By: Kelly DeRosa
On Sunday, October 28th, I had the chance of shadowing Milla Sue Wisecarver, the Assistant Athletics Communications Director for Men’s & Women’s Soccer, Women’s Basketball, and Lacrosse. I arrived at University Fields at 11:30 am and was given a ride in a golf cart down to the press box. This is where I met Milla Sue who showed me where to sit and brought me up to speed on all that her job entails.
Before the game started, Milla Sue had a lot of work to do. She had to make sure the starting lineups for both teams were distributed to the news media and PA announcer along with having her own copies. She set up both her computers; one was a PC, the other a Mac. The PC was used for inputting live stats on the program called Statcrew. Using this program, she inputs the stats during the game and she is then able to send the stats at half time and at the end of the game to the other team and the conference office. When I asked her what she, personally, did with the stats, she told me that she uses them to write stories that are based on the live stat info.
Milla Sue also explained to me how she has a student sitting outside on the sidelines that keeps track of the substitutions for each team. This student communicates with the press box through walkie-talkies. When I asked how a student would be able to get this job, she told me that usually students in the practicum program get that job while there are paid students who help her in the press box by being her “spotter”. She told me that she relies a lot on the spotter. This student helped her by telling her which players were on the field at all times, watching the game and keeping track of all of the big plays, and lastly keeping track of the substitutions made by each team. The spotter also tweeted before, at halftime, and at the end of the game to make sure all of the JMU Dukes fans were up-to-date with the game.
I learned that this job could, at times, be very stressful. It is hard for one person to keep track of everything that goes on during the entire game while making sure you keep the live stats up to date. It really helps having the spotter to help. I think I would enjoy the job but at the same time, I did not know enough about soccer to work for the soccer team. You need to know a lot about the sport that you are working for to make sure that you input the stats correctly and understand what is going on during the game.
