It’s the first partnership of this kind between an American college or university and a Japanese professional sports team. As part of this agreement, sport analytics students and faculty will work in different capacities with students and faculty from , which is located on the Japanese island of Kyushu.

Kumamoto Basketball Co., Ltd., President and Chief Executive Officer Satoshi Yunoue says partnering with ���ϲ�����’s prestigious sport analytics program will improve the team’s performance as it seeks to move from the Japanese B.League’s B2 league to the B1 league. The Volters open their season on Oct. 7.

“In recent years, the importance of data has been gaining attention, and we are confident that together with Kumamoto University, (���ϲ�����) will support us in the analytics portion and contribute to improving our winning percentage as we accumulate know-how in data analysis,” Yunoue said in a statement on the team’s website that was translated into English.

“We are excited to be able to work with ���ϲ�����, which is leading the way in data analysis in the field of basketball in the United States,” Yunoue added.

The Falk College’s partnership with Kumamoto is the next phase for sport analytics students, who already provide data analysis for 11 of ���ϲ�����’s athletic teams. In this photo, sport analytics major Dan Griffiths reviews performance data with track and field student-athlete Elizabeth Bigelow.

In serving as the Volters’ de facto analytics department, seven undergraduate and graduate students in sport management will remotely collect and analyze a variety of data, including player performance statistics, live game video, information from wearables that track performance data, and business and operations data.

“We are honored and excited about the partnership between Kumamoto University and ���ϲ����� Sport Analytics,” says Sport Analytics Undergraduate Director and Professor . “We look forward to providing statistical insights, building visualizations and models, and doing everything we can to help with the success of the Volters as we build what we hope to be a lasting collaboration with our wonderful partners at both Kumamoto University and the Volters.”

Under Paul’s leadership, sport analytics students have captured back-to-back National Sport Analytics Championships, and they have won numerous player and team analytics competitions in basketball, football and baseball. About 70 students are providing data collection and analysis for 11 of ���ϲ�����’s athletic teams, and other partnerships such as the one with Kumamoto are in the works both nationally and globally.

Previously, the Volters utilized staff members to analyze data on a limited basis. In addition to analyzing the Volters’ data, the ���ϲ����� students will help analyze data from opposing teams, and the collaboration with ���ϲ����� and Kumamoto University will help the Volters build their own data analysis team.

“We would like to use the Volters as a hub to connect university students in Kumamoto and America,” Yunoue says. “We are grateful for this connection, and we will become a team and work together as colleagues working toward this goal.”

Paul says this partnership speaks to the uniqueness of the sport analytics program because ���ϲ����� students will apply the skills they’re learning in the classroom to a variety of areas for the Volters that will benefit from data analysis.

“This is the next step in the evolution of our program where our students are working in a practical laboratory with a professional team in another country and all that goes with it,” Paul says. “These are the ways they can show off their skills, and with the different time zones they can wake up in the morning and see the score of the game and the results of what they did.”

Over the summer, sport management major Camila Malda ’25 (far left) interned with the Chicago Red Stars while sport analytics major Adelaide Gilley ’25 (far right) interned with the Houston Astros.

Adelaide Gilley, a senior in the Falk College’s program, already has an extensive resume of on-campus experiences. She is co-head of player performance for the ���ϲ����� men’s basketball team, vice president of membership for the Sport Management Club and co-chair of the club’s , to name a few. Now, she can add baseball operations intern for the to the growing list.

Adelaide Gilley

Gilley says a connection she made at a in Philadelphia that she attended through the Falk College last September helped her get the internship with the Astros for summer 2024. As a Houston native, Gilley says it was a dream come true to work for her hometown team.

Camila Malda, a senior in Falk’s , is originally from Mexico City, Mexico. She spent her summer as a corporate partnerships intern for the of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL).

Camila Malda

Her tasks included helping to organize and carry out the Red Stars’ Pride Night and a special game night at Chicago’s iconic Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs. The Wrigley Field game set a record for the highest attendance at a NWSL match with 35,038 spectators.

Malda says a fellow Red Stars intern in ticket sales is also a Falk College student, reinforcing a lesson she has heard from her professors: “You’re going to end up working with or under someone from ���ϲ�����.”

We spoke with both Gilley and Malda while they were in the middle of their internships this summer. The below videos highlight their experiences working with professional sports organizations.

During the academy, participants experience college life firsthand–residing in dormitories on campus, eating at dining halls, using university labs and facilities, and practicing with such industry software as Tableau and Excel.

