8 Simple Weeks

Coaches, athletes, sports broadcasters and analysts often say the greatest growth for an collegiate athlete comes following their freshman season. A year’s worth of experience, quality coaching and more than a little adversity serve as the foundation for long-term development. Business and education mirror the development model of collegiate sports. A great initial investment of effort and time during the early stages of the learning process speed up the maturation of both students and interns.

The Sport Management Program at the University of San Francisco is no different.

Opening up the program with a Leadership and Critical Thinking class taught by Dr. Cellini, students are taught professionalism and methods to succeed in the sport industry. Students are also required to conduct informational interview with respected leaders in their field of interest, while making weekly presentations to class members. When asking students from both Southern California and San Francisco campuses about their experience in the program’s first class, they spoke passionately about the growth they made in just 8 weeks. The newest cohorts started this past July and are now info their third class. 

With that I turn it over to Cohort 37 of San Francisco and Cohort 14 of Southern California…

How are you different from 8 weeks ago?

“I think I am more confident in myself and willing to take more chances.  I am also happier because I love everything and everyone involved with this program.  I have an EXCELLENT cohort.” – Annie Gavett (Cohort 37)

“Today, I am more confident and less shy of meeting people.  Before it would take me a while to introduce myself to someone (at times, I would do it after a conversation); today, I make sure I introduce myself and not be afraid of having a conversation with this person.” - Katrina Delen-Briones (Cohort 37)

Eight weeks ago, I was just a recent college graduate, working a summer job, and figuring out what the next few years of my life would be like. Now, I am still all of those, but with a lot more direction and clarity, as well as opportunities coming up. I also was able to meet 33 other people who are going to be sharing the next two years of journeys with me!” – Lucy Tseng (Cohort 14S)

How has your understanding of what it takes to be successful changed?

“I see now that it takes more than just hard work and savvy to be successful, it requires the appropriate attitude and approach. Without a positive attitude and the ability to think critically, one is not truly equipped to be a leader in the sport industry or elsewhere.” - Brandon Fleshman (Cohort 37)

“I really want to dedicate what ever it takes to get a job here. I don't want to go back bare-handed. I think for international students, it takes a very outgoing personality. Through that way, you build mature social circles which is the most important thing to find yourself a position here.” – Jeremy Gao (Cohort 37).

“Today, I've found more ways to be successful, on top of what I already know, such as how far a person goes beyond the norm.  For example, I have heard stories of people flying and driving thousands of miles to meet with someone for about 15 minutes and resulted to job offers.  It is not just traveling far but also little things such as giving more than what was asked at all times.  You always have to differentiate yourself amongst others and to do so, you must give and do more than the average person.” - Katrina Delen-Briones (Cohort 37)

What opportunities have you pursued since joining the program?

“I am currently working for the Bay School of San Francisco in the Athletic Department, at the San Francisco Bulls on the Promotions Team and at the University of San Francisco as an Athletic Event Manager.  I have also volunteered for a Youth Football Clinic for Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl and I will be volunteering at the Olympic Club this Monday for a charity golf tournament in conjunction with Saint Mary's Hospital.” - Annie Gavett (Cohort 37)

“Completing the Career Prospectus paper project has given me the opportunity to network and build connections with people of all backgrounds. I will be working at UCLA Athletics as an Academic & Student Services Intern beginning Fall 2012.” – Lucy Tseng (Cohort 14S)

What insights did you gain from going through the informational interview process?

“Most importantly, I've learned that many professionals whom I admire have had similarly difficult paths to their 'dream jobs'. They faced several obstacles that made them question what they were doing, but in the end they were able to rise above those challenges and achieve their goals.” - Brandon Fleshman (Cohort 37)

“I learned the ins and outs of the industry I am interested in (PGA golf tournaments).  I learned that one of the biggest sacrifices I might have to make is family, since there is great amount of traveling and the possibility of working far away from home.  This made me think of my decision to work in this industry.” - Katrina Delen-Briones (Cohort 37)

Flexibility Proves Key for Sport Management Students

Great administrators, professors and students make up the Sport Management Program. A committed and accessible network of alumni adds to a well-organized and structured program. Another key aspect of the program is its flexibility and ability to allow students to pursue career opportunities while still earning their degree.

