By: Gates Herscher
I attended the JMU Men’s Basketball exhibition game vs. Philadelphia University on Sunday, October 28th. I arrived at the Convocation Center roughly 30 minutes before tip off in order to witness the pregame responsibilities of JMU’s Associate Athletics Communications Director, Kevin Warner. Mr. Warner appeared very busy as he was taking care of many of his pregame responsibilities. From my court side seat it was apparent that Warner was involved in managing many social media outlets (Twitter, Facebook, etc.). Additionally, Mr. Warner was busy acclimating practicum students with their game time responsibilities.
During the game Mr. Warner was very consumed with his in-game responsibilities. We simply sat court side and observed the different tasks he was preforming while also watching the game. After the game Mr. Warner went back with the other media officials, presumably to handle all of his post game responsibilities. We waited for quite some time for his return. Upon his arrival, we were then able to get into a brief Q&A session with him. The main questions were inquires as to what his normal game day responsibilities entailed. Ultimately, we learned that Mr. Warner is responsible for setting up all the media equipment necessary for the game. As we’ve discussed in class, he is also responsible for the seemingly minor detail of where various media officials need to sit during the game. While this seems minor, it is very important to set up properly in order to avoid confusion once the game begins. Our assumptions were confirmed as Mr. Warner explained that he was responsible for monitoring the in-game tweets and Facebook posts. This is a very important job as it keeps fans that aren’t at the game informed as to how the Dukes are preforming. After the game Mr. Warner is responsible for putting the right media officials in touch with the players, staff and representatives that they may need to talk to. As we’ve learned in class, it is of the utmost importance that all the right people talk to each other. This ensures that the necessary stories make it to press on time.
I learned a lot during my job shadowing experience as it became very obvious that Mr. Warner’s game day routine entailed many tasks. I think the main thing I took away from the experience was the importance have having very fine attention to detail. As I mentioned, everything from a seating chart to monitoring in game twitter posts fell under Mr. Warner’s role. He was involved in not just his job, but the jobs of others as well. I think that a job like this would be exciting as no one game day would be alike.