New Book Announcement: CareerBall: The Sport Athletes Play When They’re Through Playing Sports

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) November 24, 2009 -- Book Tackles the Growing Challenge Athletes Face Today in Developing a Post-Sports Identity and Meaningful Career Development Plan

Kansas City, MO (November 24, 2009) – Russ Hafferkamp, Founder of Career Athletes and CEO of Athlete Career Network, answers the question of ‘what’s next’ for hundreds of thousands of competitive athletes facing career uncertainty, loss of identity as they transition away from sports and a changing employment landscape.

Considered a leading voice nationally in athlete career development, Hafferkamp is a former collegiate All-American and elite athlete who has provided career advice and counsel to more than 250,000 collegiate and professional athletes. CareerBall: The Sport Athletes Play When They’re Through Playing Sports dissects the athlete DNA, informs athletes of the unique career development challenges facing them, and alerts athletes and parents to the dangers of tunnel vision, where sports becomes 100% of an athletes self-image.

“Today, athletes, parents, administrators and agents, are beginning to realize that a singularly focused, over-commitment to competitive athletics has produced an unintended consequence of crisis proportions,” says Russ Hafferkamp, author of CareerBall: The Sport Athletes Play When They’re Through Playing Sports and managing director of Career Athletes . “Participation in professional and amateur sports now requires a year-round time commitment, leaving athletes without a broad set of life experiences and ill-prepared for the requirements of a competitive employment economy.”

The times have changed, and Hafferkamp believes passionately that athletes need to now exercise greater self-responsibility in how they balance a commitment to sports and preparing for life-after-sports.

“It is important to realize that we are now living in times when most of the rules of the employment market have changed,” says Hafferkamp. “In the old days, career planning and development for athletes was rewarded mostly by networking and showing up for the interview. Today, competing successfully in the work place requires more preparation and effort. Also, you better come to the interview with some previous experience (part-time jobs, internships, even volunteerism). Unfortunately, today’s athletes possess very little work experience as a result of increasing time constraints.”

Among other practical job-search/job-find advice, CareerBall: The Sport Athletes Play When They’re Through Playing Sports also explores:

• The “dark side of the alpha male”
• The obstacles women athletes face operating in the good ‘ol boy network’
• The keys to “overcoming life’s little screw-ups”

• The importance of “knowing thyself” and correctly assessing your personal interests, work values and defining your “Athlete Core Message,” defined as what you have learned through your athletic participation that is directly transferrable to the workplace.

athletes     career ball     careerball     careers     college     jobs     russ hafferkamp     sports