A Review of the Article on Buckeyes' Director Gene Smith

OSU Article

This article about The Ohio State Buckeyes athletic department focuses primarily on how Gene Smith, the new director of the athletic department. The article captures how Gene Smith was so honored to be a part of the OSU athletic department. Throughout the article, the skeleton of the athletic department is revealed, and how Gene Smith made it his mission to not only make sure the athletic department had a vision, but that a positive impact was made on the athletes and employees as a whole. One of the main aspects that the athletic department has is the different coaching styles and how they are all incorporated to make a better athletic department. The overall purpose that this article is portraying is that the different coaching styles and approaches towards the athletes and employees ensures a better, and more successful athletic department.

I feel like this article relates to me because being a football player, I have realized that politics has incorporated itself and played such a high factor in the actual game. I've seen so many sports articles about how incredibly talented players aren't being played l, because behind the curtains, he wasn't in compliance with the NCAA rules. I have also seen it personally throughout my football career. When I was in high school, I didn't agree with something my coach said and he ended up not letting me play for the rest of the game. So today, I think that with a caring and organized athletic department, the results are positive and establish growth.

Also, based on this article, I believe that the leadership qualities I possess are the affiliative style, democratic style, pacesetting style and the authoritative style. I used to be a captain for my football team in high school, so I think it is necessary that I possess these leadership qualities. I still feel like I possess these qualities even during my college football career. With the affiliative style, I love my teammates and I work with them everyday. We build a bond because we know we have each other's backs. I also never like when any of my teammates are arguing, especially for a dumb reason. With the democratic style, I try to make sure I hear everything my teammates have to say and try to build some type of compromise. For the pacesetting style, I'm always encouraging and and open to criticism from any of my teammates. However, I feel like a have a vision on where I want to be and where I want to go in my life. I strive towards excellence and nothing less. Lastly, for the authoritative style, with me being a captain during high school, I feel like it was my job that I make sure everyone understood the vision that we were working towards. If anyone were to get off track, I sometimes would have to use the tough love approach, but it was necessary so they knew that everything they were working for had a purpose.

I feel like with me being a top receiver for the football team right now, I feel like I am considered a leader for my other wide receiver teammates. I feel like they look up to me and want to be good, like me. I've had my teammates come up to me and want to do workouts or we'll go over plays with each other. I'm always trying to better my teammates because one day, I'm going to graduate college and not be here anymore, and someone has to take my place. I feel like is a lot of weight on my shoulders, though, because I don't want to let anyone down, especially my family and teammates. At the same time, I have to make sure that I am also focusing on me, and making sure I am growing as a football player and man. It's hard to juggle it all, so I can see why the OSU athletic department in this article prospers so much; they focus on bettering the athletes and making see that they are organized with their employees.

With this article bringing to light how the OSU athletic department started off so successful, it shows that different leadership styles and coaching styles are needed in order to have a positive and successful athletic department. By caring and focusing on your staff and athletes, the overall outcome is a better athletic department system. This article can be so influential towards other athletic departments, because OSU, now, is such an important and successful school because of its athletics. Why is that? Well, based on this article, it's because the athletic department has such a powerful and focused athletic department.