NCAC Branch Rickey Mentor Program
The North Coast Athletic Conference is accepting applications for the 2013-14 Branch Rickey Mentor Program, a professional shadowing experience that matches veteran NCAC athletic administrators and coaches with female and minority students who aspire to a career in college athletics. This experience will provide mentees access to the full scope of what it means to be a collegiate athletics professional on and off the courts and fields. We aim to offer a realistic experience so that students can begin their professional lives as successful young employees. Mentees will have a one-on-one relationship with their mentors throughout the year.
Who is eligible?
Female and minority students who are rising juniors and seniors on each NCAC campus. We are looking for those who have a serious interest in pursuing a career as a coach, athletic administrator or sports information director.
Who are the mentors?
Current NCAC Athletic Directors, Senior Women Administrators, Head Coaches, Sports Information Directors. Students interested in coaching would be paired with a coach on his/her campus, but not his/her own coach. Mentors will have a one-on-one relationship with their mentees throughout the year.
How does this work?
The year will begin and end with program-wide professional development events. Then mentor partners will meet throughout the year in order to give students a taste of the professional life a collegiate athletic professional. The key to success will be the personal, one-on-one relationships between the mentor pairs. Mentees will be required to spend a minimum 100 hours with their mentor over the course of an academic year. Mentors and mentees will also report periodically on their experiences throughout the year.
How do I sign up?
Applications will be accepted through May, 2013 for the 2013-14 academic year. If you are going to be a junior or senior next year, apply here.
How do I become a mentor?
Applications will be accepted through May, 2013 for the 2013-14 academic year. Apply here.
BRANCH RICKEY
The NCAC proudly honors the leadership of Branch Rickey, whose connections to the Conference run deep. He earned a BA degree at Ohio Wesleyan in 1904 following a distinguished academic and playing/coaching career. His first job following graduation from OWU was at Allegheny, where he was the football and baseball coach and athletic director. Following his stint at Allegheny he coached the University of Michigan baseball team, while earning a law degree at the school. He then entered professional baseball in 1905, serving as a player, general manager and president of the St. Louis Cardinals (the Gas House Gang), president of the Brooklyn Dodgers and finally, president of the Pittsburgh Pirates, ending in 1955. He is a 1967 inductee of the Pro Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY and is widely recognized as one of the most important baseball executives in the sport's history as he invented the modern farm system, he pioneered the utilization of baseball statistics and most famously in 1945, he became the first executive to break baseball's color line when he signed Jackie Robinson, who became the major leagues' first African-American player in the 20th century. Rickey died in 1965 at age 83, following 50 years in major league baseball as a player and administrator.