On October 16th, I attended the women’s volleyball game verse University of Virginia. I not only got to experience a thrilling game that went into overtime, but the job of a sports information director. I arrived to Godwin Gymnasium 30 minutes early to find a table set up on one side of the court with two computers and a few chairs. I met Brian Hansen, the athletic director of the JMU volleyball team along with two other JMU sports teams, and had him brief me on what I would be observing. As the sports information director, Brian stood up the whole game to be able to see every play as clearly as possible. He allowed me and the other student observing to switch sitting in the chair next to the person inputting statistics and wearing headphones to hear how they communicated during the game.
During the game, it was difficult to ask questions because Brian’s job required him to call out every move each team made and by which player, by their numbers, for the other person to input into what looked like a statistics database. During the breaks though I asked the student in charge of inputting statistics if she had a difficult time learning how to do it and what happened if she messed up. As the game went on I saw Brian correct her on some plays and help her as she went along, but before the game he also went over the abbreviations again for the plays and how to do little technical things within the database. I also asked Brian what he had to provide the other team with since it looked like he handed them papers the database printed in between each period. He responded that he provided them with the roster and statistics sheet.
The game really showed me what this position requires from someone. Brian was extremely accurate calling the plays, no matter how fast they happened or if it was hard to see which player made it. I also learned that catching mistakes quickly, as Brian did with the student inputting the stats, would make a huge difference in how long they had to stay after the game was over. The person inputting the stats also had a twitter feed next to the database, which she would tweet in during the breaks. Brian also helped her think of short but sweet tweets to post if they were under a time crunch. If I had to job shadow this same position again, I would definitely try and ask more questions about how he got into this position and how it differed from calling plays at different games.
In honesty, I could not see myself in this job position. I like pressure to get me to do a job correctly and on time, but the quickness Brian had to have and knowledge of all of the players without constantly looking at the rosters was something I do not have much interest in. He had a very calm demeanor, and even kept cool when the UVA coach started yelling at one of the eldest refs trying to mediate the situation. Even though I admired how well Brian Hansen did his job, it is not something I would pursue.