LSFL Season Week 4: Venom hosting the Laredo Rattlesnakes.

This weekend was probably the most exciting of the internship. It had a good combination of a great game and a good situation for myself and the rest of the team. I once again was able to do radio commentary for the team's website and the best part was that I was allowed to be biased towards the Venom since it was sponsored by the Venom. I got my friend from the Prairie, Tyler Anderson, to call color for me and he was great as he could tell if I was going to drop off and there was going to be some dead air, and he did a great job of being very biased as I tried to maintain my journalistic eye and be somewhat unbiased. The game went on with the Venom trailing most of it, by 17 points at one point. But the Venom came back and scored a game winning touchdown with 2 seconds left to go. The crowd erupted and I couldn't hear Tyler on the other headset because of how loud the crowd was. It was a great turnout and we had at least 3,000 fans at the coliseum. My tasks in preparing for the game were numerous. I basically had told Toby Tucker, the owner's husband, that anything he needed he just had to let me know. So I did grunt work, which I was totally fine with. Sometime I was moving signs around the concourse and sometimes I was making trips between the Venom office and the Civic Center. One of the things I did was put out programs down in the pit area, pictured just behind the "sidewall" on the field. Overall like I said, this weekend was my favorite weekend of the entire internship.

(The Venom Vixens Practice Before Game Time)

(Picture with me wearing headset 2.0)

LSFL Football League Season Week 3:

The Amarillo Venom suffered their first loss of the season this past weekend. But the office staff is not going to dwell on that loss. We are already focusing on our next home game vs. the Laredo Rattlesnakes. Both teams are 2-1 so Stephanie and the rest of the office staff wants to make the entertainment side of the game just as exciting as the game itself. My role in this has been to get the word out about our game as much as possible, this includes writing several press releases about ticket giveaways and putting posters up all over town.  This week I am also attempting to get our coach and/or owner on morning shows as well.

(The Poster I am Putting Up)

TIPA

Last week I really didn't get to do too much for the Amarillo Venom. I was there Monday and Tuesday morning because I was away with the Prairie for our Texas Intercollegiate Press Association convention. But the Venom did win on Saturday, and our quarterback got signed by the San Antonio Talons from the Arena Football league, so this week will be interesting.

Easter Week

After the home opener, things slowed down for a short time. The Amarillo Venom would have the following weekend off and they wouldn't have another home game until April 20th. But there was still some preparations needing to be made for the April 20th game. The theme of the night is going to be Ag Night/College night. So my task is to contact all the area 4Hs/FFAs and ask them if they are interested in coming out to our game. We also are contacting schools to get them to come out to our game.

Home Opener

Last week the internship went into high gear as we prepared for our home opener against the New Mexico Stars. The week was crazy altogether and didn't slow down as the game got closer. Friday and Saturday were the busiest days of the week because of the rush to get tickets for Saturday's game. I also found out Friday that I would be calling the game for our internet radio for users listening live. When Saturday rolled around I got to the Venom offices at 2 p.m. and basically asked what I could do to help.I was assigned to go with Toby, the owner's husband, and Lance, our corporate sales associate, to go to the Civic Center and help set up the different props around the concourse to get ready for game day. Around the same time Toby also showed me how the radio booth worked. After getting setup kickoff was at 7:05, and it was a great game but the Amarillo Venom pulled through and won. After cleaning up and taking our supplies back to the office it was time to head home. Some of my coworkers, my wife, Tyler with Prairie, and I went to Buffalo Wild Wings for post-game dinner. I also wrote the game recap for our website. Here is the link: http://govenom.com/component/content/article/56-news/494-amarillo-venom-thump-new-mexico-stars-62-34.html

(Me in the Radio Booth Calling the Game)

(The Coliseum Three Hours Before Game Time)

(Game during the fourth quarter)

Vouchers and Media

The week of March 4-9 was a productive week as we were in a hurry to get our 2013 Media vouchers made. That was what my task was for most of the week was to start modifying vouchers and making them ready to send to the printers. We also had a press conference on Wednesday to talk about the start of training camp and how the players are progressing. That was probably my favorite event of the week because not only did I get to make media notes for it in which I quoted Coach Reese, but I also got to meet and chat with some of the local sports anchors and writers.

Internship With A Bite: Week 5

This last week was very short because of the blizzard. Stephanie told us to stay home and work on what we had from there. Prior to that I had gotten her on a couple of the local news station morning shows to talk about the "Faith vs. Football" charity basketball event that we had been working with a local charity for. But during the week it was time for the players to officially report to training camp and that is the part I got really excited for because it is the football aspect of the job. Anytime I can help with any sort of football operations I get excited. Don't get me wrong I love the front office aspect as well because it is the front office that throws things together, but it is the players and coaches that make everything happen for us by playing and being the poster child for everything we do. During the training camp event I handled the social media by sharing pictures of the event for fans. During the season if things slow down for me any at school I intend on coming to at least one 5 a.m. practice each week just to share with the fans on social media, talk to Coach Reese, and likely make a press release to send out to the media. Thankfully Stephanie left it completely up to me if I did that and when I did it. As the season gets closer and closer the excitement is just building around here and my job has gone from media contract-guy to the go between between local PTOs for our event nights. 18 days until FANGS UP!!!