While many students stay two years in a single location, either in San Francisco or Orange Country, others move between the two campuses in order to pursue job opportunities. The seamless transition between one campus to another has been experienced by Tiana Davis and Mike Krupoff. Davis has moved from San Francisco to Southern California, while Krupoff has made the move north after starting the program in Orange County.

After working at the University of California and Stanford in the fall, Davis moved south in order to pursue an opportunity with the L.A. Galaxy, in addition to L.A. Fitness.

“I moved down here in the middle of March. My best moment so far would have to be getting an OMIT position with LA Fitness. I finally feel I found a job that I can turn into a career,” says Davis. “L.A. fits my lifestyle and is where I was meant to be so I couldn't be happier with my decision to transfer.”

With her job in Valencia, Davis has had to overcome the long commute and daily Los Angeles traffic. Even with some logistical challenges associated with moving campuses, the overall transition has been a success.

“The program does a fantastic job of making the transition as easy for students as possible,” notes Davis. “I had no problem jumping in with the other cohort. My paperwork was easily transferred as well.”

With a desire to work in the NFL with the Oakland Raiders, Krupoff has made the most of his move to the Bay Area. The move has made life significantly easier for Krupoff after he was previously commuting up to the Bay Area each weekend to work with the team last fall.

“The USF program and everyone involved made the transition as seamless as possible. I made sure to keep everyone in the loop as soon as I started seriously considering the move and as time progressed and things got more serious they were able to make it happen with no questions asked,” says Krupoff. “I was honestly very surprised at how easy the transfer from one campus to the other was.” 

As a classmate of Krupoff in San Francisco, it has been easy for me to see him quickly adapt to joining the Northern California campus. The past couple weeks he has been working training camp for the Raiders and is clearly well on his way to pursuing a career in football operations.

In addition to the flexibility the program provides in terms of moving campuses, it provides the same flexibility for students working jobs that may conflict with class times.

Because of the nature of my last internship with the U.S. Open, a number of students from the program working the event took a class off and will make it up at a later time. For all of us working in the sport industry, we quickly learn that a typical 9-to-5 schedule is almost nonexistent. After finishing up my internship with the U.S. Open this summer in San Francisco, it was an adjustment to get back into a regular week after working over 100 hours a week during two weeks in June.

While it was nice to be able to focus solely on the event, coming back to class for Sport Law felt a little bit like that first class last June. During that first night back and the ensuing six weeks, I’ve been reminded of how great it is to be part of the program in a class setting. Hearing how each person is doing and the opportunities everyone is pursuing keeps others motivated. It also lowers your stress level when you hear other classmates that face similar challenges!

Flexibility from the program provides students the chance to pursue a wide range of opportunities in two major sport markets. The problem for most students is narrowing down a number of opportunities to just one.

“The most challenging part of the Sport Management program is that there are so many opportunities to work and intern. I really wish I had the time and student lifespan to work a day with every internship or job posting that gets blasted out,” reflects Krupoff.

“I firmly believe that if you set your sights on something while in this program it is attainable, so long as you do your due diligence in taking the right approach in making it happen.” 

A Year In The Books

Be around good people that motivate you through energy and laughter.

After about nine months in the program I find myself being able to better explain the meaningful experiences I’ve had since last July. When I went back to Corvallis, Oregon for Christmas in December I was still formulating a big-picture explanation for what the Sport Management Program has given me.

My stories, reflections and impressions given to my family and friends proved to be a laundry list of great experiences. I’ve worked with highly successful people in the NFL, collegiate athletics and the golf industry. I’ve work in great stadiums and during big games. So I started to think about what all these random experiences have in common. What is the common thread throughout each great experience in the Sport Management Program, whether it be in a job, school or social setting.

