Athletic Scouts play a key role in searching, evaluating and recruiting talented sportspersons to play for a particular team like school, college, university, amateur or professional sports team. They are responsible to determine if a sportsperson is skilled enough to play immediately for their team or needs training to grow his/her talent.

Accordingly, they communicate their findings to the authority such as coaches or general managers in order to sign up either promising or already established players for their organization. In some cases, they also act as assistant coaches.

Athletic Scouts work either independently or for organizations such as government and private High schools, Colleges, Universities, Amateur sports teams, Professional sports teams etc. They often work outdoors and spend much of their time in traveling small and big cities across the globe to find the best skilled and suited players. Due to extensive travel requirements and busy game schedules, these professionals have to work long or irregular hours, including evenings, weekends and holidays.

Educational Requirements

To become an Athletic Scout, the aspiring candidates need to hold at least a high school diploma, but one needs to complete a Bachelor’s degree program in sports management to work at college or senior level. The course works in degree program include athletic administration, sports psychology, sports law, statistics etc.

However, former players or coaches have always an advantage to get employment as an Athletic Scout in their respective fields.

Skill set

Athletic Scouts possess extensive knowledge of the game and wide range of skills such as ability to observe the talents of the sportspersons, mange and organize multitask activities, make tough decisions, work under pressure, solve problems, understand the requirements of the team and process of recruiting the players, effective communication and interpersonal skills etc.

Job Outlook and Salary

The job outlook for an Athletic Scout remains excellent across the USA. According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the growth rate for job opportunities in this profession may rise 15% during 2012-2022, higher than the average for all occupations. The average annual salary of an Athletic Scout was $28,360 in May 2012.