Student Spotlight

38 teams comprise the Texas A&M Association of Sport Clubs, and with each team comes its own group of leaders – students who run their respective clubs and ensure tournament registration, travel accommodations, and practice schedules. Above these clubs lay a select group of students who exceed their responsibilities to their club and serve the association as advisors to a handful of clubs. One such student is Mikey Heath, a graduate assistant for Texas A&M Sport Clubs.

Since each club is a student organization, Heath advises various clubs and student leaders, guiding them on how to best operate their club and lead more effectively.

“Anything and everything you can imagine can come out in Sport Clubs,” Heath said. “We have 38 clubs that want to practice at the same time, and everyone wants to host a tournament on the same weekend. We have to work with Operations and Intramurals and make sure everything just is in line with spacing and timing and where our staff can be put.”

More than advising, Heath also assists the Sport Clubs Executive Committee and processes club travel receipts when clubs or individuals travel to other cities or states to compete in tournaments and competitions.

But being a graduate assistant also means providing support to the two professional staff within Sport Clubs, something that Heath accepts with pride.

“Keith [Joseph] and Jessica [Konetski] have quite a bit on their hands. I can just kind of bridge the gap with any questions or tasks that they might have. I’m able to help them out as many ways as possible and kind of dilute the load of Keith and Jessica.”

Beyond his work at Texas A&M Sport Clubs, Heath has developed quite the résumé with ample involvement in the community and routine displays of selfless service to his fellow Aggies.

During his freshman year of college, he founded Capital Men’s Society, a men’s service and social organization on campus. Heath was also heavily involved in the Sport Management Society, the Student Coach Association, and even played club baseball at Rec Sports. Nowadays, you can find him in the Sport Clubs office or umpiring high school baseball!

Despite his significant role within Sport Clubs, Heath remains humble about his contributions to Rec Sports.

 “I just help people out,” Heath said. “I answer questions, and I put out fires.”

While the thought of managing so many clubs and so many club officers may seem daunting, what is perhaps more impressive is the responsibility shared throughout the hierarchy of Sport Clubs.

To this effect, Heath said, “Sport Clubs creates an avenue for athletes to become leaders if they so choose jumping into those leadership roles in their club and actually doing all the scheduling, working with [Student Activities], things like that.”

Moreover, students like Heath can participate in the oversight of clubs while pursuing a degree, earning applicable experience and effectively doubling the value of time spent studying in Aggieland.

Managing administrative responsibilities with Sport Clubs has certainly proven enlightening for Heath, as he looks to expand upon these skills in his career after grad school.

“I want to be an athletic director at the university level,” said Heath, “so I’m probably going to have to start off coaching in high school and teaching and kind of work my way up the admin ladder.”

Heath is expected to graduate in May with a master’s degree in Sport Management, carrying with him an incredible capacity for service and a corpus of experience that we hope will propel him forward in his career endeavors.