Spring Break
The Daily OrangeTeam players
Husband and wife sports management professors Gina and Jeff Pauline understand the science of sport
By Heather Mayer
Posted: 4/15/08, 11:16 PM EST Section: Feature
"It really was about what fit for me. … The field of sports psychology is extremely competitive to work in," she said. "…The reality of me going on to be a fulltime sports psychologist wasn't very likely."
The dean of the health, physical education and athletics department at BU, Joel Thirer, helped Gina sort through her options for post-graduate study and possible career routes.
"Some students make an impact more than others," he said. "Gina was one of those."
As a senior at Binghamton, Gina worked in all areas of the sports field, focusing on the marketing and management side. She even worked on the business side at minor league baseball team, the Binghamton Mets, but missed being around college athletes.
"I really liked it, but I recognized that my passion was more being on a college campus, being involved with student athletes, as opposed to being in a minor leaguer baseball setting," she said.
Finding a topic of study wasn't easy for Jeff either. It took dipping into three different majors -pre-med, engineering and business - before Jeff decided he wanted to learn the behaviors of athletes.
"I tried it all," he said.
Jeff went on to grad school at Barry University in Florida, where he studied the effects of exercise on people with HIV and AIDS. He also was the assistant tennis coach at the University of Miami.
It was love of sports that would finally bring the two together - in West Virginia.
When a member of Jeff's research team took a job at West Virginia University, Jeff followed a couple years later to earn his doctorate in sports psychology.
"It kind of got to the point whether I had to decide, do I want to go on to get a doctorate or do I want to pursue coaching," Jeff said. "I kind of decided that I really liked tennis, but I wanted more of a grown-up job, not that that it isn't a grown-up job, but I thought I could benefit and reach more people because I still had that interest in human behavior."
The dean of the health, physical education and athletics department at BU, Joel Thirer, helped Gina sort through her options for post-graduate study and possible career routes.
"Some students make an impact more than others," he said. "Gina was one of those."
As a senior at Binghamton, Gina worked in all areas of the sports field, focusing on the marketing and management side. She even worked on the business side at minor league baseball team, the Binghamton Mets, but missed being around college athletes.
"I really liked it, but I recognized that my passion was more being on a college campus, being involved with student athletes, as opposed to being in a minor leaguer baseball setting," she said.
Finding a topic of study wasn't easy for Jeff either. It took dipping into three different majors -pre-med, engineering and business - before Jeff decided he wanted to learn the behaviors of athletes.
"I tried it all," he said.
Jeff went on to grad school at Barry University in Florida, where he studied the effects of exercise on people with HIV and AIDS. He also was the assistant tennis coach at the University of Miami.
It was love of sports that would finally bring the two together - in West Virginia.
When a member of Jeff's research team took a job at West Virginia University, Jeff followed a couple years later to earn his doctorate in sports psychology.
"It kind of got to the point whether I had to decide, do I want to go on to get a doctorate or do I want to pursue coaching," Jeff said. "I kind of decided that I really liked tennis, but I wanted more of a grown-up job, not that that it isn't a grown-up job, but I thought I could benefit and reach more people because I still had that interest in human behavior."
Be the first to comment on this story