Campus Recreation All Star: Courtney Forrette

The pathway to becoming an all-star in the campus recreation and wellbeing profession is different for everyone. But among many of those featured in our recent series of Campus Recreation All Star member features, there is a penchant for leaping into new opportunities. That knack for answering the call when opportunity is knocking certainly holds true for South Dakota State University’s Competitive Sports and Summer Camp Coordinator Courtney Forrette.

Courtney began her career in campus recreation as a sophomore at South Dakota State University—a public land-grant research university in Brookings—when she took a part-time job officiating intramural sports. She excelled in the job and her performance between the white lines opened doors for her, with her responsibilities growing into a supervisory role in the intramural sports program the following year. “I ended my undergrad career in campus rec as the Intramural Sports Administrative Assistant, helping SDState’s Intramural Sports Coordinator with fall schedules, preparing and leading staff trainings, and completing daily administrative tasks,” says Courtney.

The new duties helped to prepare her for the next step in her professional trajectory. She accepted a graduate assistantship at North Dakota State University, where she pursued a master’s degree in Business Administration. A year into that role, her supervisor left his coordinator position to pursue other opportunities and she decided to apply for his position. She was offered the position and grew into it over the next two years, bolstering her skills along the way by volunteering for various positions at NIRSA Championship Series regional tournaments—including serving on the All-Tournament Committee. “I look forward to the tournament each semester as a way to reconnect with friends and colleagues, while also continuing my own education and experience with sports and officiating,” she says.

Courtney’s willingness to learn new skills and improve existing ones must have stuck with previous colleagues and employers. When a competitive sports & summer camp coordinator position opened up on SDState’s campus, Shari Landmark, South Dakota State University’s Director of Recreation & Fitness, shared news of the search with Courtney. A return to Brookings and an opportunity to take the next step in her career journey was just enough to draw her away from her esteemed “Thundering Herd” in Fargo, so she applied for the job.

Today, Courtney administers a comprehensive intramural and sport club program of competitive and non-competitive activities, in a department where she got her professional start nearly a decade ago. Her responsibilities now include programming; hiring, training, supervision, and evaluation of undergraduate and graduate student employees; managing sport club memberships, travel, purchases, and budgets; operating a series of children’s summer camps; and serving as a liaison with other on and off-campus departments. One of Courtney’s greatest accomplishments so far has included implementing a Greek League to her intramural program. Her current focus has been creating and building an eSport facility for SDState’s students and sport club.

In a facility that houses both fitness and recreation services, a student health clinic and counseling services, as well as a pharmacy, Courtney constantly has many irons in the fire. So, she values access to an active, online discussion board like NIRSA Connect; it gives her a place to go to pose questions and bounce ideas off her colleagues. And she regularly attends NIRSA online roundtables and discussions and continues to build her skills through NIRSA Learning opportunities.

Recreation and wellbeing aren’t just passions for Courtney professionally. “Outside of work, I enjoy reading and spending time with my husband and newborn son, Jasper” she says. Her passion and pride for the profession, her commitment to ongoing professional growth, and her fortitude in facing new challenges make Courtney Forrette of SDSU a worthy name among the ranks of campus recreation all stars.