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Spring 2012 Intern Blogs

Chris Alumbaugh - Klein ISD Athletic Department Intern, Klein, TX

February 1, 2012

After a few weeks in my internship I have been exposed to a few different things and am starting to get a feel for what goes on in athletic offices. So many things go in to making sports happen on the intermediate and high school level that most have no clue about. My first event that I was able to attend in this position was a girl's varsity basketball game. As a representative of the district, I wasn’t just there to watch the game; I had a job to do. The first thing I did was sit up in the stands and look at how many people were there making this event happen: coaches, officials, cheerleaders, security, concessions, and ticket takers were all present. All of these people are needed to make one game happen and most want to get paid for their part. Talking to a lot of these individuals was an eye opener for me. I have never been an integral part of the behind-the-scenes activities at sporting events before.

Another project I had the chance to work on was a tournament analysis for a few different sports in the district. I was put in charge of digging up all receipts for each game held within the district, including awards, hospitality needs and entry fees. The most interesting cost that I saw from this was the amount of money that is spent on golfing and wrestling tournaments. The amount paid in entry fees is outrageous for these two sports. No schools own a full golf course, so they have to play at regular country clubs in the area and green fees are not cheap. On an average tournament, entry fees for each team were based on the number of players and collectively all monies averaged about $3500 for payment in full.

The next major project that I am currently still working on is a big one. It will affect the grading scale for all students in the Klein Independent School District if it is passed. There are 2 high school head coaches and myself working on a proposal to get rid of the D from our grading scale. The main reason that athletics is spearheading this push is that some schools in Texas do not use a D and therefore their students have an advantage when it comes to cumulative GPAs. Athletes specifically are looked at by numerous organizations and if one kid gets a higher GPA even though he got a 70, and the other student that has a D in their scale gets a 74, it’s not fair. A D will translate to 1 point and a C will be worth 2, thus we want to show to the district that we have to be on the same playing field across the board for everyone’s better interest.

So far it has been a busy few weeks and I have been thrown right into the mix. I am very much so enjoying it and hope to learn lots more. Track season is about to get going and I know I will have lots going on then.

Eddie Delgado - University of Texas-El Paso Fundrasing and Development Intern, El Paso, TX

February 1, 2012

Having been born and raised in El Paso, Texas, UTEP sports have always had a place in my heart. I remember hearing the games on the radio and watching the games on television. I remember hearing the stories of the 1966 NCAA Basketball National Championship team of five African Americans who beat an “All-White” nationally ranked Kentucky team in the championship game. This was significant in a time when segregation was a still a rule. This story inspired the movie Glory Road, which some of you may have seen. Texas Western later changed its name to UTEP. That is just a small synopsis of what UTEP is. The University of Texas at El Paso, which is its formal name, has had a great history of sports and continues to do so. That is why I’m glad I was able to come full circle and be able to intern at the school where I did my undergrad.

Being a part of the graduate Sport Management program at Sam Houston State University has provided me with the tools to be successful while training here at UTEP. As a result of networking over the Fall semester, I was awarded an internship here. I started January 6^th and hit the ground running. College athletics is an ongoing business that is centered on the student athletes involved. The Department where I work is responsible for fundraising for over 300 students at a cost that easy exceeds the $4 million mark. UTEP, like many other Texas colleges, receives no subsidizing for Athletic Scholarships like some other states do. This is where we come in. Here at the Miner Athletic Club, our job is to create unique ways to fund scholarships for our great student-athletes that wear the orange and blue proudly.

Going back to my first week of internship, I was involved in the hospitality side of fundraising. My second day with the MAC, we set up a pregame dinner for donors that involved them getting a great meal catered by some of the best restaurants in El Paso. This is an ongoing fundraising initiative that is usually teamed up with our Saturday men’s basketball games. At these meals, we network with individual donors and get to know them on a more personal level. Meanwhile, they are able to hear one of our assistant basketball coaches speak about the upcoming game and ask questions. Networking is important in our department, as we are asking people to donate and it’s important to develop a personal relationship. I was also given the opportunity to meet Mary Haskins whose late husband, Don Haskins, coached the famous “Glory Road” team.

Most of my game day activities are done pre-game as we set up the dinners and help with the volunteer/donation table in the concourse. By game time, we are able to enjoy the game since our work is done beforehand. We also sometimes work with our marketing department to do community events. We went out this month to Ft. Bliss to offer free tickets to all military for a women’s game and to invite the solders to become involved with UTEP athletics. It was a great success and we will be out there next month to promote our military day for the men’s basketball game as well.

