By: Carolyn Chastka
On October 28, 2012 I attended the Job Shadowing for JMU Men’s Basketball. I observed Kevin Warner, the Associate Director for Athletic Communications at James Madison University. I arrived roughly around 1:15pm and met Kevin behind the scorer’s table. He was already set up with his equipment and stat staff behind the monitors/computers, etc. His employee staffs showed up around the same time I did and met with him to get instructions, prepare for the game, and organize themselves. Kevin instructed me to sit in the front row as close to the stat staff as I could get and observe whatever I wanted. The game began at 2pm and I observed the staff take phone calls from media, monitor the game via TV, analyze points, control the scoreboard, etc. At halftime, Kevin printed out copies of the game statistics and handed them to JMU as well as the opposing team. He did this at every quarter, as well as when requested. Throughout the entire game I also noticed Kevin managing a Hootesuite account that controlled all versions of social media he operated. He mostly tweeted and updated Facebook, as well as monitored what his “followers”, or audience, was reporting about the game, team in general, etc. The second half consisted of more or less the same activities and once the game ended Kevin left right away to speak at the post-game Press Conference.
After the game, press conference, and an hour of packing up, Kevin had a few minutes to answer some questions. At first, I didn’t understand why people were taking phone calls in the middle of the game so I asked him about it. Kevin stated that since it was an observational pre-game it was pretty quiet but normally, during season, reporters that are covering the game live, or reporting about it, call in to check stats and see what is happening. But since society has switched to social media, Facebook and Twitter take the place of phone calls and people either email or reach out via Internet to get stat updates. I then asked him about his pre-game ritual: How early he gets there, what does he do? Kevin said he gets there about an hour before everyone else does. He sets up, gets himself together, organizes in his own way, and then everyone else comes in and he works with his staff to get affiliated with pre-game activity. The last question I asked was about the process of getting into the Sports PR world. He described it as a little bit of luck, knowing how to network, and trying to get your foot in the door in any and all sports that you can.
I learned from the shadowing that you have to be very patient with the people you are observing. Their jobs are a lot more aggressive than they may seem and you need to respect them in their “place of work.” Also, we mentioned in class that it is not appropriate to clap or show bias towards a team. I noticed sitting in the scorer section that absolutely no one shows enthusiasm or support for either side, they stay focused at the task at hand. The only thing I would change would be to get a little bit more interaction from Kevin himself. He was very involved with his student staff and it felt like he neglected the other project he agreed to (our SCOM313 observation), he didn’t interact with us at all even when it seemed at points like he was twiddling his thumbs. I enjoyed observing this job but the more I learn and understand, the more I don’t feel that sports PR is for me. It is so time consuming and allows for little else that it conflicts with how I see my future. I have more appreciation for the art of Sports PR but less desire to actually work in the field.
For more information on JMU basketball please visit http://www.jmusports.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=14400&SPID=6826&SPSID=62352 .