American professor jets in for Sports leaders seminar

AMERICAN Professor Dennis Jones is in the country to facilitate a high-level international sports management course organised by the Sports Leaders Institute of Zimbabwe (Sliz) in partnership with his West Virginia University.

Jones arrived in Harare on Sunday night for the three-day course, which starts tomorrow at the Zesa Training Centre.

Jones will give hands-on education on how to incorporate the scientific perspective and models most relevant to managing sport and physical activity organisations and the five major functions of sport management.

Issues of inclusion, ethics and morality, relevance of management theory and its contribution to the professional’s skills sets and designing of an entrepreneurial model for a growing sport business (business plan) will also be discussed.

His main lecture will be on the globalisation of sport management as an academic discipline, a science based approach to managing sport in Zimbabwe. Organisers of the event hope this changes the manner in which local associations and institutions are administered.

“This is more of a refresher course for administrators to keep up with the changing trends that affect the sports industry. All serious sport managers and leaders should attend. We are looking forward to having sports reporters, teachers, directors, Premier Soccer League clubs as well as representatives from sports associations, sports medicine, local authorities, universities and other tertiary institutions as well as uniformed forces,” said Russell Mhiribidi, the sliz director.

Sliz has held sports management camps since 2014. The camps have been used as platforms for administrators to brainstorm and come up with solutions to challenges faced in the development of athletes.

They have also used the camps to preach the gospel of good governance in sport and to help administrators unlock potential partnerships with the corporate world.