Breaking Into Sports Business: What High Point University Students Learned From a Mavericks CEO

The sports industry is one of the hardest fields to break into. For every available front-office job, there are hundreds of applicants who grew up dreaming of working in the games they love. So when students hoping to build careers in sports get to spend an afternoon with someone who has actually run an NBA franchise, it is a genuinely rare look behind a door most people never get to open.

That is exactly what sport management majors at High Point University in North Carolina received this spring from retired Dallas Mavericks CEO Cynt Marshall.

Marshall, who serves as HPU’s Sports Executive in Residence, spoke in the Callicutt Life Skills Theater for a Life Skills and Leadership Series session titled “Motivation with a Mission: Leading with Faith, Joy, and Grit.” For students eyeing the sports world, the value was as much about access as advice.

Students at the Center, Not the Sidelines

HPU sport management major Brian Hanway moderated the discussion with Marshall. For a student aiming at a career in sports business, moderating a conversation with a league CEO is exactly the sort of credential and connection that is almost impossible to manufacture on your own.

The session drew students who came with specific career questions. Among them was senior Henry Cissel, from West Chester, Pennsylvania, who was days away from graduating with a bachelor’s degree in sports management.

He had heard great things about Marshall and wanted her perspective on how to break into the sports world as he navigated the hiring process himself.

The Advice: Lean on Your People

What resonated most with Cissel was the role a support system plays in a demanding career. “I would say she really relied on her family, and as someone who has a loving family as well, I think it just shows that regardless of whether you go through the good and the bad times, they’re going to be there for you,” Cissel said.

For a student about to enter a notoriously competitive industry, the reminder that resilience is supported by the people around you is a practical one.

Marshall’s broader leadership philosophy, her “three L’s” of listen, learn and love, doubles as career advice for aspiring sports executives. The industry runs on relationships, and a young professional who genuinely invests in people builds the trust that opens doors and sustains a career once inside.

Why Caring Translates to Sports Careers

It might seem that a glamorous, high-pressure field like professional sports would reward sharp elbows over empathy. Marshall’s message suggests the opposite. Her own ascent to the top of the Mavericks organization was built on caring about the people she led, beginning with a three-hour listening session with employees before she set any agenda.

For students, the lesson is that the same human skills that make someone a good colleague are the ones that make them a strong candidate and, eventually, a strong leader in sports.

That emphasis aligns with HPU’s identity as the Premier Life Skills University, where the through-line of every program is that durable human skills drive professional success across industries. Sports are very much included.

Access That’s Hard to Replicate

The bigger story for prospective sports management and business students is the access itself. Through its Sports Executive in Residence program, High Point University embeds a leader of Marshall’s caliber into the student experience.

Students can moderate her sessions, ask her direct questions about their own job searches, and meet her after she speaks.

That kind of repeated, in-person contact with industry leaders is precisely what helps students build the networks a sports career requires.

A Head Start on a Hard Field

For a prospective student deciding where to study sports management, the practical question is simple: which programs will actually put me in front of the people who run this industry? At HPU, the answer is concrete: a sport management major moderating a discussion with a former NBA CEO, a graduating senior getting personalized advice on breaking into the industry, and a Sports Executive in Residence who returns to mentor students rather than passing through once.

In a field where connections are everything, that access is a meaningful head start. For students chasing a career in sports business, High Point University is making the case that the door can be opened from the inside.