International Journal of Sport Management

Prioritizing Education-Based Athletics: Perspectives of High School
 Athletic Administrators

Tyler J. Ratts, Eric W. Forsyth, Michael Fraina, James E. Johnson, Zachary C. T. Evans, Warren A. Whisenant

The philosophy of education-based athletics provides a guidepost for athletic administrators in implementing high school sport programs that prioritize the development of student-athletes (Blanton et al., 2024; Gardner, 2015). However, a shifting landscape that has created greater job demands (Conant, 2017) and become focused on winning has complicated the ability of administrators to promote this approach within their athletic department (Johnson et al., 2017). The purpose of this study was to identify the prominent issues facing education-based athletics and the perceived importance of this philosophy for high school athletic administrators. Through a survey with 680 administrators, all ten education-based athletics issues were rated as important, with five issues (i.e., Importance of EBA, Working with Student-Athletes, Better Understanding EBA, Keeping Realistic Expectations, and Participation for Students) viewed as being of very high importance. Interviews with four athletic administrators offered further context into these issues. High school sport practitioners can utilize these results to better understand the challenges in upholding the education-based athletics philosophy.

Keywords: education-based athletics, high school sport, athletic administrator, student-athlete, interscholastic athletics

APA Citation: Ratts, T. J., Forsyth, E. W., Fraina, M., Johnson, J. E., Evans, Z. C. T., & Whisenant, W. A. (2025). Prioritizing education-based athletics: Perspectives of high school athletic administrators. International Journal of Sport Management, 26(4), 359-389.

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