Current News and Announcements
Mr. Ayres receives Southern District Association Honor Award
Mr. Chris Ayres received (April 4, 2009) the “Southern District Honor Award” from the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance - Southern District Association. The Southern District Honor Award recognizes meritorious contributions on the part of members of the Alliance in the two membership categories 'college and university' and 'non-college and university.' Recipients are persons of personal integrity who exemplify the spirit of devoted service to the professions and who have, by their leadership and industry, made an outstanding and noteworthy contribution to the advancement of health, physical education, recreation, or dance.
ETSU, Red Line Revolutions partner to expand KLSS Motorsport Operations
The latest expansion of ETSU's Department of Kinesiology, Leisure and Sport Sciences unique “graduate track” in Motorsport Operations, featured within the Sport Management concentration, involves a new partnership opportunity with Red Line Revolutions of the NASCAR All-American Whelen Series.
The Department of Kinesiology, Leisure and Sport Sciences in ETSU’s Claudius G. Clemmer College of Education offers motorsport-specific graduate courses in what has been termed “one of the first programs of its kind in the United States.” The Motorsport Operations track prepares students to assume leadership roles in the expanding, consumer-driven motorsport industry.
The Motorsport Operations graduate focus began in the Fall 2006 semester as a second partnership developed by the university in conjunction with nearby Bristol Motor Speedway (BMS), and was a natural progression for the academic alliance forged between ETSU and BMS in Spring of 2004. As a culminating experience in the academic program, students may seek internships with BMS or other motorsport venues where they apply their classroom theories to “real world” motorsport operations situations.
Red Line Revolutions – a family-owned and operated race team from Johnson City – competes primarily at Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, Virginia, with driver Zeke Shell who collected three top-five and six top-10 finishes in 2008. He began the 2009 season for Red Line on April 4 at Motor Mile Speedway.
The new partnership with ETSU allows students in Sport and Motorsport Management the opportunity to serve their graduate internships in the Marketing Department of Red Line Revolutions. ETSU students will work closely with the race team while gaining first-hand experience in the day-to-day marketing operations of a late-model stock car team.
Four motorsport-specific courses are incorporated into the Department of KLSS's graduate curriculum: Motorsport Operations; Applied Motorsport Marketing; Public Relations and Mass Marketing in Motorsport; and Financial Management and Sponsorship in Motorsport. Also, class presentations made by guest speakers invited from Bristol Motor Speedway and applied field experiences at the speedway are often incorporated into these courses.
On March 20, at Bristol Motor Speedway, the Red Line Revolutions race team, car, driver and KLSS students were at the BMS hospitality area participating in the popular family-oriented and fan-friendly Food City Race Night 2009.
For information on the ETSU Motorsport Operations graduate track, contact Dr. Brian Smith at (423) 439-5257 or smithbc@etsu.edu, or Dr. Keunsu Han at 439-4382 or hank@etsu.edu. For information on Red Line Revolutions, contact Scott Clark, director of marketing, at (423) 946-0819 or marketing@redlinerevolutions.com.