On Nov. 15, 2024, the fall Sport Management Capstone class helped organize a Special Olympics Unified Cornhole tournament in ResRec. The efforts were in partnership with the Special Olympics Illinois Region C team.
Giving back
Hannah Plummer, Assistant Professor of Sport Management, taught the capstone for the first time this semester. Previous sections of the course had focused on larger projects like ‘Spikefest”. However, Plummer saw this semester as an opportunity to give back to the larger community. She sought to use this class experience to give students the opportunity to do so as well, similarly to what she has done in the past.
“When I was a PhD student at Florida State [University], I was teaching classes and because we had a unified group on campus, we would run flag football and basketball intramurals that were unified every semester. I would give my students the opportunity to participate in those rather than write their final paper. If they could commit to playing four games and showing up six times in a semester to the unified league, then they didn’t have to write that paper. A lot of people would sign up just so they didn’t have to do the assignment,” said Plummer.
But Plummer started to notice these same students returning to volunteer again and again. She realized how great the opportunity was for her students to branch out to areas they might not have considered before.
Connecting with Special Olympics
Once Plummer decided to work with Special Olympics it was time to reach out to the Region C team. She later connected with Amanda Nelson, who she discovered is an alum of the Sport Management program from North Central. Plummer then pitched the idea to help organize the cornhole event with Nelson’s team.
“There’s over 3000 athletes in Special Olympics and there’s only, I believe, 3 or 4 full-time staff members. So it’s a lot of work. They have many, many sports that they put on competitions for and so when I floated the idea of our class kind of taking that over, I think at first she was a bit caught off guard only because nobody had ever offered to plan an event before. I ended up meeting with her a couple times independently before the semester started just to kind of get the ball rolling,” said Plummer.
Course set-up
Once the semester started, Plummer wanted to use the first few weeks to emphasize professional development skills for her students. Her students learned about interview techniques and characteristics employers tend to look for in the Sport Management field. Eventually, these skills would be implemented to serve as a way to select team leaders for different aspects of the tournament development committee.
Ultimately, the class elected Hailey Poe, ‘25, as tournament director and Cooper Lundal, ‘25, as assistant tournament director. The rest of the class nominated leaders for the 6 various committees each with their own set of responsibilities.
Gabi Nimon, ‘25, and the Lead for the Volunteer Oversight Committee, worked with her group to round up volunteers for the event.
“We marketed our event through flyers and reaching out to specific academic departments with students who would be potentially interested in volunteering. We also reached out to athletic teams on campus to ask for their support. [Poe] asked for the support of SAAC, Student Athlete Advisory Committee, to help us reach our volunteer goal,” said Nimon.
All of the committees spent each week planning and preparing for the tournament in the weeks leading up.
Tournament day
Many of the Special Olympics cornhole tournament volunteers arrived by 3:30 p.m. the day of the tournament.
For volunteers, Nimon shared that there was a mixture of on campus athletes and sport management majors and minors. Volunteers set up courts, bleachers and chairs for athletes, partners and guests before the 6 p.m. tournament start time.
“I will say event day was stressful for me because I really wanted to take a hands off approach. I am definitely a fixer and so I always want to help my students anyway that I can. But I realized the best way I could help was to be hands off so that they gain the experience that they need to be successful after graduation. The hardest part was when students would come out to me and ask, ‘what do you think?’, ‘what should we do with this?’ I would just say ‘this is your event, you have to decide. Talk it over with your team.’ For me, it was really exciting to see them coming together and working as a team and communicating with each other,” said Plummer.
Volunteers were then either assigned as referees for games or sent to manage various tables set up for the tournament. Plummer and Nelson received positive feedback from the athletes and families, marking the tournament as a success for both the Region C team and the capstone class.
“I feel like the event was a success. Our main goal was to make sure the athletes had the best time. By the number of smiles, I’d say our goal was accomplished,” said Nimon.
So, what’s next?
With the event’s success, many, including Nimon, are hoping for an event like this to happen on campus again next year.
“Hopefully the success of this year’s event will encourage more students to be involved!” said Nimon.
Though there is a chance of another collaboration with Nelson’s region team in the future, Plummer explained how the event may likely change for the following year.
“I will say my students did an amazing job. We had an amazing turn out, which is a double-edged sword. Our tournament was actually just an exhibition tournament, so it didn’t count for qualifications for the state competitions. However, because we were able to get so many numbers this semester, it will become an official sport next year. The bad part of that for us is that it becomes a spring sport for Special Olympics. So we will not be able to plan this exact same event for the fall next year, but I will no doubt still incorporate Special Olympics into this class next year,” said Plummer.
Plummer hopes to expand the connection with Special Olympics and hopes that North Central will eventually become a unified school.
“Through working with [Special Olympics], I found out from [Nelson] that we used to host their spring games, which is over 3000 athletes coming to our stadium. For me, the goal would be to bring more events to North Central because we have an amazing community here. I think we can do more with the outstanding community, you know, the larger community around us. I think the more people that know about us, the better it’s going to be for our university as a whole,” said Plummer.
For those interested in taking the class, Plummer plans to teach the course again next fall. She shared she’s looking forward to it and hopes the experience is just as fulfilling for the next round of students.