So I came to this…

For every great experience I’ve had in the last nine months, I always explain and frame the experience to others within the framework of who I was doing something with, rather than what I was doing.

Each great opportunity or experience seems to be great not because of what I am doing, but who I am doing it with.

Case in point: every morning I wake up and go to work with two of my best friends at the USGA, Jeff Stoefen and Kristen Chambers (both of Cohort 35). The internship is fantastic, the setting is ideal and the opportunity to work the U.S. Open for golf has been rewarding and will continue to develop as we get closer to the tournament.

But when I come back home or see a friend, every insight into the Open is always framed by the person I was doing something with. Nothing in the sport industry is isolated and if it is…you probably won’t remember a split second of it.

My stories always start…”So Kristen and I went…” or “Jeff and I were…”

How awesome is that?

The opportunity to work is sports is great, but every now and then we need to keep things in perspective. At the end of the day if you can get a good story out of it…it was worth it! And most good stories have another person in the same fight. The USF Sport Management Program is set up in a manner that allows students to have a balanced perspective of the sport industry. With the cohort system in place, students within the program have an ability to foster relationships on a weekly and even daily basis.

This is exactly what I’ve been trying to explain to a good friend of mine. I feel like I’m recruiting him like John Calipari goes after the number-one recruit. We talk or text weekly and he is getting sick of me talking up the USF program. One of his big questions he had was, “how good of friends do you make in the program?” This is a valid question when you consider that most people in my cohort came to orientation without knowing a single person. Plus, it will be a long couple of years if you don’t have someone to give you a hard time when you screw up and pat you on the back when you get it done.

Even though my friend asked a good question, I laughed at him and told him that the surest ‘take it to Vegas’ guarantee I could give him was that he would be surrounded with motivated and like-minded people that had enough diversity and energy to push him to where he needs to get.

I call those people friends.

A couple of weeks ago the USF Sport Management family lost a part of the family I never got the chance to meet, when alum Alexis Busch passed away. Alexis was one of five crew members who died during a ‘Low Speed Chase’ sailboat accident. Their boat capsized during a race close to the Farallon Islands.

While most of my cohort never knew Alexis personally, it was a humbling reminder about the often over-looked aspect of being in the USF Sport Management Program. We are surrounded by great people everyday. Alexis had a wide range of passions, ranging from her experiences in the health and fitness industry, while also playing in two baseball leagues. Along with being the first bat girl in Major League Baseball history (with the Giants from 1999 to 2002), Alexis was the first person to greet Giants legend Barry Bonds at home plate following his 500^th home run.  From those who knew her within the sport industry and her friends in the USF Sport Management program, opinions on Alexis were universal: her energy and passion for baseball was a reflection of the way she lived all aspects of her life.    

So if you are attending, going to be attending, or thinking about attending the Sport Management Program, be very selfish….

When you get around someone, or a group of people who makes all your experiences in sport better, remember that the people you are with, not the games, make the memories.  

Bonding with Boomer: 48 hours with Chris Berman

Darren and "Boomer" at the Chargers game

Professional athletes, entertainers and T.V. personalities are the types of dynamic personalities that make most of us wonder what those stars are like in real life. We often hope they are as they appear, or sometimes we pray that they can’t be like that off-air.

Very rarely do we get answers to those questions.

Unless your Darren Feeney of Cohort 12 in Southern California.

Darren with NFL Network's
 Michael Irvin

While working with the San Diego Chargers, Feeney networked his way into a unique opportunity this past November. With his boss at the Chargers also serving on the Board of Directors for the Huntington’s Disease Society, Feeney had hoped to find a position as a volunteer for the annual HD Celebration of Hope Gala in downtown San Diego.

