For my practicum, I worked with the Fort Lewis College Athletic department and worked

underneath Adam Ruetschle who is in charge of managing facilities and the game day operations.

The athletic department gave me three other options and I picked Adam because it would be a

good experience to manage facilities and understand what goes on during all athletic events that

happen here at Fort Lewis. The other options included working with Lynne Andrews who is in

charge of budgeting, scholarships, compliance, and NCAA eligibility as well as working with

Sarah Meier on the sports information aspect. Although I didn’t work her, I did gain some

knowledge with what she’s in charge of; webpages, up to date player stats, game scripts player

profiles and updating the athletic department webpage. The last option was assisting Wayne

Barger who is in charge of the external development of the athletic department, marketing, and

sponsorships. After meeting with Adam and Lynne to discuss what I was to do to complete my

practicum, we decided that I was going to help Adam on the game day operations with the

possibility of shadowing Lynn to gain insight on her tasks. Sports wise, I was going to work the

majority of the basketball games as well as work a couple softball and lacrosse games to broaden

my experience on the preparation and set up for those sports.

The practicum ended up going smoothly with everything I wanted to do. For most of the

basketball games, I was assigned different duties to gain and understand all the different roles for

facilitating a basketball game. These roles included being the video recorder of the games,

promoting and gathering fans for the halftime shows, scorekeeping, crowd control, providing

hospitality for fans and sponsors, admitting fans and shadowing Adam, the top manager

employee for the games. This was a great experience because I was able to experience every role

and see what ones I liked the most. My favorite positions was the manager role, scorekeeping for

the games and the providing hospitality. The manager and hospitality person allowed me to

check in on how people were doing and assisting in spots where help was needed.

For the softball aspect of the practicum, I was only able to help twice in preparing and

setting up the field. The first time I was there I helped Adam set up the tarp around the outfield

fence and the dugout which helped me grasp the preparation for the softball season. The second

time at the softball fields consisted of seeing the game day preparation and what needed to be

done. I already had a brief idea on what entailed for the set up but it was good to see the exact

tasks to be done the way they did. In addition, it was good for me to see how long it took to set

up the field. With working the lacrosse games, I was only able to assist one game. Nonetheless, it

still gave me the experience that I wanted in the end. Essentially, I learned what was necessary to

set up the field and the sound system for the football field as well as acquiring more experience

videotaping Division II sports. I also was able to learn how to break down the field after the

game was done and more knowledge about the game of lacrosse. Overall, I was pleased with my

experience with the three sports.

Many of my skills from lifeguarding and my previous team experience with swimming

applied to my practicum. On my swim team, I was known as my positive spirit and providing

energy to my swim team when we lacked motivation. This was required in order to cheer up my

co-workers when we knew we’re weren’t going to be done by our usual time of finishing up. In

addition, this was needed in order to maintain our fan’s interests in the game when it was clear

we were going to lose the game. The other skills came from my lifeguarding job. To be

successful and exceptional lifeguard, it is necessary to be accountable, responsible and be able to

work well with other coworkers and these skills are translated to any job, not just to this

practicum. For my accountability, whenever I did make a mistake working for Adam, I told him

about it and asked him what I could do to correct it or learn from it. To be accountable, an

person also has to be responsible and mature to admit his mistake to try to improve themselves.

In regard to my team working skills, there was also countless times where my coworkers and I

had to work together and help each other out. For instance, we always worked in a team when we

put the rails away or carried in and out the basketball equipment into the gym. Responsibility

was also another important skill the practicum asked of me because there was no room for

laziness in completing your duties for the night. When the job was assigned to me, I was

expected to complete the job the best I could or ensuring that the task was completed. An

example of this was when I had to recruit enough participants for the halftime games during

winter break where there was hardly anyone at the games. If I hadn’t performed my task well

that resulted in no halftime games, there would have been repercussions on my reputation of

being responsible from Lynne and Adam.

There were two specific courses, if not my whole entire college experience, that helped

me prepare me for this practicum. The legal aspects of sport was a good course for this

experience because gave rational why certain tasks and procedures were required to ensure

spectator satisfaction and comply with the laws. For instance, to comply with the American

Disability Act, we would put handicap seats right next to court every game. ES 480 is also a

good course that essentially gave me knowledge in the relationships and problem solving

approaches in effective organization and administration of athletic programs. In addition, the

information with the use of facilities for and contributing well rounded material about sports jobs

and what is needed to be success. My previous three years in college also assisted in the

preparation of this experience. In college, I learned how to manage their time, perform well

under massive stressors in addition to balancing work, academics and their social life and I

would have lack the preparation for the experience if I was sophomore.

There were many benefits to take way from this practicum. One benefit was expanding

my network for potential job opportunities. It was especially fun working for Adam and he’s

taught me a lot of the pro’s and cons of his position. Another benefit was seeing the different

positions in the athletic department. Although I didn’t work in the office, I was there often

enough to see how Lynne, Sarah, Garry and Adam role’s differed from each other. Sarah Meier

was essentially the sports information directer with developing game programs while being the

statistician for the games. She was also solely in charge of the press releases, media guides for

the games and helping the media conduct player’s and coach’s post-game interviews. For athletic

director Gary Hunter, he oversaw all the positions in the department and worked in a variety of

ways. His duties are composed with fund-raising, communication with the media, budget and

finance and personnel management among many others. Lynne Andrews works closely with

Gary and overlaps with him on many responsibilities like fund-raising, budgeting and event

management. However, she supervised the games and dealt with miscellaneous activities that

came up. Adam was in charge of scheduling the facility, overseeing the maintenance and

improvements of the facility in addition to his game day operations. All these individuals worked

together in order to achieve the mission of Fort Lewis’s athletic department and they all loved

what they did.

From this experience, I learned there is much preparation, facilitation of the event as well

as clean up during game days. Being a spectator, I didn’t consciously think about the work put

into the whole event of a basketball game. Spectators go to the game, watches the game with

friends, eats and drinks concessions and then leaves the event. For the people actually running

the event, there is so much more work done to be done. Working the basketball game event

entails two hours of preparation and one to two hours of cleanup and this time excludes the time

to set up the gym the day before. When you are a fan, you don’t see the rails being put on the

bleachers or preparing the coolers to provide referees with refreshing beverages during halftime.

It was important to experience the worker side of sports in order to determine if this side of the

sports industry is an appealing career for me.

Overall, this was an extremely valuable experience which provided me a first real taste of

working in the sports administration field. My only prior experience in working in sports was

participating on my sports teams although it’s not really a sports job. It was great see to the

different positions at an athletic department and . It mainly provided more insights on what

career in the sport industry I will like to pursue and a brief look into what they’re schedule was

like. With my internship coming up next year, I feel much more comfortable with having this

experience underneath my belt.