At McNeese, I enjoyed restarting the kids club. Our biggest event was a birthday party for our mascot during a double-header weekend. Pre-game we had a make-a-birthday-card station, coloring pages and a high-five tunnel. At halftime we did a pizza party and in between the two games we did pictures with our mascot and sponsor's mascots, who were there as our mascot’s friends. At halftime of the second game we did birthday cake and sang to him. That was probably my favorite thing at McNeese. Just having to restart it all and even though it was a smaller group with membership somewhere around 100, with about 25 kids, seeing how excited and experience to them was made it all worth it.

 

Here, at Utah State, my favorite memory is the elementary day game. The first year, like 2,500 kids came. This past offseason, they said they didn't know if we were going to have the elementary day game because our schedules were not looking like it would be possible to have one. Until mid-late August there was no chance of having one. I found out at the end of August that they had gotten one of the in-state schools that we were playing to move the date and time so that we could have an elementary day game. This time, we had like two and a half months to let schools know and get people to come. Up until a few days before the game, it was not going to come even close to the attendance number of the first year. A day or two before it sounded like it was going to be a little bit over the previous attendance number, but not drastically. It ended up being almost 1,000 more people. The women's basketball players loved it because they had energy to feed off the whole time. Yes, it's screaming children, and that stays in your head for a really long time but they don't usually get a crowd like that. Being able to have at least one game where it was such a great atmosphere for them was great.

 

Q: How did you become comfortable working in a male-dominated industry?

My situation is kind of weird because at Michigan it was a male-dominated department with Whitney (Tarver) as the only female. Intern-wise, it was pretty even, if not more girls. I knew it was a male industry but it never fully sank in for me when I was starting. I've moved all around the country growing up and have made friends super easy so I don't think it necessarily was as obvious to me because I just talk to everybody. I am an outgoing person so it didn't really sink in at Michigan.

At McNeese, the only time that it was obvious to me in a negative way was when I was working in the ticket office. None of my coworkers were around and I was sitting at the ticket window. It was one the first week or so at my new job. A fan who was a season ticket holder and a regular at all our sporting events, was like "oh, you're new."

I told him and his wife, "yeah, I just moved from Michigan."

He asked, "oh what made you come down here?"

I told him it was the job. The culture in Louisiana, where I lived seemed to be that young people are usually in a very serious relationship or married by their early 20s. So he asked if I was chasing after a guy or getting away from a relationship. I told him no and that I just wanted to work in sports and that usually involves moving to a job, that's just what you have to do.

 

It is also obvious that it's a male-dominated industry because I only have a handful of females in my specific field of marketing that I look up to as mentors because all of my bosses have been males. I know that it's male-dominated but I’m seeing a lot of departments, especially marketing, moving to be more balanced.

 

Q: Share a piece of advice you would give yourself when you were just starting out.

Being at a power five was great and I loved that experience but I think you're not always as exposed to the different areas in athletics. Responsibilities are also different because staffing sizes are different. The only way to get exposed to those other areas is either being more observant or talking to people in the other departments to see if those are areas that might interest you. I really think if I had known as an undergrad about how beneficial Twitter can be for networking whether it's through Twitter chats or just interacting with other people in the industry who do what you want to do or are at your level. The sooner you realize how beneficial Twitter is to your networking skills and development, I think it helps you a lot more in the long run.

 

Q: How do you find a work life balance?

That was definitely something that I struggled with at McNeese because a smaller staff means that you're doing a lot more. I don't know if I have that balance completely now, either. I know people in the industry who, when they're home, don't do anything sports-related. Sports have always been such a big part of my life that I don't cut out watching sports for fun because then I'd go crazy. But I think it's finding either an activity or hobby -- something that you can do even in limited time -- and just making it part of your routine when you're not in a crazy season so that it's built in and you're used to it when the crossover seasons happen. You're not always going to have that time every day but just trying to keep it in a regular routine so that it's built in and a habit is what I would say.

 

Q: What is a good way to set yourself apart from others?

I think being active on social media in a professional way, not only to highlight your professional accomplishments, but being active and contributing to the industry on social media to get your name out there helps. I'm not saying that's the only thing because there's so many factors that go into it. I think it's either taking something in your job that’s related to the industry and exceeding expectations with it and building it or doing something outside of your job that shows your interest and passion in the industry whether that's specifically related to your job or not.