Jacob Hordych is an assistant professor of Sport Management at SUNY Jamestown Community College.
Before coming to JCC, Hordych held many positions in the sports industry field, including serving as the assistant athletic director, sport information director, and women’s soccer coach at Mercyhurst North East.
Hordych holds bachelor’s degrees in Marketing from Penn State Behrend and Sport Administration from Lock Haven University, and a master’s in Sport Science from Lock Haven.
What made you choose sports as a career path?
Hordych: Ever since I learned how to walk, there's always a ball of some sort in my hands or by my foot. Sport is a fundamental pillar of who I am.
So having the opportunity to pursue that passion educationally and professionally has allowed me to work in an industry that I don't feel like I've ever worked a day in my life just because I have that passion and that love for the industry.
What is your background and experience in the sports industry?
Hordych: I actually am very close to having four degrees. I have one in Marketing and a bachelor’s in Sport Administration. I have a master’s in Sport Science, and I'm currently studying for a master’s in Organizational Leadership. When it comes to the sport industry, I have experiences working at the high school level, the college level, the semi-professional level, sports, parks, and recreation, from an administrator to a teacher to working in a front office in marketing and sales.
that exist in the sports industry.
Why should students consider sport management as a career?
Hordych: Sport is one of the largest industries in the world, and every single year it's growing. Every facet of it, whether it's youth sports, college sports, high school sports, professional sports, international sports.
So the great thing about this program specifically and the industry as a whole is there's any passion interest that you have individually, there's a job for that in the sport industry. Whether you love the media side of it or you love the marketing side or you love the promotion or the sales or the administration or the leadership or the coaching, and I could go on and on and on.
There's something in the sport industry that can connect to every single individual's passions, interests, core values. That's one of the things that makes the field of sports so interesting, so sustainable, so intriguing to a lot of young students.
What is your favorite class to teach at JCC?
Hordych: One of my favorite courses to teach here is SPT 1550, Sports Promotion and Marketing, and the reason I enjoy the class so much is because we really try to emulate what it's like to work in semi-professional and professional sports teams through group projects, through applied learning, through a lot of activities that replicate what it's like to work in the industry from my experience.
What has been your favorite research or field project?
Hordych: One of my favorite projects that we have students here do at JCC is in Sport in Society. We look at that course through the lens that sport is a microcosm of society. And one of the major aspects of that is using sport for change.
We have the students work with an organization called Autographs for a Cure, in which students will solicit and interact and contact professional athletes, celebrities, influencers, entertainers, and try to get back autographs that we then, in turn, donate to Autographs for a Cure.
And in the past several years, we've donated over 400 autographs for this organization, where then students can discover that what they're doing in the classroom is helping them understand that sport can be that catalyst for change and that sport is that microcosm for society.
Why should a high school student consider JCC for college?
Hordych: High school graduates, I think it's a huge step going into college. And the nice thing about JCC specifically is that it's kind of that stepping stone for bigger and better things moving forward.
You have the opportunity to transition from high school to a place where people care about you. You're not just another number. You're a person with aspirations, dreams, ambitions.
And you have those support services and those people helping you achieve all of those dreams, aspirations, and moving on to the next phases of your academic or professional lives. And JCC can help do that.
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JCC offers A.S. Sport Management, A.A.S Sport Management, and A.S. Physical Education Studies degree programs.
Request more information about those and other JCC learning opportunities.