Beyond the Game: A qualitative exploration of divergent stakeholder narratives around a high school athletics program, and how to strategically leverage them.

Abstract

This capstone project explored the possibilities for St. Joseph's Academy, an all-girls Catholic high school in St. Louis, to strategically leverage the organizational narratives in and around its storied athletics program. For a myriad of potential reasons – more private school competition; different student or parent expectations; club sport influences; and fluctuating definitions of athletic success, to name a few – current narratives surrounding the SJA athletics program vary widely across the spectrum of internal and external stakeholders. Through interviews, focus groups, document and social media analysis, and analysis of parent surveys produced by, and provided to us by, the school, our qualitative study sought to make sense of existing narratives in context of the athletic program’s rich history, and present to school leaders a set of findings and recommendations. Our findings suggest that the school could benefit from increased collaboration among athletics and other domain; an enhanced focus on innovation with regard to athletics; and more intentional communication strategies that promote key athletics narratives.