Along with helping out a great cause, there was also the intrigue of being involved with an event that featured NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, ESPN’s Chris “Boomer” Berman, NFL Network’s Rich Eisen and Steve Mariucci and Hall of Fame players Marshall Faulk, Deion Sanders and Michael Irvin.

After asking his boss to find a role for him at the event, Fenney heard two words that would shape a memorable experience.

“Boomer’s Guy.”

For Feeney, the role of “Boomer’s Guy” proved to be a 48-hour commitment filled with car rides to and from hotels, unforgettable conversations and lasting pieces of advice. All of this done so while in the company of one of ESPN's most charismatic anchors, Chris Berman. 

Feeney’s first meeting with Berman came at the Torrey Pines Hotel. While picking up Berman from his hotel on a Wednesday afternoon, Feeney was also able to meet Berman’s longtime producer Jay Kutlow.

As for one of Feeney’s better decisions over the two days?

“Having oldies music on in the car, thanks to some great research of Boomer’s interests by my father,” explains Feeney. “In fact, my father, who is a Superior Court Judge, offered to even switch jobs with me for a couple days. But I respectfully declined.”

The opening car ride exposed Berman's off-air personality. 

“In our first car ride it didn’t take long for me to realize that Boomer was the exact same person on television as he was in person,” recalls Feeney. “ From the beginning he wanted to get to know me as much as I wanted to hear about him and his stories.”

Following an outing that included watching the Chargers practice, Feeney took the afternoon off before taking Berman over to the night’s main event.

After fighting through traffic and making a quick change into a suit for the evening, Feeney was set for a night of interaction with some of the industry’s most notable icons.

“We arrived at the event and I tossed the keys to the valet,” explains Feeney. “Did you think I would succumb to general parking with Chris Berman on board? Not a chance. I had three main tasks for the evening: escort Boomer over to the KFMB Channel 8 cameras for a live shot, make sure Boomer was on stage on time to open the ceremony, and lastly, get Boomer home safely.”

The night continued in dramatic fashion, with Feeney meeting the entire NFL Network crew before they took the stage.

In typical Chris Berman fashion he couldn’t leave his creative exclusively to the set. Feeney joined elite company when Berman presented a signature nickname for the USF Sport Management student.

“He coined a nickname for me earlier that day: Sprolesy,” notes Feeney. “I have a few inches in height on the 5-foot-6 former Charger, Darren Sproles, but with my first name also being Darren, the nickname stuck. We pulled up at the Hilton and in typical Boomer style he said, 'Sprolesy, you’ve been great today. See you tomorrow—same bat time, same bat channel.”’

Thursday proved to be just as eventful for Feeney. On this gameday his sole responsibility was making sure Chris Berman was taken care of. This included driving him to the game and then going down on the field prior to the game.  In the closing minutes of a Chargers home loss, Feeney made his way to the owner’s box.

Sitting with Berman was team president Dean Spanos and general manager A.J. Smith.

“Even though the Chargers were losing, it was another one of those moments when I realized, ‘I’m sitting here watching football with Boomer, the Chargers owner and general manager,” explained Feeney.

From there Feeney and Berman hit the road and out of Qualcomm.

“The Chargers lost the game 24-17 and it took a while for Boomer and I to emerge from the cluttered Qualcomm parking lot. But once we did we were smooth sailing on Interstate 15 when Boomer said, ‘Sprolesy, you’ve been great. Don’t feel like you have to, but I’d love to take you out for a drink.’”

After another talk and a post-game meal, the two parted ways, but not before Berman left with a joke and a meaningful piece of advice.

"Boomer stood up, gave me a big bear hug and said: ‘Sprolesy, don’t you forget, if it wasn’t for me, you’d still be by the Xerox machine right now.'"

