When choosing the direction in which you would like your career to take you, it is important to assess what it is you would like to gain from your job role. If you are a fan of sports, then logic dictates that this is the direction in which you would both enjoy and thrive in.

Are you someone who wants to be challenged daily with new and differing situations? Would you like a career that involves meeting a wide variety of new people, all from different walks of life, or would you prefer to have a job that is more of a structured and traditional nine-to-five shift pattern?

It is often said that if one enjoys their job, it ceases to feel like one, and so, with that being said, continue reading to learn of the top 7 most exciting and rewarding careers for sports fans.

1.    Sports Journalist

If you are particularly passionate and interested in sports and sporting events, then there is always a need for professional and experienced sports journalists. Sports journalism obviously involves a great deal of the roles and responsibilities that more generic journalism does, with the added factor of pressure to keep up with events as and when they unfold and, crucially, to not make a mistake when reporting.

For example, a sports journalist who gets the score of a baseball match wrong, especially when writing or reporting for a prolific and popular publication or television channel, could commit proverbial career suicide right there and then.

To become a sports journalist, an undergraduate bachelor’s degree is not so much a prerequisite and more of an essential acquisition, not just for the academic qualification, but moreover for the knowledge and improved skills and command of the English language.

If you really want to set yourself apart from your competitors, enrolling in one of the incredibly intensive, fascinating, and supremely beneficial postgraduate sports journalism degrees would be an incredible boost to your career.

Sports journalism is an incredibly competitive field, and as a result, it is important to familiarize yourself with the required personality attributes and skillsets needed to give you the best chance of success, namely confidence, empathy, tenacity, flexibility, and of course, a willingness and readiness to relocate at a moment’s notice.

2.   Physical Education Teacher

One of the most respected professions across the length and breadth of the United States, as throughout the rest of the world, is that of a teacher, and what better way to inspire young people to take care of their physical health and wellbeing than becoming a physical education teacher.

Teaching provides a host of incredible benefits, not just the financial advantages of working your way up through the framework but also in terms of improving your emotional health and wellbeing. Furthermore, pursuing a career in teaching means that you will be directly and positively making substantial changes and differences to countless people and contributing to a more productive and educated society.

The advantages to becoming a teacher include, but are categorically in no way limited to:

• The opportunity to become trained in a profession that is needed all around the world and therefore provides ample travel opportunities
• Days off throughout summer, winter vacations, festival holidays, and spring breaks
• Contributing to future generations by educating young minds
• Making a tangible difference to society
• Competitive salaries
• Considerably fewer working hours than other careers in the same salary bracket
• Being remembered by your students favorably for years to come
• Being part and parcel in making countless people’s dreams become a reality

3.    Sports Physiotherapist

To become a sports physiotherapist, the most usual route is to obtain an undergraduate degree in sports science with a major in physical therapy. After successfully acquiring your degree, you must then apply for your state-endorsed license to practice sports physical therapy.

Sports physiotherapy is a fascinating discipline. At its heart is the aim of improving countless individuals’ lives by treating and ridding them of sporting injuries and enhancing their overall sporting performance.

Such specialized physiotherapists work with people from all walks of life, different age groups, and from a wide range of different sporting disciplines and their daily duties and responsibilities include:

• Diagnosing and treating a wide range of different sporting injuries
• Offering professional preventative advice pertaining to the specific injury
• Facilitating recovery
• Controlling inflammation and other problems in the first stages of injury
• Pain management
• Dictating when the individual is ready to return to playing sport

4.    Sports Social Media Manager

The importance and prevalence of social media in sports can simply never be overestimated, especially in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, whereby many matches were void of fan support.

Essentially, the principal role of a sports social media manager is to engage, excite and interact with the fans of the particular team they are working for by creating boatloads of engaging, entertaining, and educational content.

It is usual for sports social media managers to attend every single game that their team plays and there has been a growing trend over the past few years for the social media managers themselves to post live video feeds as the game unfolds.

5.    Sports Marketing Manager

One of the most fascinating and multi-faceted career pathways for a huge sports fan, particularly if you have a passion or even interest in sales and marketing, is a sports marketing manager.

Sports marketing managers, otherwise known as sports marketers, deal with managing all promotional material and marketing, across the wide plethora of different media and platforms, for leagues, teams, events, stadiums, and of course, the players themselves. Such professionals work with and for every available medium, including magazines, television, digital stations, streaming networks, radio, social media, and newspapers.

If one was to summarize the primary duty of a sports marketing manager, it would have to be that the proverbial buck stops with them when it comes to selling the team’s merchandise and increasing crowd attendance.

Daily roles and responsibilities of a sports marketing manager include, but are categorically in no way limited to:

• Negotiating contracts for promotions, trades, and other team-related deals
• Constantly evaluating and striving to improve advertisements and marketing campaigns
• Collaborating with other departments within the team’s management to create accurate marketing plans for the future
• Conducting extensive and detailed market research
• Advising their clients on the best way to proceed with their marketing campaign
• Devising, planning, and instigating any and all promotional campaigns

6.    Sports Psychologists

On an average salary of between $805,000 and $950,000 a year, sports psychologists are probably the highest paid sporting professionals of them all (aside, of course, from the players themselves, that is).

Sports psychologists are professional mental health workers who solely focus on and work with professional (and sometimes amateur), athletes to better improve their performance levels and overcome emotional and mental obstacles and issues that are currently hindering their success.

Roles and responsibilities of a professional sports psychologist include, but are in no way limited to:

• Identifying developmental and social factors which can either positively or negatively influence a client’s performance
• Engage in talking therapy on an individual and sometimes even a team basis
• Collaborating with systems and organizations within the sporting world to better equip players and managers alike to better deal with and understand matters pertaining to mental health
• Deal with issues, problems, and triggers directly associated with the emotional health and wellbeing of athletes
• Use training and psychological techniques to enhance an individual’s performance in their sport, such as imagery, training improvement and self-motivation

7.    Sports Analyst

Sports analysts, also referred to as sports statisticians, are essentially responsible for the collecting and collating of data and other information from various sources to best assess which outcome is most likely and the chances of other outcomes.

Sports analysts usually work for a specific team, although more and more high schools and colleges are now employing sports analysts part-time to drive their school teams towards success. The findings produced by a sports analyst help sports teams decide where to place certain players on the pitch, who to keep in for the next season, who to recruit or even poach from other teams, and the risks and benefits associated with trading a certain player.

Typical roles and responsibilities of a professional sports analyst involve the following:

• Fastidiously updating video and statistical databases in order to identify trends and problems
• The delivery of constructive feedback to both the players and team bosses
• Producing detailed analyses of both the home team and the opposing team in terms of their current standings and their strengths and weaknesses
• Ad hoc roles and duties as and when requested by the management of the team
• Thorough and uninterrupted recording of both training sessions and the matches themselves
• Maintaining and organizing all video capture equipment and cameras
• Creating and distributing various reports on all aspects of sporting performance
• Working extensively with performance data and using their professional training to interpret and analyze

All these roles will embed you within the sporting culture, making them ideal for those who are fantastic about sports and the worlds around them.