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A College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences faculty member has received the 2020 Diane Gill Paper of the Year award from the Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal, recognizing her research on body image and weight and appearance pressures in competitive sport. 

Dana Voelker, associate professor and director of undergraduate online education, was honored for her publication, “It’s Just a Lot Different Being Male Than Female in the Sport”: An Exploration of the Gendered Culture Around Body Pressures in Competitive Figure Skating, with Dr. Justine Reel at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Sofia Espana Perez, Sport, Exercise and Performance Psychology doctoral major, is one of only four recipients who was selected for the 2021 WVU Foundation Distinguished Doctoral Scholarship, as announced by the Office of Graduate Education and Life.

OGEL says that graduate students provide incredibly valuable research, teaching and services to the WVU campus and the greater Morgantown community. OGEL provides the awards to help these highly qualified students defray the costs of their education and promote the dissemination of their research to a broader audience.

WVU recently welcomed 29 new Fellows to the graduate student community. These first-year Fellows will begin building groundbreaking research projects once they arrive on campus this fall semester. Three CPASS graduate students also received Fellow awards.

Currently, more than 70 graduate students are attending WVU through one of seven highly competitive Fellowship programs. Stellar incoming PhD students, as well as other doctoral and MFA students, are nominated for these prestigious awards by program coordinators.

Thanks to an innovative partnership with the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute and collaborations with WVU Athletics, CPASS students are getting hands on experience.

The new CPASS program in coaching and performance science sprang from the cutting edge of both high-performance athletics and recreational sport. One of the only undergraduate programs of its kind in the country, coaching and performance science offers students three areas of emphasis: coaching and leadership, strength and conditioning and applied sport science. “That is incredibly unique,” says Guy Hornsby, assistant professor of athletic coaching education. “I am not aware of such a push to do this at the undergrad level anywhere else.”

A new study will explore the experiences of international and domestic female faculty members in Physical Education Teacher Education.

CPASS has launched a study unique to the College, one that will take a deep dive into the real-world experiences of female faculty who work in the field of physical education teacher education and who hail from Japan and the US. “We decided to focus on this field because sports and exercise are the places where gender stereotypes, such as masculinity and femininity, are still pervasive, and physical education teachers have enormous power to impact children and adolescents relative to gender equity,” says Emi Tsuda, assistant professor of physical education teacher education and one of the leaders of the study.

Blake Costalupes is passionate about exploring mindfulness interventions within sport and exercise psychology, focusing on student-athletes’ goals to help them excel.

Costalupes’ research, “A Smartphone Mindfulness-based Intervention Pilot Study with Competitive High School Baseball Players,” was selected for publication of the special student edition of the Journal of Kinesiology and Wellness. 

The West Virginia University Center for Applied Coaching and Sport Sciences will host the final Town Hall ZOOM meeting, titled Returning to Play in WV, Thursday, May 21, 2020, 3-4 p.m. The ongoing series is designed to support youth and scholastic sports coaches, parents, athletes and programs in West Virginia.

The upcoming Town Hall discussion will bring together a panel of sports science, sport and exercise psychology, coaching science and medical experts to discuss what best practices in return to play might look like this summer and fall. The panelists will cover what can coaches, parents, and players expect and how to minimize risk for youth and scholastic sports athletes in West Virginia.

The College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences has recognized the recipients of the 2019-2020 outstanding teaching, research and service faculty and staff awards, as announced by Dean Jack Watson.  

“I’m especially proud of the faculty and staff who were recognized this academic year for their passion, innovation and expertise. Their outstanding dedication to the college, West Virginia University, the state and beyond is unparalleled. As we end this semester and look ahead, I have no doubt that their Mountaineer values will help guide us through the current challenges, as we navigate these uncertain times,” said Watson.  

Candice Brown, senior sport and exercise psychology major at West Virginia University, received the American Kinesiology Association Undergraduate Student Award for 2019-20 for the College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences.

Brown, from Chapmanville, W.Va., was overwhelmed after hearing of her award nomination. “I am extremely honored and grateful to be selected for this award, but I attribute most of my success to my loving family, friends and mentors. Without their constant encouragement and support, I do not believe I would be where I am today.

Coaching and Teaching Studies doctoral student Maggie Roberts is passionate about working with students and helping them progress through their own learning experience. Roberts says the WVU degree program has opened new doors and provided opportunities for future work and experiences. 

Coaching and Teaching Studies, EdD

Adam Hansell wants to use sport to promote positive outcomes for athletes around the world. He plans to use his graduate degree in Sport and Exercise Psychology to pursue his passion to make the world a better place.

Sport and Exercise Psychology (PhD)

Coaching and Sport Education master's student Kanchana Paromita Venkatesh wanted to dive deeper into strength and conditioning coaching. She chose WVU because it integrated science with the art of coaching.

Coaching and Sport Education

As conversations regarding the profession of sport coaching and support of coaching as a profession continue to expand, the Center for Applied Coaching and Sport Studies in the College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences is one of the first programs in the United States to support the academic preparation of potential coaches, coach educators and coaching directors.

Kristen Dieffenbach, associate professor, coaching and performance science, served as guest editor and key contributor for a special issue on sport coaching in the 32nd volume for the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, the official journal of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology.

Sport is a global phenomenon that transcends beyond what we see on the court, field or pitch. It is a driving force that connects individuals around the world. In an ongoing international partnership, Carla Tagliari, a doctoral student from Brazil, recently arrived on the West Virginia University campus to complete a short residency training at the College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences.

Tagliari will work under the supervision of Dr. Gonzalo Bravo, CPASS associate professor in sport management, from the spring 2020 semester into the summer. During this time, she will continue working on her dissertation on perceptions of service quality of grassroots participants in southern Brazil.

Caitlyn Lyons, senior sport management student, will showcase her research at this year’s Undergraduate Research Day at the Capitol, targeting the West Virginia Higher Education community and those in state government. Lyons, a Sparta, N.J., native, will present her study, Camp FeWI: Addressing the decline in female youth sport participation.

Lyons explains the importance of youth sport. “Being able to take part in this event means a lot. Every child deserves access to playing the sport they choose, yet across the country we are seeing a rapid decline in youth sport participation for various reasons.”