“On the way to the game, I asked Boomer what his best piece of advice would be for me from a career standpoint. His response: ‘You already have the networking thing down; I can tell that by what you’ve told me. But there is a fine line that only you can draw when it comes to the workplace. No matter what line of work you’re doing, when you’re trying to move up the ladder, you don’t necessarily want to be the first one on someone’s mind who’s making the decisions. Because that could show that you’ve over-pursued and they’ll likely go another direction. But you definitely don’t want to be the last one on their mind, because that means you didn’t do what you needed to do. It’s a fine line that only you can draw.’”

Not a bad 48 hours huh?

Mason Moore brings family story to USF

Everyone in the USF Sport Management Program has his or her own unique story.

For Mason Moore of Cohort 35 in San Francisco, his story is a family affair that started nearly 13 years ago in the Pacific Northwest. After meeting his wife Amelia in 1999 while working at a restaurant in Seattle, the two married two years later. In 2003, Mason and Amelia had their first child Peyton and shortly before making the decision to go back to school. The couple enrolled at Diablo Valley Community College in Pleasant Hill, with UC-Berkeley in mind as a future destination.

“Amelia and I set our goals on Berkeley but knew how competitive admissions would be so we were naturally nervous for the verdict,” reflects Moore. “One of the best days of our lives was April 27, 2007- the birth of our second daughter Giana was capped off with both of our acceptance letters to Berkeley arriving in the mail.”

After attending UC-Berkeley and earning his degree in mass communications, Moore turned his focus to the Sport Management Program at USF. It was back in 2005 that Moore cut out a newspaper article that displayed the Sport Management Program. 

 

Using the program as motivation, Moore strove for success at Berkeley before joining the program he had identified nearly six years prior. After a quick detour following graduation, Moore enrolled at USF.

“Upon graduating from Cal I took a position in solar technology sales, but it was not my dream of working in sports, so I applied for the sport management program,” notes Moore.

Moore’s first six months in the program have been a success. Following the conclusion of the NFL lockout, Moore joined the San Francisco 49ers as a community relations intern. As a community relations intern Moore works in many aspects of the 49ers’ community outreach programs. This includes running youth football camps, as well as organizing toy and clothing drives.

Joining the 49ers following the NFL lockout allowed Moore to face many different obstacles during a challenging time in NFL history. With a shortened timeline to prepare for the season, the NFL work environment proved to be even more fast paced than usual. Moore turned this stressful time into an opportunity to learn from some of the industry's best. 

“The way the 49ers handled everything was truly impressive and showed me how hard you need to work and how passionate you need to be in order to be successful in this field,” says Moore.

All of us in the program who know Mason were extremely happy and excited for him when he landed his new gig with the 49ers. Though our opinions and support surely meant something to Mason, there was little doubt that there were a couple people he needed to impress most.

“My 4-year old is too young to appreciate my job, but my 8-year old, Peyton, understands it is something to boast about and likes to tell people that her dad works for the Niners,” explains Moore.

“The whole family came out for the Monday night game against the Steelers, giving her another opportunity to brag to her friends. I also brought them out to a lymphoma & leukemia walk in which the Niners were a sponsor and it was a great experience for all of us. They knew why we were there and who it affected because they have a cousin that fought leukemia and is in remission.”

With his internship with the 49ers, Moore finds himself juggling school, work and family.

“Part of being so busy is finding enough quality time to spend with my wife and kids. I am not a workaholic. I need to be with my family, and finding that balance often means that I can not always give my full attention to other areas in my life, but it is something I have learned to accept. Priorities are important and for me there is no question: my number one priority is always my girls,” says Moore.

In order to be a successful intern, student and father, Moore understands the support from his wife is paramount to handling all three aspects of his life. 

“I could go on forever about what my wife has meant to me and my family. She is definitely the glue that holds us together,” says Moore. “She is my biggest supporter and encouraged me to go after the internship with the 49ers and continue my education at USF.”

Moore’s story of school, career and family is one that all of his peers and friends admire. While all of us come into the program with our own challenges, Mason’s responsibilities with his family speak to the type of motivated and loyal individual he is.