Courtney Carter named new leader of sports performance major at Lindsey Wilson University

Lindsey Wilson University has named their new leader of its sport performance program in one of Kentucky’s leading voices in higher education and college sport, Courney Carter.

Carter has spent nearly 20 years working in college athletics research, sport management instruction, and higher education, and will be in charge of the sport performance major at Lindsey Wilson. That program is the first in Kentucky’s history, and the second in the country.

The sport performance major was created to strengthen, assess, and document learning that comes from participation in collegiate sports. It will give student-athletes a pedagogical structure for understanding how team membership, competition, rehabilitation, training, and practice shapes their educational experience.

In an article posted on Lindsey Wilson’s website, Carter was quoted about the new program, saying, "It's exciting to be on the ground floor of this dynamic new academic program. This program gives students a way to study what they are already living every day through sport. It helps them understand how sport is science, how sport is education and how sport is art."

Sport performance is a relatively new area of academic study that takes the experience of athletics, and studies it with the same rigorous academic framework as other subjects. The area of study aims to allow student-athletes to enhance their time playing sport into a deeper form of learning.

Carter is one of the founding members of the national Sports Major Collective, which is pushing for the sport performance major in more higher education institutions. She went on to elaborate on this point, saying, "Sport performance recognizes that sport is more than competition. It is a place where students experience leadership, failure, resilience, ethical decision-making, teamwork and identity formation. This major gives them the tools to study, document and assess that learning."

Carter also talked about how the new major is designed to focus on helping students prepare for careers in the global sports industry, which brings in multiple trillions of dollars a year around the world, while also allowing graduates to have the skills for careers not in sports. She said, "This major is the study of science, psychology, ethics and leadership. Those disciplines prepare students to work in the expanding global sports industry, but they also prepare students for the corporate world because many of the qualities valued by employers are developed through sport performance."

Sports performance is based in the theories of intercultural competence and teamwork, ethical reasoning, embodied pedagogy, and integrative learning. Its proponents argue that sport performance studies allow students an academic framework where they can critically reflect on their competition, rehabilitation, training, and practice experiences. 

The program at Lindsey Wilson is a 120-hour bachelor of arts degree, and contains 33 hours of 11 core courses, and 12 hours of four electives. The classes will contain elements from other academic disciplines such as women’s and gender studies, sport performance, tourism and sport management, recreation, psychology, physical education, history, English, communication, and business.

The sports performance program will also contain four practicum style courses with 750 minutes of classroom based instruction and 90 hours of structured participation. These courses will mirror expectations of performance practicums, internships, and clinicals, in Lindsey Wilson’s other academic programs.

Carter was previously a collegiate softball player, and will pull on that experience in leading the program. She talked about how participants in the program will be able to merge sport and academia, saying, "Student-athletes have this concrete experience as members of a team, and in the major they are given the opportunity to reflect on and make meaning of that experience. They do not just participate in sport, they study it. They connect their experiences to theory, data and research, and then use that feedback to grow as athletes, students and future professionals."

Prior to joining the team at Lindsey Wilson, Carter was a sport management instructor at Campbellsville University where she presided over a range of classes such as psychology of sport, principles for wellness, stress management, sport ethics, and sport marketing.

Her academic research has focused on the success and retention of student athletes, the sociology of sport, and culturally responsive teaching and advising. 

Carter is a native of Kentucky and has a bachelor’s degree in English from Centre College as well as a master’s degree in physical education with a sport management emphasis from Eastern Kentucky University. She is currently working toward earning a doctorate in sport management from Troy University. She has also presented at regional as well as national conferences.

More information about all that Lindsey Wilson University offers can be found at the school’s website.