07/02/2014
Notre Dame SAAC Earns 2013-14 ACC Sportsmanship Award
Fighting Irish student-athlete leadership group among three recipients of conference honor.
10/11/2012
Pay It Forward
The Student-Athlete Advisory Council Spends a Record Number of Hours in the Community
10/11/2012
Pay It Forward
The Student-Athlete Advisory Council Spends a Record Number of Hours in the Community
Mike Harrity serves as a Senior Associate Athletics Director at the University of Notre Dame, leading the areas that directly impact the student-athlete experience: the Rosenthal Leadership Academy, career development, community service-learning, athletic training, nutrition, strength and conditioning and the newly created sports science initiative. Harrity also serves as the sport administrator for the women’s soccer program.
Harrity also works closely with the Athletics Advancement team on top priorities, including the Advisory Council for the Student-Athlete, to secure funding for key department strategic initiatives. The Advisory Council for the Student-Athlete is comprised of alumni, family and friends of Notre Dame who invest their time, talent and treasure helping fuel the vision for Athletics while building an endowment for all coaching positions, grants-in-aid and student-athlete services. Harrity serves as Athletics Chair on three of the four Advisory Council committees: Sports Science/Sports Performance, Leadership and Personal Growth, and Career Development.
From work with the Advisory Council, Notre Dame has created two innovative positions within the athletics department focused on maximizing the potential of each student-athlete that are the first of their kind nationally: The Director of Performance Sciences leads the sport-specific technical interfaces that maximize the impact of performance support services. The Director of Mental Conditioning arms coaches and sports performance staff members with the skills necessary to make the connection between sport psychology theory and applied practice, to impact student-athlete’s daily performance.
“Our promise to all of our prospective student-athletes is that we will help them maximize their growth intellectually, athletically and personally,” says Harrity. “The commitment they make by coming to Notre Dame is that they’ll invest themselves fully in that opportunity for growth. To deliver on our promise, it is absolutely necessary to connect and build trusting relationships with them, which is only possible if we understand who they are and who they aspire to be.”
Harrity grew up in Kansas City, Kansas, and earned a journalism scholarship to The University of Kansas, where he went on to become the first in his entire extended family to graduate from college. He also earned a Master’s degree in Education and served in athletics department roles at the University of Minnesota and The University of Kansas before joining the Notre Dame team in December 2011.
Fascinated by creating cultures of sustained excellence, Mike explored this subject with 13 coaches who have won 103 combined championships including Lou Holtz and John Wooden, along with many of their former team members. The results of his exploration were published in his first book in 2012, Coaching Wisdom.
His wife, Dr. Megan Harrity, also works at Notre Dame as a Counseling & Sport Psychologist, and they have two daughters Grace, age 6, and Evelyn, age 4.
Mike Harrity
|
