JOURNEY TO WORKING IN SPORT!

It has been a little over a year since I have posted. In recent news, I have graduated from Bradley University and have began my career in sports. Truly a dream come true. While I was growing up, I remember having a whiteboard in my basement that I would update throughout the season with my ideal NHL team. My goal was the hand craft the perfect roster and send it to Stan Bowman for him to craft the Blackhawks to my perfect team. Let's just say younger me didn't conceptualize what a salary cap was, but my selected team would have won it all! To say the least, this dream didn't just take a little girl and her love for the game, but time, dedication and passion to the craft.

 Pictured: My dad and I watching a Blackhawks game

The Journey

As I had mentioned earlier, I have loved sports from a young age. I grew my love of sport from around two weeks old, when my mom took me to my dad's high school hockey game. My dad had been a coach for around 4 years before I was born and continued until I graduated high school. It was his passion, and it soon became the thing that pointed me on my path. 

I was put into many sports as a child, whether it be learning to ice skate at three years old or playing t-ball at five and being the only girl on the team or playing floor hockey and losing every single game. I was always apart of a team or sport. It wasn't until I picked up a softball bat that I had found my passion. It took a while to perfect my craft but I ended up playing that very sport for 14 more years. 

Softball taught me to LOVE the process and the people that make it. I loved everything about my time playing softball from house league, to high school, to A-level travel softball. It was my happy place. So much so that when I had 'down time' during fall ball I helped coach at my middle school. This then pushed me to coach my little sisters team when I had aged out of the program and went to college. The summer I spent coaching her team was the most rewarding summer of my life. I thought my happy place was playing, but watching a child gain confidence and succeed was truly the icing on top of the cake. 

My love for sports never wavered, I joined fantasy sports club in middle school, talked about sports nonstop with friends and did a majority of school project topics on sports. The one consistent thing in my life was my passion for sports. As it was time for me to decide what to major and where to go to school, I had a hard time deciding between being a teacher and the possibility of working in sports. I knew deep down that I owed it to my younger self to pursue my passion and that is what led me to choosing Bradley and the sports communications program. 

From my first day on campus to crossing the graduation stage, I remained true to my passion of sport and led it guide me throughout my time. I joined a sorority and held the position of sports chair, while setting up March Madness leagues for my sisters. I played intramural sports with fraternities and sororities, all of which kept me socially into sports. 

It wasn't until my senior year where I decided that I had to take my passions seriously in order to go further than the classroom. I made connections with the faculty in the Charley Steiner School of Sports Communications and they helped me succeed in the classroom. I was able to graduate Summa Cum Laude with their efforts and dedication to my success. Outside of that, I began working as an intern for the Bradley Athletics Department and was able to broadcast softball games, work marketing for Men's Basketball, and act as the SID for softball. To say the least, I was able to learn key skills to help my success beyond the classroom walls. 

When it was time for graduation day, I still did not have a job but I felt equipped for whatever would be thrown my way that following months. It took a mere month for my internship boss to call and offer me a full-time job at Bradley Athletics as the Assistant Director of Athletic Communications for Volleyball, Women's Basketball and Baseball. 

Dreams Come True

And that is where I am today. I am a year postgrad and have a year of experience under my belt at a D1 institution that I get to call my alma mater! It has been a year full of learning and progressing my skills for something I deem as a passion. Nonetheless it is truly a dream come true for me. 

Pictured: Bradley Staff Headshot


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