, Competitive Sports and Intramurals at KSU now include a mix of leagues, tournaments, one-day play, virtual programs and schedule-yourself opportunities. “We have strived to develop and create programs that can be offered in multiple or different formats to fit various schedules and lifestyles of the current student,” said Nicole Turner, the director of Competitive Sports.
The future is pending though so Turner is looking ahead. She said they’re researching multiple new programs and facility offerings, including dedicated outdoor functional fitness space and indoor turf.
Plus, for Intramurals they’re looking to engage unreached student populations — veterans, students on the spectrum and other special groups.
Program: Athletic Training
Arriving at KSU at the beginning of the 2021-2022 academic year, athletic trainer Luke Lammert set to work updating the policies, procedures and emergency action plans.
Since Lammert’s arrival, the number of students who have requested appointments has skyrocketed as word spread among the clubs. “This past year I helped nearly 200 club athletes safely return to play,” he said.
Now, Lammert is looking to pivot and focus more on education and injury prevention. “I am planning on offering educational talks over the course of the next academic year, focusing on preventing some of the most common injuries that pass through my office, as well as at-home management of some of those injuries,” he said. “I think adding an educational component to my services beyond educating a patient post-injury will truly elevate our program.”
An Evolution of Education
A large piece in the evolution at KSU is the thread of ever-evolving education. This can be seen in the above programs as well as the Group Fitness Prep Program.
Carolyn Kuzontkoski, the associate director of Recreation Programs and Facilities, joined the KSU team 13 years ago. At that time, she ran two courses for group fitness instructors based on the ACE curriculum. However, she realized a shift was in order.
“What you find with group fitness is people are drawn to it because they’re passionate and excited to get up there and teach,” said Kuzontkoski. “So, I think it’s beneficial to get to the fun part first — get them teaching and excited about it.”
As such, in 2022 she offered a development course featuring skills around cueing, music selection, program design and modifications. It looked to give students more presentation skills to help them get on the stage and teach. Then it’s delving more into the science behind the instruction in courses like those from ACE.
Four of the five participants in that initial Prep Program came back to work for KSU, meaning the training is working in terms of retention. “It’s definitely an interesting shift in the philosophy because I want to retain those people, and if you don’t recognize why they’re drawn to the position and respect that and honor that, you’ll lose them,” said Kuzontkoski.
EXTRA CREDIT: How University of North Florida Recreation and Wellness develops team leaders.
Beyond the Prep Program, one of the biggest education evolutions at KSU involves its program RecDev.
A student-development focused program, it took the place of something known as the Leadership Summit. Nigel Harris, the director of Recreation Programs and Facilities, came onboard at KSU in 2017. He saw the Leadership Summit as something with a good premise, but it only reached the students in leadership positions. “While being a department that has about 200 student positions, that was probably like 15 to 20 people,” he said. “So I was like, ‘This is a great message. But there are others that can benefit from this. Plus, I see the potential for this also being a recruitment tool for future student leaders.’”
RecDev takes place on the first Friday in January and is open to all 200 student employees. It’s not onboarding but rather enrichment and further development. Participants are separated into four groups and receive an intro about the department and the division, go through a team building activity, and attend other educational sessions.
For the 2024 RecDev, Harris shared they’re evolving yet again. First, they’re going to have a current student employee/former student employee panel where panelists will share the value of RecDev and working in campus recreation.
In addition to this change, Harris said they’ll be offering different tracks: career planning, mental health, conflict management, leadership and team building. This is to benefit students who’ve attended RecDev multiple times. “We’re like, ‘How can we still make this a worthy use of people’s time, but for those who’ve been through it before, make sure they’re not bored?’” he explained.
EXTRA CREDIT: Student employee appreciation strategies at Auburn University.
All in all, RecDev is looking to impact students beyond campus rec. “We can certainly train our students to do the job,” said Parker. “But how do we help them be marketable once they leave recreation? How do we also set it up to where a student can articulate the skills they acquired while they were working with Sports and Recreation? That was the catalyst to starting that program.”
As the multiple examples have shown, KSU Sports and Recreation is on the train of evolution. Embarking on a strategic plan over the next few years, plus asking how to serve the online student better, there are already tracks laid out in which KSU can continue to evolve. “We certainly have more growth to do, always looking to learn,” said Parker.
But, change and impact doesn’t happen alone. This is something Parker believes wholeheartedly. It’s something every leader should remember: your department evolves as one. “The evolution of our recreation department — I’ve definitely been part of that, but it certainly doesn’t happen with just me,” she said. “There’s been a lot of staff and great leadership that has allowed this program to evolve as it has.”
