Ward Sutlive, sports editor and Gaby Harris, asst. sports editor

The Berry College Athletics department has one primary mission statement according to Assistant Director of Athletics Ginger Swann. The mission is to educate the head, heart, and hands of its student athletes. That motto comes from Berry founder Martha Berry, who encouraged those values when she started her school.

Swann believes that by upholding that motto, the Athletics department keeps Berry’s dream alive.

“We care about how [student athletes] develop their character, about integrity and about doing things the right way,” Swann said.

Although coaches and student athletes are often the most visible members of an Athletic Department, sports administrators perform a variety of responsibilities behind the scenes. Their work includes overseeing individual athletic programs, managing operations, coordinating fundraising and supporting coaches and student athletes.

According to Associate Athletics Director David Beasley, the Berry College Athletic Department stands out because of the people involved.

“A lot of people who work at Berry have a passion for what they’re doing and they really want to help young men and young women,” Beasley said. “Our students is what makes Berry Athletics so special.”

One aspect of the Athletics department that is important to the staff is finding students who are dedicated to Berry and sports. This task primarily falls on Angel Mason, Director of Athletics. There are a variety of different sports related jobs open to students. These range from physical jobs such as a fitness attendant, to more administrative jobs such as a marketing assistant.

Mason believes that Berry’s student workers help make the Athletics department special and more inviting.

“We have a lot of students that help us create the experience that we have,” Mason said. “They’re deeply invested in one another, and care about each other as people.”

While a lot of athletic administration involves managing staff, operations and individual programs, those responsibilities ultimately affect the student athletes participating in Berry Athletics. As Director of Athletics, Mason oversees the department while working with coaches, administrators and student athletes across Berry’s athletic programs. Despite the range of responsibilities involved in her position, Mason said one aspect of her job stands
out most.

“Probably the best part of my job is being a fan to our student athletes, and I think that in general is special to how we operate at Berry,” Mason said.

Unlike a great deal of the staff at Berry, Mason did not attend the college. Instead, she was hired externally from Pomona College in California. During her time at Pomona, Mason was the Senior Associate Athletic Director. Although that position was similar to her current job, it differed in the sense that she focused primarily on internal operations, such as game operations and equipment management. She also oversaw only half of the teams as their sports administrator. Berry took their time to hire someone who would be a great fit for the position, and Mason was eventually selected out of several other finalists and began her career as Berry’s Athletics Director in June of 2019.

“Over there my entire responsibility was managing the day-to-day operations,” Mason said. “Here my work is both internal and external in that I do a lot of work with people that don’t work on Berry’s campus.”

As Associate Sports Director, Beasley supervises both men’s and women’s golf and tennis teams as well as men’s soccer and women’s basketball. The coaches of those teams report directly to Beasley, and it is his responsibility to help them with any and all issues that they could possibly come across. He also helps with other matters, such as event planning and handling travel plans for away games. Beasley manages these tasks while also being the Head Baseball Coach for Berry. Although these two positions can be strenuous, Beasley enjoys his jobs.

“When I go to baseball, I’m the coach of the team not the administrator,” Beasley said. “When I’m dealing with other teams I’m the administrator so it’s a good work balance.”

Although coaching is one of the most recognizable careers in college athletics, Berry’s Athletic Department includes employees who work in a variety of other areas. Administrative roles can involve managing athletic programs and operations, while other positions focus on areas such as sports information, sports medicine and facilities. Mason said college athletics offers opportunities for people who want to work with sports without pursuing a coaching career.

“I would love for students to know that athletics can be a really great career and there’s more more things to athletics than just coaching,” Mason said.

“You can be a coach, you can be an administrator or you can be in sports information.”

Beasley said many of the people who work at Berry have a desire to help students. That perspective is reflected in the roles administrators hold throughout the Athletic Department. While much of their work involves administrative responsibilities and supporting programs, administrators also have opportunities to interact with student athletes outside of those responsibilities. For Swann, one of those opportunities is attending games and watching student athletes compete.

“One of the cool things is just getting to go watch them play in their sport, doing the things that they love,” Swann said. “I love the aspect of it, I get to go to games and see different sports and that’s one of my favorite things to do.”

Communication is also part of the relationship between athletic administration and the people involved in Berry Athletics. According to Beasley, administrators regularly meet with coaches to discuss how their programs are operating and identify challenges or changes that may affect their teams. Administrators rely on coaches and students for insight into the individual sports they oversee.  Not only do administrators consult with coaches to address potential issues, but they also take student perspectives into account.

“I serve as the sponsor for the Student Athlete Advisory committee and that position has one student athlete from each team,” Swann said. “They come together as a group and they’re kind of the voice of the student athletes.”

The responsibilities of athletic administrators can vary from day to day depending on the needs of individual teams, student athletes and programs. In addition to overseeing sports medicine and supporting specific athletic teams, Swann works with student athlete programming, leadership development and other initiatives within the department. With responsibilities spanning several areas of Berry Athletics, Swann said there is not always a typical day in her role.

“One of the cool things about my job is that it’s different every day,” Swann said. “I have partnerships across campus and I do a lot of different administrative stuff.”

In addition to following Berry’s broader mission of educating the head, heart and hands, the Athletics department uses three pillars to guide its work with student athletes. The pillars are academic success, health and well-being and competitive success. According to Swann, the pillars help athletic administrators and staff determine where to focus their efforts while supporting student athletes throughout their time at Berry. The department’s approach extends beyond athletic performance by also addressing students’ academic goals and overall welfare. “We don’t want to just have student athletes” Mason said. “We want to have scholar athletes.”