Prompt #5: Sports Marketing Community

If you have a sports marketing degree, there are many different career fields you can be apart of. You can work for a company that reaches out to teams or organizations, or you can be apart of an organization reaching out to companies. My family has been well represented in the Michigan State athletic community and I have been fortunate enough to go behind the scenes of the major athletics here at the university. With that being said, I have had the opportunity to see first hand how a program works and what keeps it going.
     
Growing up, I was always around the Michigan State basketball team. I got to be familiar with the players, managers, and staff. During this time I have gotten an understanding on what each staff member does for the program, outside of coaching and basketball knowledge. Over the years, I got to become familiar with the former Director of Basketball Operations, Kevin Pauga. This is the most important behind the scenes position in the program, due to the workload and number of responsibilities. They are responsible for schedule maintenance, travel plans, and mostly every other little thing necessary for the team. Kevin is now working with the athletic department as Assistant Athletic Director of Administration and is finding ways to represent the university, and running its athletics.

Source: lansingstatejournal.com

Witnessing the behind the scenes aspect of the basketball team really helped me decide what I want to do for the rest of my life. When I was little and had little knowledge about the business side of the sport, I didn't really know what to expect. My first impression was that the program basically ran itself. The most important figures to the team was simply the coaches and the players. But after understanding the difficulty of running an elite basketball program such as Michigan State, I realized that none of it would work without the people we don't see on the court. Every single possible thing you can think of that doesn't involve the actual game of basketball is influenced by these staff members. 

What brought me to really enjoy these close up opportunities was my love for the sport. Pretty early on I knew that my chance of actually playing for an elite program was very slim to none, so I looked for a way to still be a part of the sport. Once I saw what I could possibly do, I fell in love with it. 

-Jackson