Leapetswe Malete joined the Department of Kinesiology in the MSU College of Education in 2016 as an associate professor and the director of global initiatives. He is also the director of the International Research in Youth Sport, Physical Activity and Health Lab, which he established shortly after joining the department. Outside MSU, he is the current president of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity.
The professorship, which is effective through January 2029, honors Gwendolyn Norrell, who was a nationally recognized proponent for student-athlete welfare, and a former MSU faculty member. The professorship title changes every three years to uplift a new scholar; previous honorees were Professor Emeritus Dan Gould and current Professor Tracey Covassin.
Karin A. Pfeiffer, a two-time MSU graduate, is the director of the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports and an MSU Red Cedar Distinguished Professor.
The professorship comes with funding to bolster research efforts, which Pfeiffer will use to hire graduate research assistants, reimburse for travel and create incentives for research participants.
Pfeiffer’s work will center on the physical and psychological effects of biobanding in high-level youth hockey players, particularly girls. Biobanding is a way to organize youth sports team competition; rather than by simply chronological age (all 14 year-olds on a team, all 15 year-olds on another), biobanding matches players based on their biological age (but still within their chronological age group) by assessing their size, along with their parents’ and grouping them as early, average or late maturers.