“It’s helpful; moving in, especially. Knowing what I’ll need will make it easier a year from now when I’m moving into whatever dorm,” says Max Kaplan, a rising senior from Marietta, Georgia, who hopes that dorm is at ���ϲ����� next fall. Kaplan learned about the academy during a tour in March and plans to apply for early decision to the Falk College.

This summer’s schedule included trips to the ���ϲ����� Crunch, ���ϲ����� Mets, Highmark Stadium in Buffalo and the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown; speaking with industry professionals; and touring facilities. Back on campus, one of the activities had students complete NFL combine-style exercises while wearing Catapult Sports Technology vests that track performance data such as heart rate, blood oxygenation and energy expenditure. Students later analyzed that data and used it to hold a fun mock draft.

Students in the Berlin Sport Analytics academy take part in Esports Day, playing video games while filling out scouting reports to pick up on trends, strategies and behaviors.

“They’re getting a real taste of what it means to do sport analytics here at ���ϲ�����. A lot of what we’re doing is hands-on experience working with data in the same sort of way that they would as students here and as professionals,” says Assistant Professor , who organizes and oversees the Berlin Academy program.

This summer’s program included an esports day as Falk College prepares to launch its in tandem with the this fall. During the exercise, video games and analytics came together, demonstrating there is more to esports than just playing video games.

“While one person in the pair is playing, the other person is doing scouting reports. We are looking to do our best to simulate what in-game analytics would look like, the fast pace of it and marking off certain events that are happening, and looking at frequencies and strategies,” says Nick Riccardi, adjunct professor in the Falk College.

The academy brings students with an interest in the sport industry together, building long lasting connections and relationships.

Dani Dallas, an academy participant from San Francisco, was apprehensive after learning she was one of only three girls in her session, but those fears quickly went away.

“I’ve never felt singled out or different or like I don’t have as much knowledge about sports,” Dallas says. “Everyone has been super nice and welcoming. Even the guys in my class have just wanted to be genuine friends.”

Kaplan echoed a similar feeling about the group.

“Making friends is quite easy here because we’re all kind of in the same situation, so that’s been very nice and helpful,” Kaplan says.

. Visit the to learn more about the sport analytics program.

The Berlin Sport Analytics Academy is made possible through the generous support of Andrew Berlin ’83 and Falk College’s partners in the .

The , in collaboration with the and the Las Vegas-based guest experience agency , spent more than a year planning the event, which was held July 15-17 at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.

From left, Rick Harrow of Harrow Sports Ventures, Falk College benefactor David Falk ’72 and UNLV Sports Innovation Chief Operating Officer Jay Vickers are shown at the opening keynote address for the Sports, Entertainment and Innovation Conference (SEICon).

The event featured exhibitor pods, innovation labs, daily keynotes, seminars/sessions, alumni gatherings, networking events, roundtables and daily wrap parties with music entertainment.

“SEICon was a great success,” says Sport Analytics Professor , who helped organize the event. “The panelists were terrific, the Innovation Hub showed off incredible technology and the keynotes were incredibly informative. We are extremely proud of our partnership with UNLV and Circle and greatly look forward to future joint endeavors.”

Attendees met with industry executives while exploring the latest innovations in sports and entertainment, esports and gaming, sports sociology and diversity, broadcast brands and media, research and development, and more.

���ϲ����� Sport Analytics students Danny Baris ’26, Jessica Fackler ’26, Daniel Griffiths ’26, Marcus Mann ’26, Piper Moskow ’26, and Jonah Soos ’25 presented their research at SEICon’s Innovation Hub.

Among the ���ϲ����� alumni serving as panelists were Jesse Abrams ’13, Julie Nemeroff Friedman ’08, Jasmine Jordan ’14, Lori Robinson ’09, Chris Sotiropulos ’10 and Alyssa Wood ’15. Also, SEICon’s Innovation Lab featured alums Casey Miller ’08, Nick Twomey ’17 and Simon Weiss ’17.

Circle chief executive officer and Sport Management Advisory Council member Shawn Garrity ’86 serves as SEICon Director. The next SEICon event is scheduled for Nov. 19 in New York City.

In his work with the U.S. Track and Field team, sport analytics major Dan Griffiths attended the New York City Grand Prix Meet–the final meet for track and field athletes before the U.S. Olympic Trials.

The 2024 Paris Summer Olympics and Paralympics are here and representatives from the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics at ���ϲ����� will have an impact on this year’s Games–and, quite possibly, future Olympic Games.

The Falk College representatives who are involved in several unique ways with the Olympics and Paralympics include current Falk students Dan Griffiths and Livia McQuade, Department of Sport Management Associate Professor Jeeyoon “Jamie” Kim, and Sport Management graduates and former ���ϲ����� student-athletes Freddie Crittenden III ’17, Kristen Siermachesky  ’21 and Lysianne Proulx ’21.

