Rise of Tasmanian Devils, JackJumpers leads to sports academy

Tom Reeves is most at home on the footy ground, especially when that ground is in Tasmania.

The North Hobart Football Club co-captain left the state for four years to play state league football and study education on the Gold Coast.

"I had to go, like it is the reality for a lot of Tasmanians willing to pursue things in sports in the past," Mr Reeves said.

Missing home and family, he came back last year and enrolled in the newly opened Tasmanian Academy of Leadership and Sport.

The academy is a partnership between the Tasmania Football Club, JackJumpers basketball, Hobart Hurricanes cricket team and Netball Tasmania, run through TasTAFE.

It offers a 12-month dual diploma in leadership, management and sport, based in Hobart and Launceston, and 18 months of course credit towards a business degree at the University of Tasmania.

For Mr Reeves, study soon turned into a job offer.

He started as a community engagement officer before taking on teaching.

"If I'd told myself five years ago that I'd be able to be a teacher for the Tasmanian Devils, you'd be kidding yourself,"

he said.

"To be back around my family and friends that I've grown up with, that has been the most refreshing and rewarding part of it all, to have it at my doorstep."

While sport has always had a big presence in Tasmania, in recent years professional sport has grown in a flurry to a new scale.

The JackJumpers entered the National Basketball League in 2021; the Jewels Tasmanian women's basketball team have just entered the WNBL; the Tasmania Devils will join the Australian Football League in 2028, and its VFL team made it to this season's finals.

The industry growth is encouraging Tasmanians to look at their home state for job opportunities that were not previously available.

Tassie's AFL licence motivator for training academy

The 2023 announcement that Tasmania had secured the 19th AFL licence after years of campaigning prompted Jesse O'Hara to move home to set up the academy.

He already had the skills from working in Queensland's training and TAFE sector.

"When the licence was announced, I still remember that feeling I got, the emotional pull," Mr O'Hara said.

"The Tassie Devils coming in was a bit of a moment for me, and I could see the work we were doing in education, sport and training really had a place in Tasmania."

An initial focus was on gaining the support of the other sport organisations and TasTAFE.

"It was a unanimous yes. They could see this type of program was needed, as there was no dedicated education and training pathway for their workforces," Mr O'Hara said.

"Often people would have to leave Tasmania to study sports administration."

The reach of the academy goes beyond the players on the field, with Mr O'Hara saying a club such as the Tasmania Devils employed more than 100 non-playing staff.

"We're finding many of us are returning Tasmanians who have some experience further afield and are very attracted to an opportunity like this to come home and be part of history," he said.

"Also, we're seeing students who are choosing not to hop on a plane [to the mainland], which is pretty special."

Careers in sports management on the rise

Lisa Gowthorp, an academic in sport management at Gold Coast's Bond University, has seen interest in sports management grow in recent years, along with a rise in the number of jobs available.

She believes the industry is on a positive trajectory, particularly with Brisbane hosting the Olympics in 2032.

"We're going to see sport jobs, particularly in administration and management, endlessly look for young people in graduate jobs," Dr Gowthorp said.

She said unlike a business degree, sports industry-specific training provided insight into the culture and nuance of sport.

It teaches how events operate, the operation of stadiums and facilities, and team communication.

"It's not like a business where it's black and white, for profit/not-for-profit, where things are very structured," she said.

"We don't know what is going to happen any one day in sport, and that makes it an exciting place to work.

"You're learning skills that you can take to any sport, and that's exciting."