sidered crucial to general leadership effectiveness. For example, Vecchio (1991) has noted that being the "boss" of any organization is a lot like coaching a sports team. In particular, he notes that:
Like a winning coach, a skillful leader is master of strategy and tactics, inspiration leaders, authority figure, mother hen, and even occasionally a father confessor. (p.307)
Thus, Vecchio provides reason to believe that background leadership athletic experiences may be more crucial for building effective school leadership than other types of background leadership experiences, and the athletic/non-athletic distinction becomes important for research focus.
An effort will be made to bring more definition to the purpose of this study by not only examining for differences in athletic and non-athletic background leadership experiences but also by examining whether these experiences are related to a number of variables associated with the principal and the school where he or she admini
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