Sport Management
Focused on football, team operations, sponsorship, and the business of sport.
Rutgers University–New Brunswick
B.A. in Sport Management · Expected May 2027
Tangshan to New Brunswick
I grew up in Tangshan, China, and moved to New Jersey to study Sport Management at Rutgers University–New Brunswick. Studying in two countries has also made me comfortable working with people who communicate and approach problems differently.
Football has been part of my life for years. At Rutgers, my role with the Chinese Men’s Soccer Club pushed me beyond playing and into the work behind a team: scheduling, travel, registration, equipment, payments, and match-day coordination.
That experience helped shape the areas I want to keep developing—football operations, sponsorship and partnerships, analytics, and athlete representation.
As captain and team manager, I help organize a 25-plus-member club team throughout the season. My responsibilities include match scheduling, field bookings, opponent and referee communication, player registration, travel, equipment, payments, and budget tracking.
Before each match, I confirm the logistics and outstanding tasks so players have the information and equipment they need.
Earlier Football Background
Behind the Match
In my Rutgers role, I built and maintain an Excel operations tracker for attendance, schedules, equipment, fees, and other team records. I use PivotTables and XLOOKUP/VLOOKUP to consolidate information and reduce the time needed for routine reporting. The tracker gives me one place to check current team information before making scheduling, payment, or match-day decisions.
My experience so far has centered on team operations, communication, and organized record-keeping.
Operations
Coordinate logistics, registrations, equipment, payments, and match-day needs across the team schedule.
Communication
Coordinate schedules and changes with players, opponents, facilities, and referees.
Information
Maintain team records and spreadsheets for schedules, attendance, equipment, payments, and reporting.
Current Role
Sport Management internship focused on sponsorship and brand-partnership research.
My current work focuses on sponsorship and brand-partnership research. For my first completed project, I researched 20 brand prospects across apparel, health/wellness, technology, and financial services and verified current partnership activity through official sources.
I analyzed 266 Manchester United Premier League matches from 2014/15 through 2020/21 to examine how xG and other match statistics were related to points earned.
What I didCleaned and aggregated public Understat shot-level data in R, then ran simple and multiple regression models. I also checked the model diagnostics and built the final visualizations in Tableau.
Key findingA one-unit increase in xG difference was associated with about 0.51 additional points per match. The simple model explained 21.2% of the variation in match points.
For my STEALTH sport management internship, I researched and qualified 20 potential brand partners across apparel, health/wellness, technology, and financial services.
What I didI reviewed official company and partnership sources to confirm active sponsorship, athlete, ambassador, creator, and partnership programs. For each prospect, I recorded the relevant evidence, source, date, program type, and contact role in the final Excel workbook.
Project focusThe final workbook records the program type, supporting evidence, evidence date, source, and the contact role most relevant to each prospect.
I developed a five-year strategic plan for Saint Michael’s College Men’s Soccer, an NCAA Division II program in the Northeast-10 Conference.
Year 5 target
Top-three NE10 finish and NCAA tournament bid
What I didI organized the plan across coaching, facilities, equipment, recruiting, and fundraising, with specific priorities for each of the five years.
Long-term goalBy Year 5, the plan targets a top-three NE10 finish and an NCAA tournament bid.
Microsoft Excel · R (RStudio) · Tableau · Data Analysis · Regression Analysis · PivotTables · XLOOKUP / VLOOKUP · Charts & Data Visualization
Team Operations · Event Coordination · Budget Management · Sponsorship Research · Sport Analytics · Strategic Planning · Stakeholder Communication
PowerPoint · Google Workspace · Research · Source Verification · Spreadsheet Development · Documentation
Set match-day responsibilities, confirm player availability, and follow up on outstanding team tasks.
Coordinate schedules and changes with players, opponents, facilities, and referees.
Adjust field, travel, timing, or match-day plans when circumstances change.
Maintain schedules, payment records, equipment checklists, attendance, and other team information in an operations tracker.
Work with players and other stakeholders when plans change while keeping responsibilities clear.
I learned to verify sponsorship prospects with current official evidence instead of relying mainly on brand familiarity.
For each company, I recorded the program type, evidence, date, source, and the role most likely to handle partnership conversations.
I now screen prospects in two stages: first for current partnership activity, then for the internal function responsible for sponsorship or brand partnerships.
I want to build a career in professional football, with a long-term focus on athlete representation and commercial partnerships.
In the near term, I want more experience in team operations, sponsorship research, and client-facing work. I also want to keep developing my analytics background so I can evaluate players, teams, and business opportunities with better context.
My international background is also something I hope to use in a football industry where players, clubs, agencies, and brands regularly work across different markets.
Resume & Contact
For sport management, football operations, sponsorship, or partnership opportunities, you can view my resume, connect with me on LinkedIn, or contact me by email.