The most important parts about an SIDs job is to keep stats and report on the games. A couple of times this season I will complete a write up of the game and a coach will tell Brian that something about the article was wrong. For example in one of the softball articles I wrote that a player had two home runs when the truth was she had three. Now the problem isn't with my writing it's with the stats. After being at so many basketball and softball/baseball games this season I know firsthand that the stats are not always right. There have been multiple times when the stats are wrong, (compared to the two teams stats that are kept on their sidelines or in their dugouts) so my write up has been wrong. When that happens the coaches will come to Brian and ask can stats be changed, this happens more often than not at away games, so Brian has to call or email the SID from SU's opponent and sometimes the SID is willing to change and sometimes they will stand by what they entered in and won't change them for any reason. There just is no continuity between the SIDs in the conference; some have a reputation for turning in stats almost 24 hrs after a game and others have a reputation of botched stats. I don't think any SID is necessarily bad, I just think they may need more help than they are getting.
Yesterday I got to attend the 2014 Sports Administration (SPAD ) Speaker Summit at the University of Louisville. The summit featured UofL alumni who are currently working in sports administration, local journalism talent, and ESPN's Jemele Hill.
The summit was very beneficial because the guests shared their experiences in the SPAD program as well as what it took for them to reach their career goals. Attending the SPAD Speaker Summit was not apart of a typical day in the athletics department but it was a great networking tool and it showed that Brian cared enough about his interns to expose us to some of the best in the industry. After the event, I returned to Spalding to help assist with the setup of the SLIAC Basketball Tournament. I assisted with the setup of the scorers table, which is were I would be spending the rest of my night. Both Spalding's men's and women's basketball team earned the right to host their respective tournaments, which means that the athletics department was in store for a long weekend. I covered every game for Spalding during the championship and today in was working in the capacity of an intern from 9:00 a.m. To 11:00 p.m. It was a very VERY long day, and although I was tired, I feel that sports information/ sports administration is exactly where I want my career to go. I have started to cover softball which is great because I am very familiar with the sport but I was not prepared for what was to come. At my last internship the school had a nice sky box with windows and doors and HEAT. The Spalding softball team plays at a high school and the press box there is a rickety old wooden shack that couldn't provide heat, because there is no window! It gets extremely cold in Louisville and sitting outside keeping stats sucked.
I am thankful for the opportunity but I would never want to sit in a place this cold again for so long! When softball plays, most of the time is doubleheaders so as we are sometimes out there past 11. Although it was freezing, I guess I would do it all over again for the sake of the job. Towards the end of the women's and men's basketball season Spalding found themselves in the position of possibly hosting their respective tournaments. Brian was hoping that the teams wouldn't host the tournament because that meant that he would have to be responsible for keeping the statistics for all the games in the tournament, which would be difficult since the baseball team had its home opener during this period.
The men's team was named regular season SLAIC champs out right and was given the responsibility of hosting the Men's Basketball tournament. The lady eagles however, ended the season in the no. 2 spot but because the no. 1 spot Iowa Wesleyan was in its probation period (meaning they just joined the NCAA from the NAIA this season) they were not allowed to host or participate in the basketball tournament so the responsibility fell to Spalding. Spalding recently joined the NCAA Division III and Brian explained to me the why teams have to have a probational period when joining. NCAA DIII schools don't offer scholarships, so schools that come from the NAIA, which does offer scholarships, are allowed to keep their scholarship players for one year but after that year they can't be any scholarship players. Some teams find that there is a big decline in play once they lose scholarship athletes but because the NCAA is much more national recognized, with over 1200 schools, there are benefits to the choosing the NCAA. On Thursday March 20th, around 2:00 PM the spalding athletics website launched! It was so good to see because Brian C, Brian D (the other intern), and I had worked tirelessly to get the website together. It looks so great, and I felt very proud to be a part of this project.
I completed all of the team bios for men's and women's golf, men's and women's soccer, softball, bowling, and men's and women's basketball. It took a while to do because there are so many student athletes and for each year they played a synopsis of their season was to be recorded. I believe that this task, actually helped me to increase my knowledge of the sports because I had to know and understand the statistics for the different sports in order to write about them. Since the softball season is underway, Brian decided to teach me how to take softball stats in the statistics software, Stat crew, so that I can help to stat upcoming softball games. The program is simple enough to understand, you put codes in for certain plays, but it does take some hands on experience to really get everything down.
My first experience with doing the live stats at an actual game was exciting and it wasn't that overwhelming because I split time with the other athletics intern. I felt comfortable keeping the stats because Brian was right there helping me. This wasn't my first time using the program but it was my first time using the program to stat softball/baseball; I've used the program in the past to stat lacrosse, but Spalding doesn't have lacrosse. Photo shoots are among some of the more relaxed tasks that goes on in sports information. I was not able to attend all the teams photo shoots but I did attend the photo shoot for baseball. The SID didn't take the pics himself as the department has a photographer that handles all the team photos but attending the photo shoots and making sure things run smoothly is a part of the SID's job. While at the photo shoot, it was my task to keep a record of the players and the order they took their head shots; making sure that everyone had taken one. I was also responsible for making sure the photographer had a detailed list of the smaller group shots that were taken.
The SID is responsible for the departments website and media guides, so it's mostly up to him to determine how many shots are taken and what can and cannot be used. Although it was a pretty simple task it took almost four hours to take all the photos because the photographer had to set up for individual shots, small group shots, and then had to relocate for the larger group pic. It wasn't the typical day because it was pretty causal and it was great to have a relaxed kind of day after so many hectic days. This year SU's women's basketball team made it to the NCAA Division III Tournament. This season was the first time the team won its conference championship and the first time making it to the NCAA tournament. The tournament was in Rhode Island, so I didn't get to see the game in person but I did she the game as I watched the live broadcast and followed the live stats, both online. This made it easy to take notes, which I usually try to do during games, and follow the pace of the game.
Live stats is something that Brain wants to one day add to Spalding's site but it would take more money and support from the staff to do. The men's and women's Basketball SLIAC championships were held at Spalding between February 27-March 1; the women played on the 28th and the 1st and the men played the 27th and the 1st.
Four teams made it to each tournament (men's/women's) Spalding played host to two games a night. The second day of the tournament was really hectic because it was the same day as the SPAD speaker summit. I covered every game for Spalding during the tournament, which was exciting but left other projects up in the air. At the end of the tournament, the women's basketball team earned their first SLIAC Basketball Championship and the men's team advanced to the championship game but fell short. During the tournament, the weather was pretty bad in Louisville, so although the times of the games were already set, the games were pushed up. Over the course of my internship, there have been a lot of late nights where I'm up waiting for stats or waiting to write. Some of the games that start at 7 or 8, I already know they will be ending late and I'll have to wait on stats to write but other games it doesn't make since. When there are home games, Brian is sure to give me the stats right away bit when it's an away game the stats might not come until the next day, regardless of start time. When reporting stats to the NCAA and to the conference, teams have 24hrs; while Brian usually summits the stats in 1-2 hours other SIDs in the conference take their time and won't summit until the last minute. They are doing anything wrong but it does make it hard for me to do what I need to do, because in waiting for them to turn the stats in.
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