By: Nico Thornberg
On October 28, 2012, I had the opportunity job shadow JMU’s Associate Athletics Communications Director, Kevin Warner during the JMU vs. Philadelphia University men’s basketball exhibition game. Having attended multiple basketball games throughout my four years at JMU, I was excited to see what happens courtside behind the tables.
I arrived at the Convocation Center at approximately 1:20 for a 2 o’clock tip off. When I arrived I walked down behind the tables where I introduced myself to Kevin. Warner was very busy since it was our first exhibition game and because he had to get his practicum students prepared. I was instructed to sit back and watch everything that he was doing and that he would answer questions after the game was completed.
After JMU defeated Philadelphia 77-69, Warner took time to answers all the questions I had about what he was doing throughout the game. I was told that he gets to the Convocation Center four hours prior to the game. He begins by going to his office and does his personal set up. This is where he prints out name cards for everyone and creates the seating chart. After this he goes court side and sets up all the media equipment.
During the game Warner was very busy. He was constantly Tweeting updates of the game and going around supervising everyone to make sure they’re doing their job. He also takes notes of important events of the games because it makes it easier for him to write story at the end of the game. It was interesting to see the old fashion phones on the sidelines, but he said that was so companies like ESPN and Sports Nations can call and get game stats. This isn’t as important as it use to be when Internet and social media weren’t as critical.
At the end of the game Warner handles the media and makes sure they get to talk to whom they’re interested in from the game. He also has the responsibility to tell the media that they may not be able to talk to some people possibly because of ejections or the coaching staff doesn’t want to expose the player. When I asked about how they scheduled traveling he said it was difficult and hard to say when exactly he’ll create it because it’s not like football where they play one game a week, but potentially three games a week.
Warner’s job is a large time commitment. He didn’t get finished cleaning up all of the media equipment until an hour after the game, and that’s only for an exhibition game where he or players didn’t address the media. For just one game he puts in about 8 hours of works from the time he walks in to the time he can walk out, which is a ton for a game with two twenty minute halves.
Overall I learned a lot from this experience. I got to see first hand how stressful and chaotic his job could be, and that’s just from an exhibition game with little to no media. It’s difficult for only one person to do everything he has to do, which is why he has volunteers and practicum students there to assist him. I would love to have this job in real life. Having the ability to be courtside and watch college basketball games would be awesome. I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to volunteer and gain more insight in what they do to help me gain credibility so I can do a job similar to this when I graduate.