Here are their stories:

Student: Dan Griffiths

Dan Griffiths spent this past academic year working with the ���ϲ����� cross country and track and field teams.

At ���ϲ����� and now with the U.S. Track and Field team (), sport analytics major Dan Griffiths ’26 is helping to revolutionize how performance data is collected and analyzed.

When Griffiths started working with the ���ϲ����� track and field and cross country teams before the 2023-24 academic year, the teams weren’t utilizing a data-gathering system. But the student-athletes were using Garmin wearables to track their own data, so Griffiths built his own application and a tool that transported all of their data into his application, which then created spreadsheets he used to analyze that data.

With Griffiths’ help, the ���ϲ����� women’s cross country team won its since 2011. Throughout the academic year, Griffiths conducted and presented his research at various national competitions and conferences, including the (he was runner-up in sport analytics research), and the inaugural Sport, Entertainment and Innovation Conference () last week in Las Vegas.

Griffiths’ success at ���ϲ����� and his interest in track and field led to his connection with USATF, which gave him the freedom to explore his areas of interest. Using a combination of the latest technology, Griffiths helped create three-dimensional models to best understand an athlete’s musculoskeletal forces.

“For throwers (discus, shotput, javelin), my work focused on using a pose estimation model to detect patterns that could be linked to longer, more powerful throws,” Griffiths says. “For sprinters and distance runners, I used pose estimation data to monitor overtraining and track progress throughout the season and before meets.

“I also conducted extensive research for multi-event athletes in the heptathlon and decathlon,” he adds. “This research aimed to understand how fatigue affects scoring in multi-events and how different training sequences can reduce fatigue.”

Griffiths shared his work with the coaches, and at least two of the athletes he analyzed will be participating in the Olympics: javelin thrower Curtis Thompson and 400-meter runner Alexis Holmes. During his time with USATF, Griffiths traveled to the New York City Grand Prix Meet–the final meet for track and field athletes before the U.S. Olympic Trials–and the Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon.

“The thing we think about every morning is ‘How can we win another gold medal today?’” Griffiths says. “Having the opportunity to combine everything I’ve learned and truly be a trailblazer and innovator for USATF and those athletes, especially in a track and field biomechanics context, has made me uber-passionate about the work we are doing at ���ϲ����� and the future of AI/analytics and sports.”

The track and field events run Aug. 1-11.

Student: Livia McQuade

Sport Management major Livia McQuade will attend the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games to serve as a resource for U.S. athletes, their families and their sponsors.

Livia McQuade ’25 is a sport management major and sport event management minor who has spent this summer in Loveland, Colorado, as an athlete relations intern with . Olympus is a management and marketing agency that provides top sponsorship opportunities and marketing strategies for Olympic and Paralympic athletes.

In her role, McQuade has interfaced with athletes from the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams and their partners, and with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and other national governing bodies. Her projects have included reviewing contracts, building athletes’ personal websites and organizing outlines for athletes’ speaking engagements.

“I’ve had a truly incredible experience within the Olympic and Paralympic Movement–during a Games year of all times!” McQuade says. “Through it all, I’ve had the privilege to work with some of sport’s most impactful Olympians and Paralympians, including Apolo Ohno, Jessica Long, Noah Elliott, Sarah Adam, Alex and Gretchen Walsh, Alex Ferreira and Steve Serio.”

McQuade, the executive vice president of the in Falk College and co-chair of the club’s 2024 , says she wants to work with the Olympic and Paralympic movement following graduation and this internship has been an invaluable step in that process. Her experience with Olympus will continue in September, when she’ll attend the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games to serve as a resource for U.S. athletes, their families, and their sponsors. The Paralympic Games run from Aug. 28-Sept. 8.

“I could not be more grateful and excited,” McQuade says of her upcoming experience in Paris. “My leadership (at Olympus Sports Group)–Ian Beck and ’16–have thrown extraordinary opportunities my way, and they will remain valuable mentors long into my career.”

Freddie Crittenden III, shown here competing for ���ϲ�����, will represent the U.S. in the 110-meter hurdles event in Paris.

At the U.S. Olympic Trials in late June, longtime U.S. hurdler  ’17 qualified for his first Olympic Games by running a personal-best 12.96 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles. Crittenden finished second overall to teammate and three-time world champion Grant Holloway, who recorded a time of 12.86.

A public health major at Falk and former All-American for the ���ϲ����� track and field team, Crittenden just missed a bronze medal at the World Championships last summer and now at age 29, the Olympic Trials may have been his last opportunity to qualify for the Olympics.

