Staff Spotlight: Alison Hinton

Alison Hinton joined the Temple's University Athletics staff as the Travel Coordinator in October 2019. She was promoted to Athletics Travel and Business Manager in November 2022. In her position with the Owls, she is responsible for managing air and ground transportation, as well as hotel bookings for teams and staff members.

Hinton came to North Broad after spending two seasons as the Florida International University Women's Basketball Director of Operations. With the Panthers, Hinton handled the day-to-day operations of the team, including budget management and travel coordination.

Prior to her experience at FIU, Hinton spent three years as an assistant coach at Southern New Hampshire University, including her final two as the team's recruiting coordinator.

As an undergraduate, Hinton played basketball for Boston University, earning a B.A. in Psychology in 2009 after just three years, while finishing a Master's in Education in her final year of eligibility in 2010. She tallied over 1,000 points and 700 rebounds in her career as a Terrier.

Following her collegiate playing career, Hinton played professionally in Israel from 2010-2014, winning the Israeli League Championship, the Israeli Cup and Eurocup Championship in her first pro season and capturing in the championship in the Israeli First Division in her final season overseas.

Hinton completed a Master's in Business Administration, with a concentration in Athletic Administration, her second postgraduate degree, in 2017, while spending three years in Manchester, New Hampshire.

You have had a unique path to your current role at Temple Athletics? Talk about your journey from student-athlete to coach to administration?

"It has definitely been unique. As a student-athlete I was a psychology major and earned a master's in education and I thought coaching was going to be it. I played professionally for a few years and then after that I got into coaching. I bounced around a bit, but Philadelphia is home. I grew up just outside of here, I got to watch Dawn Staley and those women's games. That is where I really got into basketball.

I thought I wanted to be a coach and I really enjoyed certain aspects of coaching. (Later) I decided I wanted a little more stability and to move away from the sport specific life. I knew the admin side was a great opportunity to stay involved with college athletics and student-athletes. I have thank Jessica Reo who started here at Temple shortly before I did. I was in Florida when she told me about the opportunity as the Travel Coordinator and I jumped at it. Not only was it a great chance to move into Administration, but it brought me back to Philadelphia."

How much did being a Director of Basketball Operations help in your role of coordinating travel for the various teams at Temple?

"Tremendously. As a Director of Operations, you are working with your sport specifically, but you are also working with the travel, working with the equipment, working with meal-planning and everything to do with the program. It gave me good insight into what it looks like on a larger scale but I was responsible for managing our budget when I was the Director of Operations and it gave me more insight into budgeting on a larger scale, but I was responsible for managing our budget when I was the Director of Operations and it gave me more insight into budgeting on a larger scale.

I think you get a really nice taste of every aspect of a program. I have seen the inner workings of a team budget and now being in the business office I am working with sports across the board and all their budgets. Being in the weeds sometimes helps you understand the big picture even more."

What is the biggest challenge you face coordinating travel for every athletic team at Temple?

"We definitely have our busy seasons for sure. I am a very organized person and I know that helps a lot. I think the challenge is really getting to know the coaches and what are their big tickets items in terms of travel. Different coaches have different wants and teams/student-athletes have different needs. It can be a lot at times but it is fun to be busy."

How crazy was your job when Covid hit? What did you have to do differently?

"I started about six months before Covid, so my first real spring and summer was thrown on the backburner. Some of the things that have changed are different policies that companies and vendors have. Travel has changed dramatically. There have been a lot of different things we have had to deal with. From a bussing and hotel standpoint, there has been a lot of turnover and changes. The levels of communication are not always the same as what they were due to personnel shortages. Hotels had a ton of turnover, so the level of communication has fluctuated at times. The last five to six months has been getting back to normal but even with that there are still challenges. Like me working with multiple sports you will have certain hotel contacts working with four to five different hotels and simply not available and on-site at certain times. With airlines there has been a lot of different rules, flight cancellations, and changes. In a lot of ways, pricing is still not back to a stable point for any of the travel industry. You are starting to see it normalize but in a lot of ways, we are still dealing with the effects of COVID. It is just understanding the patience you need to have, both as a planner and as a traveler and trying my best to make sure that our staff understand some of these challenges. "

Does the Covid pandemic still impact travel for athletics teams? If so, how?

"We are really looking to plan as early as possible, to get seats on flights, to get hotels booked. As we know college athletics is back in full swing and everyone is travelling again. You are also starting to see a lot more business travel, but you do not necessarily have the flight seats and the number of flights so the earlier we can do things the better. In a lot of ways, pricing is still not back to a stable point for any of the travel industry. You are starting to see it normalize but in a lot of ways, we are still dealing with the effects of COVID. Our coaches are pretty good with getting us the information. Hopefully they feel there is a good connection both ways with getting everything done. I think that is the most important piece of any travel, communication. The earlier that we can work through any travel plans and changes, the smoother everyone's travel is."

What is the thing you love the most about your job and working at Temple?

"Transitioning away from coaching, I was a little unsure how things would go. After a couple years, as unpredictable as they were, I know administration is where I want to be. I like being able to work with all the coaches and staff. You meet and work with some really great people. Being in the business office and hopefully having the opportunity to move through that avenue path, getting a broad look of what a department looks like, how budgets get set, how spending decisions are made has been great. In addition to working with all the staffs, I really get to be a fan every sport as well. I think it's important to show all our student-athletes our support and being able to do that from the administrative side is nice.

Temple University Athletics

Staff Spotlight: Alison Hinton

Related Videos