Most of my work here at the Miner Athletic Club and the Athletic Dept here at UTEP is almost all done with the administrative aspect of sports. That is something I really wanted to concentrate on during my internship. I have done a lot of research this month which is going to help us bring some new initiatives to life. I have researched and formulated a student survey that will focus on why our students do not attend games as much as we’d like. UTEP is a commuter school and our goal is to try to change the mentality of going to games. We want to encourage the students to become more involved with their school. Having set up the survey, we plan to implement it so we can find out why students do not attend games and then develop strategies to address the problem. We are currently at the end of this month beginning to brainstorm and implement our annual Team Fund Drive, which is a fundraising campaign that gets active members in the community to go out and sell season tickets to football. This drive turns into money for scholarships and departmental costs. We have created unique ways to campaign and advertise the purpose for this fund drive. Not only that, I have been involved in networking with some of our various alumni associations across the state to try to get them involved in this fundraising campaign.

There is so much that goes behind the scenes at an Athletic Department. Days do go by quickly and sometimes you even forget what day it is. Everything pays off when your student athletes take the court in their UTEP jerseys and everyone knows they had a vital part in helping student athletes represent their university. The slogan here at the Miner Athletic Club is that “Champions begin with scholarships’ and I couldn’t agree more.

Daniel Erickson - SHSU Recreational Sports Intramural and Club Sports Intern, Huntsville, TX

February 1, 2012

Within the first month of my internship with Recreational Sports at Sam Houston State University, I have been very involved with the day-to-day activities of the department. My position as Graduate Assistant of Intramural and Club Sports has provided me with many different tasks and responsibilities, such as being in charge of 17 student lead staff members and conducting weekly meetings with these students. As a graduate assistant, I am also responsible for having to assist with the all-staff orientation held the day before classes started for the spring semester. The station I was in charge of taught various staff members of the Recreational Sports Department the opportunities that Intramural Sports provides for all students/staff and dodgeball was played by the staff members to try an also make their experience enjoyable.

During this past week, along with the Coordinator of Intramural and Club Sports, I have been assisting with leading our basketball officials training. The basketball officials training lasts four days and many of our refs have never officiated a single game before entering our clinic. Teaching these brand new officials the proper rules and mechanics within such a short period of time provides some challenges. For example, we only have time to go over a few actual game like situations before the refs have to go out on the court and try to show their skills. With such a short period of time to evaluate so many officials, it forces us to better utilize our student staff in the training the process and helps these lead staff members with their professional development.

Within the past few weeks I have also been in charge of creating some of the league schedules for sports such as basketball and kickball. Weather has been a challenge in the month of January and because of this reason, it has forced Intramural Sports to have to reschedule various outdoor sports on certain days. As we need plenty of time to prepare our seasons and make sure that everything is in place before actual games begin, I spent some time this past week looking over our inventory for our softball equipment. Softball season will begin in late February and I made sure that we should not have to purchase any additional equipment for the entire season. I had to fill out a purchase request and get a supervisor's signature before this transaction could occur. The only item still to be decided for softball is if we force teams to use our own bats (these bats would be provided by Intramural Sports), or continue with how it has been in the past and allows teams to use some of their own bats. That is all for now but during my next monthly blog, I should also be able to inform you of some other exciting news for the future of Intramural and Club Sports at Sam Houston State University.

Billy Konczak - Houston Aeros Outside Sales and Special Events Intern, Houston, TX

February 1, 2012

As my first blog post, I will explain who it is I work for and what it is that I do. My name is Billy Konczak and I currently fulfill the role of an Outside Sales and Special Events Assistant for The Houston Aeros Hockey Club, a proud affiliate of the Minnesota Wild. The Houston Aeros are in the American Hockey League, or AHL, which is the top tier of minor league hockey. We are owned by Minnesota Sports and Entertainment, the same company that owns our National Hockey League affiliate, The Minnesota Wild.

Working in Special Events is a bit different than direct ticket sales. In our case, we are selling events which happen to be attached to a hockey game. Obviously, it helps to market to hockey friendly entities. Oftentimes, this means targeting youth hockey teams, adult hockey teams, local ice rinks, and figure skating teams. The next step would then be to create an event specifically designed to target the demographic you are looking for. Most times, we will try to book pre- or post-game ice time for teams to come and “Play Like a Pro”. We also book intermission time for teams to come perform, have a shoot out, or scrimmage in front of thousands of fans.

This month, the focus has been directed away from hockey and focuses more towards Boy Scout Night, our annual event that is being hosted on February 4^th, 2012 this year. The event hosts an autograph session and photos with players before the game for scouts that sold a certain amount of popcorn for their annual fundraiser. We also comp Boy Scout tickets for that game. It is one of the largest events that we host during the season and is considered a group event. Our department was brought in to also help with the pregame event.

