Sport management students network with industry leaders at annual summit

Around 250 Liberty University sport management students converged at Williams Stadium Nov. 4-5 for the fifth annual Sport Leadership Summit.

The event, facilitated in part through Liberty’s School of Business, provides students with the opportunity to gain real-world experience and hear from industry professionals across the country representing everything from collegiate and professional athletic programs to event and facilities management organizations.

“It’s really an opportunity for our students to engage with industry professionals, some who are on our campus and some who are out in the surrounding area,” said Dr. Laura Hatfield, Department Chair for Hospitality & Sport Management at Liberty. “We really want them to have the opportunity to hear from someone who is working in the industry — the challenges, obstacles, what a great day looks like, advice for getting your foot in the door that first time, what it takes to have a successful career in the sport context. While we talk about those things consistently in our classes, it’s also good for students to hear that from industry professionals.”

Organizations included FIFA World Cup 2026, Coastal Athletic Association, the MiLB’s Hub City Spartanburgers, Duke University, Virginia Tech Football, Trailrunner Sports, Henrico Sports and Events Center/ASM Global, Virginia Tourism, Winston-Salem Christian School, Liberty Christian Academy, Randolph College, University of Lynchburg, LaGrange College, a handful of collegiate game officials, Liberty Athleticsstaff, and more.

After their presentations, speakers fielded questions from students. In addition, several guests met one-on-one with students, opening the door for them to inquire and apply for internships and full-time positions.

Hatfield said because of the inherently secular nature of the sports community, they intentionally invited speakers who shared a similar mission to Liberty’s, Training Champions for Christ. 

“We try to bring in industry professionals that would be strong role models for our students,” Hatfield said. “We want our speakers to feel very free to share about their faith and talk about how their faith is integrated with their work. We talk a lot about work-life balance and how a person manages that. We believe that faith is an important component of that, so we want our speakers to feel free to talk about that. And then those speakers become points of identification and role models for our students.”

The two-day event also afforded students the opportunity to present previous and ongoing research on various trends and issues affecting the sports community. Some issues covered in the research included leadership styles among head coaches, public endorsement of new football stadiums, gender equality in sports, the impact of sport tourism on host cities, NIL, and more.

“Events like this are really great because, first of all, you get to learn from people with real-world experience,” senior Michael Bizerra said. “Getting their insight and perspective on things opens you up to completely different areas of the industry that you might have zero information on.”

Senior Caitlin Monahan, who hopes to enter the public relations field in either collegiate or professional sports after graduation, said this event helps expose students to the many different facets of sport management.

“This is definitely something that I don’t take for granted,” said Monahan, who presented research on the relationship between social media analytics of popular female athletes and viewership in their sports. “I know other schools that are larger institutions that don’t focus as much as we do. It kind of puts our skills to the test to see if we actually have what it takes to be here. It helps us figure out what we want to do in our areas of interest.”

The Sport Leadership Summit was hosted by students in Liberty’s hospitality management program, who helped plan and decorate for the event and assisted with check-in and other tasks during the summit. Many of these students also work other events throughout the school year, such as the annual CEO Summit.