Mentoring Program Pairs Gamecocks and Administrators

In helping to provide student-athletes a championship experience in every aspect of their collegiate careers, South Carolina Athletics has set up a pilot mentoring program with its senior administrative staff. The idea came about after Athletics Director Ray Tanner expressed a desire to have more opportunities for one-on-one contact with student-athletes.

“The Athletics Department wanted to provide more mentoring opportunities for student-athletes to help them in professional development,” said Megan Stoltzfus, Director of Student-Athlete Development. “Our academic advisors recommended one student-athlete from every sport, so each team would have some exposure, and we were able to match every member of our athletics senior staff with at least one student-athlete, while some had multiple student-athletes.”

Megan  Davies

“Some of the student-athletes want to get professional development out of this, and some of them are just trying to figure out what it is they want to do in their life after sports,” said Chris Rogers, Senior Associate Athletics Director. “What this program does for senior level administrators is give them some regular interaction with student-athletes that they wouldn’t ordinarily get. You get to see more of what their lives are really like.”

“I’ve absolutely loved my experience so far,” said sophomore softball student-athlete Kelsey Oh, who was matched with Special Assistant to the Athletics Director, Johnny Gregory. “We talk about our life path, finding a job, and getting to where I want to be. He’s helped me out and connected me with so many people. He’s opened me up to many volunteering opportunities as well. I’m still going back and forth on a couple of majors, so I really needed this in my life.”

“This has already opened so many doors for me,” said beach volleyball junior Franky Harrison, who paired with Executive Associate Athletics Director Charles Bloom and is also interested in broadcasting, in addition to being a public relations major.

Student-athletes and their mentors were matched based on the industry area of interest.

“I think I want to go work in a stadium setting and be involved with a professional team,” said junior women’s soccer student-athlete Elexa Bahr, who is studying hospitality management with a minor in sport and entertainment management and paired with Executive Associate Athletics Director Jeff Crane. “For example, if I ever had the opportunity to work with Atlanta United (Soccer). I would want to be involved with their event planning, operations, promotions and marketing. 

“This was a really good opportunity to get involved with people who are in higher level decision making positions than our coaches. It’s another way to build a relationship with someone who can help you with networking and getting involved with other people who may want to hire you in the future. If soccer ends after college, I need to know what the next step is and how to put myself out there. This is another way to do that.”

“We talk about a lot of things that I want to accomplish, and we’ve talked about what he has accomplished in his career,” said sophomore women’s tennis student-athlete Megan Davies, who is studying advertising and was matched with Rogers. “I want to stay in sports. I’m still trying to figure it out.

“We talked about things like how to speak properly in an interview and questions that may be a curve ball. It was good to get his point of view based on his experiences. It was neat to learn all that they do behind the scenes in an athletics department on a daily basis.”

The goals of the program are open-ended, but the purpose of the program benefits the student-athletes and the administrators as well.

“I think it’s a great program,” Crane said. “I wanted to try to build a relationship and try to help her in her journey here and beyond. Elexa is interested in getting an internship next summer, and we’ve talked about the Beyond Sports program, things she can do here in Columbia as well as back in her hometown. I can help get her resume around, help her make connections, and help her through that next step in her college career.”

“It’s really a unique way for student-athletes to get that professional development in that they have someone who is not their coach or academic advisor that they can talk to about anything from a professional standpoint or just life in general,” Stoltzfus said. “It’s an additional resource for them to have.”

The meetings are generally informal, which makes it easier for both parties to have frank discussions about what they want to do and how they can get there.

Elexa  Bahr 

“The first meeting was a chance to get to know him, what he does, what he’s done in the past,” Bahr said. “I feel like we developed a good friendship out of that. He’s advised me on some things I should do in the future, helped me out with my resume and cover letters, and we’re going over interviews and questions I need to know how to answer. It’s been really helpful. I’m excited to see where this goes.”

A big component of the mentoring program involves networking.

“The student-athletes I met with are interested in careers that I’m in or have been in, so I try to tell them how they can get there, whether it’s advice and counsel, classes, what organizations to be a part of, and where there are opportunities they can take advantage of,” Bloom said. “Or, I may know someone in an industry that they are more interested in, so I can put them in touch.”

“It has been super-helpful for me,” Harrison said. “When I told him that I was interested in the broadcast side of things, he told me about all these people he could introduce me to. So, immediately I was going to have all these connections! I was able to go down to the television control room in Williams-Brice Stadium and meet with (Assistant Director for Live Productions) Justin Stoll and find out what kind of options I could have and had the chance to observe a basketball game from the control room.”

“It’s good opportunity for me because I don’t have a ton of one-on-one interaction with student-athletes, so I can ask her lots of questions to get her insight on the student-athlete experience here,” Crane said. “It has also allowed me to see just how unbelievable it is in terms of the quality of our student-athletes here; not just in how they perform on the field. That helps me become an advocate for her and want to broaden her network.”

Although the program is only in its first year, the response from student-athletes and the administrators has been outstanding.

“I always enjoy the opportunity to visit with students,” Bloom said. “We’re here to serve our students, so I want to do as much as possible to positively affect their experience here and help guide them where I can in the fields I have been involved in. For me, that’s a lot of areas of intercollegiate athletics and communications and public relations.”

Stoltzfus plans to expand this pilot mentoring program next year by matching current student-athletes with former Gamecocks who are working in their industry of study.