When fervent sports fan Dayle Marc Aten left tiny, rural Honoka’a, Hawaii, to attend UNLV in 2018, he couldn’t have anticipated becoming part of a work team that’s three times the population of his hometown.
An intern for the Las Vegas Super Bowl Host Committee, he’s helping organize more than 7,000 volunteers needed to produce the NFL’s marquee event in February.
As senior majoring in kinesiology in the School of Integrated Health Sciences, Aten’s studies focus on the physical aspects of sports performance. He credits biomechanics and exercise physiology professor John Mercer for posting information that encouraged him to apply.
“It just opens the door for the sports world in general,” Aten said. “My background was understanding [how] an athlete performs. This internship opens my eyes to how the sports teams are run [and] the business end of planning a championship event.”
And by extension, how that might affect an athlete’s performance.
Aten is creating the orientation materials for 300-350 potential general managers (called “coaches”) who will onboard the general volunteers (“playmakers”) in the ramp-up to February’s game. His presentation slides provide an overview of the roles and responsibilities of the volunteers and location-specific details. He also has a role evaluating applicants for coaches.
“We’re asking them questions about their volunteer experience, getting verbal commitments that they’ll be there for our trainings, and putting them in different locations that we’re going to activate,” Aten said.
It’s an invaluable experience in community organizing, marketing, and communication he admits is outside his kinesiology wheelhouse — and behind the scenes for a lifelong sports fan. “You see things that are not on TV — all the planning, all the hotels, the practice facilities, sponsorships, and getting the city involved, too,” Aten said.
Aten, on track to get his degree in December, may go one semester longer to also acquire a minor in neuroscience. “My guiding question is, ‘What makes the great athletes great?’ They work out, and they’re in great shape. They have this great motor control and fine-tuned movements. … So the next level for me is figuring out what’s in the mind of a great athlete. What is the decision-making? How do they handle the pressure?”
By studying kinesiology at UNLV, he said, he’s learning not only what makes a champion but what makes a championship event.
“We’re a competing city. We’re getting championships, we're going to the finals, and then championship events are coming here,” he said. “It’s a blessing to be here because it’s the right place at the right time.”
