By: Chelsea Clark
On Saturday, November 10, the James Madison women’s volleyball team had a match against Hofstra to close the regular season. The match took place in Sinclair Gymnasium at 7 PM. JMU, Hofstra, UNCW and George Mason were all still in the running for the final two spots to join other CAA teams in the five-match tournament. Unfortunately, JMU lost to Hofstra 3-1 that night, eliminating them for a spot in the tournament.
Not only was this an important game for the Dukes, but the team also celebrated Senior Day for their three seniors, Natalie Abel, Danielle Erb and Megan Wiechmann which had to be organized prior to the match. To set up this job shadow, I emailed Athletics Communications Associate Brian Hansen who is in charge of Field Hockey, Volleyball, Swimming & Diving and Softball. He told me that I had to report to the gymnasium and just stay behind the press box. The athletic director is in charge of coordinating games and tournaments, and making sure that the team arrives safely to the venue without problems. They need to make sure they send in complete box scores of the matches. Hansen communicated with the other teams’ organization to manage the relationship. He went over rules and sportsmanship with them.
Because it was senior day, Brian went over the procedure with the three girls and told them when to walk out onto the court and when to arrive back at the bench. Brian also kept an eye on the fans although it wasn’t one of his major jobs. Brian seemed to do his job very well and ran the match very smoothly. There are at least six game personnel sitting at the press box who are in charge of the statistics, box scores, updating notes, taking pictures and making sure both teams have similar scores which is something Brian overlooks as a part of his job. For example, Hansen called every dig, set, attack and kill, and player’s numbers that were to be put into the computer. Because it was senior day, the management seemed very busy so I simply observed and did not get to ask any questions, although a question I would ask would be “What is the thing you struggle with the most having this job.”
I learned that there is a lot that needs to be done with any sports team, not only football, and the more smoothly it is run, the more fans will not notice the operations behind the match. It is really easy to make this a hectic job, but when managed the right way it becomes routine. I did enjoy the job shadow but am not sure if I would really enjoy that job. I am not a huge fan of volleyball at all but it was interested to pay attention more to the amount of detail that occurs behind the scenes of a game. I personally would not want this job because there was no sense of enjoyment that he gets out of it, it is strictly calling out statistics. Overall, the job shadow was a great experience because it gave me an idea of what is put into a single match, and I also learned that it may not necessarily be the right job for me.