(Coach Reese talking to the media)

(Players signing contracts)

Week 4

We had a short week here at the Venom this week, as Monday was President's day. But once we returned it was a little more than 30 days till Venom season kicked off. It was then time to start putting together our program by calling partnerships to send in their logos. We are still waiting on some but it is really starting to come together as we begin to get logos in from more and more media outlets. I also got to take on the task of getting Stephanie on the news next week. She will be on ProNews 7 and Studio 4 on Monday and Tuesday respectively. I enjoy setting her up on news stations as well as communicating with media places in general the most because I feel like that is part of what I am going to school for. My favorite part though is writing press releases because I feel like that is uses the most of my skills that I acquired through school. And just today I sent in a link for our web editor to put a countdown that I created on our website. New update next week.

From Media Contracts to Gameday Partnerships

(This is what I used to help a customer decide where he wanted them)

Week three at my internship was a productive week despite being snowed in at home to work from home. I finished up my contracts with the media places around Amarillo on Monday and we should finish with advertising in at least 15 newspapers. As the week rode on though Wednesday I started working with different 4-Hs and FFAs for our "Ag Night" event we will be having on April, 20, 2013. I also was taught how to actually do transactions for guests that are buying tickets from us. On Thursday I did more work for the Ag night by making contracts with the Tri-State fair but I did a little work for our opening night which will celebrate different athletic organizations and championship teams around the Panhandle. Opening night is on March 23. On Friday I volunteered to do cliche intern stuff by offering to go and get us envelopes and labels. But they were for my next project that day, which was getting the envelopes put together that way when we get media passes and ticket vouchers we can just load them up and send them off. I also learned the season ticket pricing and how to explain seating to potential customers.

Internship With a Bite Week Two

Last Week was a very busy week with the Venom. I made three or four press releases, we had a very exciting press conference on Thursday. One of which I unfortunately couldn't attend because of class. But we are getting our championship rings put together and getting started, and our starting quarterback Nate Davis is in town. But perhaps what made last week the busiest week was trying to get contracts from local newspapers and media places. But not just local, it was with Newspapers as far as Shamrock, TX. But I got three newspapers signed up with us for this season, including WT's and AC's newspapers. I am hoping to continue this trend and get at least two more newspaper's contracts back this week if not today. After the contracts are all clear, then it is time for us to start putting together the nights that have promotions. I am likely going to be working on college night/agriculture night. I am getting more comfortable trying to talk to potential partners and am enjoying this internship more every week.

The First Month with the Amarillo Venom

When I first interviewed for the internship with the Amarillo Venom, Stephanie Tucker, their owner, basically told me there were no restrictions to what I could do with them. She could tell that although I was a Mass Comm major, I would be in semi-uncharted waters because my background is almost purely journalism, limited PR work (outside of the campaigns I had done for Jump n' Jive, Amarillo C.A.S.A., and Glidden paints, of course). But then she asked me, "What do you want to know learn about sports marketing?" Again, as a sports journalist my #1 dream is to cover the Denver Broncos; but I was not about to limit myself to purely journalism, I knew my journalistic ability would come in handy simply in writing press releases and game recaps after Venom seasons begins, but I also wanted to see how she handled different PR-type situations, contract talks, and sponsorship acquisitions. So she told me I would be their media coordinator, granted it would be in a limited role because I am still in school and working part time at Hastings and as well as doing work for WT's The Prairie News. But I was not about to let this opportunity to learn about the inner workings of a sport's team and their PR work slip away. 

The first week was all about writing press releases, I wrote about 5 press releases within the first couple weeks. They involved everything from the league meetings, to Amarillo Venom schedule, to a press release for the press conference. But once we slowed down on press releases, I did not hesitate to ask Stephanie for more work and she assigned me to help work on contracts with the media companies, and that is what I have been doing since my second week.

(One of the many press  releases I wrote was for Chic-Fil-A Family Night)

 Not only have I been working on contracts but I have also been working with the local news stations about getting word out about our pre-Super Bowl party pack and also been getting Stephanie on the morning shows to talk about it. In doing what I have been doing in the last two weeks with contracts, working with media outlets for advertising and getting Stephanie on news networks, what I have been doing for her and the Venom, my career trajectory finally feels real.

(Contract Headers)