J.W. Starkey - Houston Rockets Inside Sales Intern, Houston, TX

February 1, 2012

My name is Jerry “J.W.” Starkey, I’m currently fulfilling my internship semester through the Graduate Sport Management Program at Sam Houston State University. Before starting this program, I never really considered the idea of working for a sports organization. This program has opened my eyes to a whole new career field while giving me a jump on the competition.

At the beginning of the semester, I was still struggling to find an internship that would meet the requirements of the Sport Management Program. Luckily, I have taken advantage of the numerous career fair opportunities that this program opens its members up to. On 1/24/12, I called a contact at the Houston Rockets that I had made through one of the career fairs I had attended. To make a long story short, the gentlemen got me an interview the next morning with the Director of Sales for the Houston Rockets. Roughly an hour after the interview, I was offered a full-time position as an inside sales representative. I consider this not only the happiest day of my life but also the start to my career as I one day wish to work my way up to the Director of Sales position for an organization.

January 30th, 2012 was my first day on the job. I was briefed on the ticket system and did a few “mock” sales calls. After that, I jumped right into the action. The system generates hot sales leads from previous ticket buyer information. Most of these hot leads are people who have attended games earlier in the current season, but some date back as far as 5-10 seasons. We are also expected to generate our own sales leads. This is where we can get creative. We can contact people or businesses we may have personal relationships with. We may look up leads online or through other venues. Once you start making calls, it is simply a grind. A lot of times you leave messages or people will need to discuss it with their families. In these cases, you make a note to call the person back within the next three days or they may call you back.

In only my second day, I’m finding that it is easy to be constantly contacting prospective clients. Between making the required 75-100 phone calls a day, receiving call backs from messages, and sending out email blasts, it is actually easy to constantly be servicing a client, which worried me a little bit at first. I have also been given a side project from my department manger. The Rockets have been contracted out to sell tickets to the Southland Conference Basketball Tournament. I have lists of all the people who attended last year as well as key businesses in Katy (which is where the tournament is held). I will be selling both Rockets tickets and Southland Conference tickets up until March 10, which is the last day of the tournament. The lists I was given for the Southland Tournament contains over 6000 people and 2000 businesses. What is really cool about this is not only are these leads for the Southland Tournament, but now I have a huge extended list of possible clients to contact about Rockets games. I want to end by saying I feel truly blessed to have this opportunity and look forward to the challenges that lie ahead of me as I learn more and more every day on the job. It should be an exciting month and I look forward to the next blog.

Carlton White - SHSU Athletics Compliance Intern, Huntsville, TX

February 1, 2012

In January, I arrived at my position as the Compliance Intern for Sam Houston State University. I am currently working Monday through Thursday from 8 am to 5 pm. My first day on duty consisted with me attending a compliance education meeting with the entire athletic staff. The meeting was conducted by Chris Thompson, Associate Athletic Director of Student Services, Jessica Payne, Athletic Academic Advisor, and Curtis Collier, Compliance Officer. Mrs. Thompson introduced me as the new member of the athletic department. It has been a very busy month so far with the upcoming National signing day for football, track and field, and soccer. February 1, 2012 is the first day that high school athletes are eligible to sign their National Letter of Intent. I have been given the task of checking to see if prospective student athletes are eligible to compete at the NCAA Division I level and whether they will be able to get accepted into Sam Houston State University. The first thing I must do is to evaluate the prospective student athlete’s high school transcript. To evaluate the high school transcripts, I calculate the total core points for the courses that are accepted by the NCAA’s eligibility center and divide it by the number of course the student has taking to get the grade point average. The prospective student athletes are expected to have 16 core courses. To determine if the athlete is eligible to be a qualifier for the NCAA, I have to compare the athlete’s SAT or ACT scores with the athlete’s grade point average. To determine if the student athlete is eligible for admission into Sam Houston State University, I have to compare the student athlete’s test scores with their class ranking.

The most important part of my intern position involves maintaining the online database for compliance that is run by the NCAA. This online database consists of all the athletes and potential student athletes that will come to the university. My primary project throughout my internship is to get familiar with this new website and create a plan of action to help Mr. Collier maintain and update the information that goes into the database. I have started creating the squad list for each sport. The squad list consists of each player's information (name, email, NCAA ID, student type, address) and team affiliation.

I also have been given the task of researching the NCAA’s Division I manual to interpret rules of the constitution. If a coach has a question about one of the bylaws or what he/or she can and can’t do, it is my job to go through the manual and find the bylaw that applies to the question, interpret the bylaw, and write the coach a response.

The first month has been very educational and I have learned so much about compliance and its role in college athletics. I enjoy everything that I am doing. Since I eventually want to be a collegiate football coach, learning the rules have been very interesting to me. I know this internship will prepare me for my future goals.

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