“It feels amazing. Honestly, I’m still in shock and I’m trying to figure out what happened,” Crittenden said immediately after his Olympic Trials run. “But it’s an amazing feeling to come out here and accomplish what I’ve been trying to accomplish for the past 17 years. It’s beautiful.”

Two former sport management majors and ���ϲ����� student-athletes, rower Kristen Siermachesky ’21 and soccer goalkeeper Lysianne Proulx ’21, are alternates for the Olympics with .

Proulx is Team Canada’s third-choice goalkeeper, meaning she will be activated if either the starting or backup goalkeeper is injured. Although she didn’t start at ���ϲ����� until her junior season, Proulx recorded the fourth-most saves (281), second-most saves per game (5.3) and seventh-most shutouts (eight) in program history.

Since graduating from ���ϲ�����, Proulx has excelled in professional leagues in Portugal, Australia and now in the United States with of the National Women’s Soccer League. This past February, Bay FC acquired Proulx from Melbourne City for what Melbourne City described as a record-breaking transfer fee for an outgoing A-League player.

A native of Montreal, Quebec, Proulx represented Canada in the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup and FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup. She went to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup as Team Canada’s third-choice goaltender behind Kailen Sheridan and Sabrina D’Angelo, who have maintained their positions for the Olympics.

Former ���ϲ����� goalkeeper and sport management graduate Lysianne Proulx (center, with ball) is an alternate for Team Canada’s soccer team.

Like Proulx, Siermachesky will be available to her team if an injury occurs. But unlike Proulx, her path to Canada’s rowing team featured a different sport at ���ϲ�����: ice hockey. She played four years as a defenseman at ���ϲ����� and recorded a black-and-blue inducing 132 blocks in 125 games for the Orange.

After graduating from ���ϲ�����, the native of New Liskeard, Ontario, considered playing ice hockey overseas but decided to pursue her graduate degree in sports administration at North Carolina. She wanted to continue her athletics career, but North Carolina doesn’t have an ice hockey team. Then-���ϲ����� ice hockey coach Paul Flanagan suggested she try rowing and contacted the Tar Heels’ coach to make that connection.

Siermachesky’s athleticism and potential caught the eye of the Team Canada Development Team, which asked her to move to British Columbia to train with the national team. Just three years into the sport, she is now on the cusp of competing in the Olympics and it’s likely she and Proulx will remain in the mix for the next summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.

The rowing competition runs from July 27-Aug. 3, while the women’s soccer tournament started July 24 and runs through Aug. 10.

Associate Professor Jeeyoon “Jamie” Kim at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

Faculty: Jeeyoon “Jamie” Kim

 is an associate professor in the Department of Sport Management who studies the long- and short-term social and economic effects of hosting the Games and other major sporting events. Kim is the former manager of the Korean Olympic Committee, and on Aug. 8 she’ll present at the 11th International Sport Business Symposium in Paris.

Kim’s presentation will focus on how the , an Olympic-style event for athletes between 15 and 18 years old, can better impact their host city and support the aims of the Olympic Movement.

“The hope for Olympic sport participation legacy is grounded on the ‘trickle-down effect’ (i.e., watching Olympians compete will inspire youth to participate in sport),” Kim says in a recent Q&A. “For the Youth Olympics, the event can also be a steppingstone for younger athletes to compete on the international stage and grow to become Olympians. Additionally, the Youth Olympics offer many grassroots-level sport opportunities (e.g., sport camps, collaboration with local schools) to encourage the general youth to learn about Olympic sports.”

To combat youths’ dwindling interest in the Olympics, the International Olympic Committee added break dancing, sport climbing and surfing to the lineup for Paris. Kim says this is a critical time for the future of the Olympics as upcoming Games in Paris, Milan Cortina (2026), and Los Angeles (2028) will be held in traditionally strong sports markets where there are opportunities to increase interest.

“Paris 2024 will be the first Olympics to include breaking in the official program,” Kim says. “We will have to see how the event turns out. But, so far, looking at the Olympics qualifiers series and the ticket popularity, it seems like there is a lot of interest garnered for the sport.”

Kim spent five-and-a-half years with Korean Olympic Committee as a member of its International Games, International Relations and 2018 PyeongChang Olympics task force teams. While in Paris, Kim will conduct research in Korea’s Olympic Hospitality House and share her findings with students in her Olympic Sport Management and Olympic Odyssey courses.

And Kim plans to attend the women’s individual finals event of her favorite summer Olympic sport, archery. “Korea has been very strong in the sport historically, and it is always fun to watch a sport where my team does well,” Kim says.