Jaquan Mack

Jaquan Mack’s favorite part of the Sport and Recreation Management program at Russell Sage College was hearing from the industry pros who regularly visited Professor Bob Stulmaker’s classes.

“Professionals visit the class, give a speech about their work, how they got into it, their path to success,” said Mack. “For me, that was huge. People who are actually in the field that I dream to be in are coming to my class to talk to us.”

From those conversations, Mack learned about the variety of roles he could pursue with a sport management degree. Then, he experienced that variety over the course of four (yes, four!) internships. And now — just two years after graduating — he’s visited Stulmaker’s classes as a speaker himself.

The first time Mack spoke to current sport management students, he talked about his role as an account executive in ticket sales for the Albany FireWolves professional lacrosse team. The next time, he’ll talk about his new position with the Army West Point Athletics Association.

Mack joined Army Athletics as an assistant equipment manager for the military academy’s Division I baseball and men’s and women’s rugby teams in late 2024.

“I’m the person who they go to for all equipment needs,” he said, describing work with companies like Nike to order and maintain everything from uniforms to catchers’s mitts to rugby cleats. His routine responsibilities range from overseeing budgets to ensuring consistent branding.

“Spring is just coming up, so my day is focused on making sure the guys have practice items,” he continued, speaking of the 2025 baseball season. “By February, my schedule will be really busy.” The team’s season opener is February 14.

Mack knew collegiate athletics was an environment he would enjoy after his experiences as team manager for RSC’s men’s lacrosse team (internship number one) and for the University at Albany’s Division I football team (internship number four).

Another internship came from one of the guest speakers in Professor Stulmaker’s classes.

“We would also do elevator pitches,” said Mack of those classes, “where in 10 to 20 seconds we’d speak to the people who came to the class, and let them know, I’m looking for an internship in this field, I have experience in this and this. That was really important for me. I ended up getting my second internship at the New York State Public High School Athletic Association as a social media manager and sports marketer.”

“I was able to take over social media, travel to high school state championship events on weekends, and interview coaches and players for the NYSPHSAA website,” he continued of that experience. “I would write my own press releases.”

Then, his faculty advisor, Associate Professor of Management Eileen Brownell, guided Mack as he applied for a summer position with the Madison Mallards, a collegiate summer baseball team in Wisconsin. He was hired for a position in ticket sales.

“Without the help of Stulmaker and those classes at Sage, I would have never known how to actually get into the field of sports management and put myself out there,” he said.

Mack is from Bronx, New York, and first learned about Russell Sage when a high school basketball teammate was recruited by the Gators.

He wasn’t sure where to find information about applying to and affording a private college until he met Jermaine Privott of RSC’s Arthur O. Eve Higher Education Opportunity Program. (HEOP is a New York State program that makes college more accessible to students who face financial, academic, or other barriers to attending college.) Privott helped Mack connect the dots to attend RSC.

“For me, leaving the Bronx was really important and having Sage as an opportunity was really big,” Mack said. “The moment it was offered to me I took it. I didn’t think twice, and I’m super grateful for it.”

In the Bronx, he said, a lot of people don’t have the opportunity to think about something other than day-to-day needs. That’s why it’s important to Mack to share his story and encourage high school and college students from backgrounds similar to his own to reach for educational and professional goals.

When he speaks to Professor Stulmaker’s current students or basketball players at his former high school, he tells them about his Russell Sage education and sport management internships, his current work, and his own long-term goal to become a licensed National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) agent.  That will be the pinnacle of his education, experience, and all the connections he makes along the way, he said.

“It’s a lot of reaching out, a lot of networking and relationship-building,” he said, “and those are things I learned at Sage,” he said. “This is a small school. But you can do big things.”