Interview
I had the amazing opportunity to interview Jamie Joss and ask him some great questions about his role as athletic director at Florida Institute of Technology. We also discussed the future of the sports economy within intercollegiate athletics.
1. What was the best/most important college class you ever took?
"Sociology of Sport was one of the most impactful classes I ever took, providing a sense of the world of sport and how it differs across countries. It showed me the passion people have for sports in other countries, where fans will stand and chant at a football match (soccer) for the entire game and expend as much energy as the athletes, if not more. It also provided a tremendous perspective when working with international athletes in collegiate sports."
2. Why and when did you choose this as a career?
I had been in collegiate athletics as a coach and administrator for 15 years, and then my first son was on the way and I had decided to not work in college athletics and be absent from his life, so I shifted to a corporate role working with SIDEARM Sports as the Vice President of Sales and Operations. This allowed me to have more of a normal work schedule and took care of my son for the first two years of his life working from home. However, the role started to wear me down physically and I knew that if I stayed there it would eventually kill me, during this transition I completed my master's degree in Sports Administration which is necessary to become an AD. My wife encouraged me to pursue an AD job and in 2012 I landed my first AD role at Warner Pacific University in Portland, OR. I took a 100K pay cut and moved my family across the country. It was the best decision we ever made because it humbled us as a family and allowed our family to appreciate everything we had and gave the boys an example of pursuing something for purpose and passion and not being fixated on money. I always tell people a full heart is worth more than a full wallet.
3. What is the best part of your job?
"I think the best part is seeing the transformation of our athletes coming in as freshman and seeing the growth over the course of their 4 or 5 years. Seeing them accomplish things they never imagined, or developing into leaders who will impact their professional careers. Graduation days are far more important to me than the championships or athletic achievments they may accomplish, because the maturity and growth will impact generations within their family."
4. What is the biggest challenge of your job?
"The biggest challenge is balancing my role as a cabinet member, making decisions in the best interest of the university as a whole, with the needs and wants of our athletic coaches and staff members. It is a fine balance of advocating for our coaches and staff while understanding the challenges the university may be facing. Sometimes, I also know that my peers have needs or requests that may have a greater impact on the university."
5. Who is/was your biggest career connection and how did you meet?
"I have many, but one that significantly changed my life is Steve Ridder the former AD and current Men's Basketball Coach at Embry-Riddle. He is one of the greatest motivators and encouragers in college athletics, he genuinely loves and cares about every staff member well beyond what they provide to the athletics department, but around the staff and their families. He has been one of my go-to people to gain counsel from or in searches for coaches or staff. But perhaps the greatest reason is that he introduced me to Jesus and my faith when my first son was on the way, he invited me to a faith-based book on being a father."
6. How do you maintain a work life balance? Is it possible?
"There is no such thing as work life balance in athletics, because you are dealing with athletes 18-24 years old and working evenings and weekends, even summers are full of time commitments in preparation for the upcoming season. I try to create space for those that work with our department to be more intentional with attempting to create this for them and their family. The importance is having a spouse or partner that understands what athletics entails, otherwise, I have seen a lot of people end up divorced or without a partner because of the demands it places on the staff member and the families being away from home and working nights and weekends."
7. When hiring, what 3 traits are the most important?
"The three traits I look for are 1) Strong academic focused individuals themselves, if coaches that they align their recruiting to be focused on finding prospects who want the academic rigor and offerings that Florida Tech offers, and that staff and coaches are motivated to support our scholar-athletes academically, competitively, and as leaders in the department and on campus 2) humble backgrounds as that is where I have always worked at the have-not schools where resources are scarce and allows people to truly appreciate what we have at Florida Tech, whereas we have struggled when hiring people from D1 backgrounds and seeing what we have as not enough to function. 3) Motivated and have a passion to be a part of transforming the lives of our scholar-athletes that they serve by being selfless and putting the scholar-athletes' needs and other staff members ahead of themselves."
8. What area of the sports economy will grow the most in the next 5 years?
"To be honest, I think that youth sports will continue to be the biggest growth alongside the growth of recreational opportunities for aging sports segment. Each generation seems to be more physically motivated than the last, despite the obesity we face as a country, baby boomers and others with the pickle ball boom. As far as college sports, I fear D1 is heading down a very dark path that is not sustainable, especially if the Protect College Sports Act does not pass, and then tackling the challenge of college athletes who want to be considered employees. That will be the death of Division II and Division III sports, and at the D1 level we are going to see even with PCSA a dismantling of olympic sports as all revenue is being provided to men's basketball and football, and the revenue that schools are making to fund this is not growing at the same rate the schools and booster are paying to have the best teams paying college athletes more than what a professional athlete can make."
9. In your industry niche, what does "Sport management" mean?
"To me, sport management is the leadership and administration of every part of the sport enterprise, from the governing associations that set the rules to the athletic directors, executives, coaches, and staff who carry them out. Everyone in the organization has a role in managing sport, and all of it ultimately exists to serve the athletes and the communities who follow them. The field also spans the business of sport, including revenue, media, sponsorship, and facilities, and it extends globally, since each region of the world shapes sport in its own way. Increasingly, legal and political systems are a major intersection point, influencing everything from governance to athlete compensation. It’s a complex, interconnected domain where a decision at one level can ripple through the entire system".
10. Is there anything about being an athletic director that you think students should understand but often overlook?
'One thing students often overlook is that an athletic director serves two sets of interests at once. Athletics has its own goals, like winning, recruiting, and building a culture for scholar-athletes, but the department exists within a university, and every decision has to align with the institution’s broader mission, budget, and reputation. Much of the job is balancing those interests, and sometimes what’s best for a single team isn’t what’s best for the university as a whole."
To explore my biggest take aways from my interview with Jamie and how I can apply these lessons to my future in sports click the button belowÂ