Sport Management Students Working at Super Bowl 51

WC's Hands-On Learning Opportunities Taken to America's Biggest Sporting Event Unlike the Bengals, Steelers, Packers and 27 other NFL teams, 14 Wilmington College students are going to the Super Bowl. (PICTURED) Fourteen Sport Management Club members and their adviser, Dr. Alan Ledford, are pictured moments before leaving campus for what one described as the "opportunity of a lifetime." These members of the Sport Management Club and their professor, Dr. Alan Ledford, flew to Houston Tuesday (Jan. 31) afternoon to spend the next six days working at America’s biggest sporting event — and event, period. As volunteers, they will serve as ambassadors, greeters and customer service staff in assisting the thousands of guests attending a myriad of events and activities associated with “The NFL Experience” during Super Bowl week. “Our students will experience Super Bowl week and game day from behind the scenes to learn the in and outs of the business of hosting a mega-event — they will gain a hands-on understanding of what it takes to plan, organize and execute a true sporting event behemoth,” said Ledford, WC’s sport management program director and club adviser. “The students also will be interviewing, meeting and learning from top people in the sports business world,” Ledford added, noting this experience should have positive ramifications as they engage in interviewing for internships and career employment. Brooke Shinkle, a junior from Xenia, described the opportunity as representative of “a great hands-on learning” experience at WC. “I always tell people that students actually get to do things starting your freshman year at WC.” Indeed, sport management students have toured and met with officials at the Bengals’ Paul Brown Stadium; Great American Ballpark, home of the Cincinnati Reds; Fifth-Third Field, home of the minor league’s Dayton Dragons; Malpre Stadium, home of the Columbus Crew MLS soccer team; and athletics facilities throughout The Ohio State University. “Alan is all about students getting experience in sport management, getting their hands dirty,” said Tyler Brummett, a junior from Manchester. “Employers want to know what you can do and what you’ve done,” Brandon Williams, a junior from Dayton, called it a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity. “It’s a dream, a blessing to go on this trip.” In addition to the group’s on-site, Super Bowl week obligations at the Houston Texans’ NRG Stadium and associated venues, they will tour the Toyota Center, home of the NBA Rockets; Minute Maid Park, home of Major League Baseball’s Astros; BBVA Compass Stadium, home of Major League Soccer’s Houston Dynamo; and the sports facilities at the University of Houston. Possibly the most excited students was Luke Baldwin, a junior from Rome, Ohio, who is a New England Patriots fan — and proudly proclaimed it in wearing a team sweatshirt as they departed Wilmington. The Pats play the Atlanta Falcons Super Bowl Sunday for the NFL championship. “It’s unbelievable! Being a Patriots fan makes it 10 times more special for me. Knowing I was going to Houston to work the Super Bowl, I got all the more excited as the Patriots advanced through the playoffs.” Baldwin expects this experience to “pop out” on his resume. Shinkle concurred. “I think this will have a great impact on my marketability. It will stand out on my resume and be a great conversation-starter in interviews.” As Brummett said, “It doesn't get any bigger than the Super Bowl!” Other students on the Super Bowl trip are: Jake Dawson, Cameron Erwin, Ben Guthrie, Dustin Johnson, Konnor Kinser, Adam Knaub, Darren Milligan, Sarah Pierce, Colton Smith, and Eric Wathen.