Like many in our profession, sports have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. By no means was I the athletic type, but I did whatever I could to be involved in sport from the time I first stepped onto the field in T-ball through high school graduation. If I wasn’t playing, I was a baseball or basketball PA announcer, or I kept stats for numerous youth softball and baseball teams.
When I think more about it, my first taste of being an SID came when I didn’t even know it during my two or three years of keeping stats for my younger sister’s slow-pitch softball team when I was in junior high. While I primarily worked with her team, I even filled in with other teams when they needed someone to keep the statbooks. I even tried my hand as an umpire for a few games (honest truth: it’s a lot harder than it looks). In a way, I guess I was an SID for a summer league slow-pitch softball team for a time!
I’ve always been a big fan of the statistical aspect of the profession, going back to my childhood of collecting God knows how many baseball and football cards. Not only that, but I had a pretty impressive collection of Mississippi State baseball, basketball and football media guides and would read those cover-to-cover multiple times. At the time, I had no idea that I would be making a career out of sports information, but I did know that I was passionate about sports and everything about it. In addition to those cards and media guides, I had more game programs than I could count (my parents would tell you that I had WAY too many).
While I’ve shared a little bit about how I’ve gotten to this point and my first taste of being an SID, here’s a little background on me. I’ve grown up around Mississippi State, as I’m at least a 4th-generation Bulldog and grew up about 30 minutes from campus. Some of my earliest memories involve MSU baseball, as I remember going to baseball games with my great-grandfather since the spry age of 4. I’ve been to more games with him than I can count, and those are memories I will cherish forever. I’ve even caught baseball games in the Superdome, when MSU played in the Winn-Dixie Classic in New Orleans! Being a lifelong Bulldog, it was a forgone conclusion that I would attend MSU after high school.
Once I got to Starkville, I thought I wanted to be a coach, so I was enrolled in the teaching and coaching program. That lasted less than a semester, when I realized that route wasn’t my cup of tea. I knew I wanted to be involved in sports or with athletes, so I thought about going the medical route and pursuing a career in physical therapy or athletic training. After about two years or so in that program and thinking long and hard about my future career path, I came back to what I knew I was passionate about: the statistical and communication side of sports.
After doing some soul-searching on whether or not I should change my major, I emailed our athletics director at the time, Scott Stricklin, to see if he could meet with me to give me an idea of what possibilities existed in sport administration. He directed me to the communications office (then it was called media relations) and the student program led by Gregg Ellis. I owe a lot of thanks to Scott for helping me find an opportunity in a profession that I absolutely love.
Then, as they say, everything else is history. I enjoyed my time as a student and learned so many new things while working with nearly every sport in some way - big and small. I even had opportunities to work as a volunteer at several SEC Championship events, including women’s basketball, football (twice, including the last one at the Georgia Dome), softball and baseball, which helped me meet many awesome people from around the league.
In the summer of 2016, I stepped out of college sports for a bit and interned for the Pensacola Blue Wahoos, then the Double-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds. There, I learned a great deal about what goes on in professional sports and became an expert at un-jamming printers while working with one of the top franchises in MiLB.
After that, in my senior year, I served as the secondary contact for our baseball program, which was one of the coolest experiences I’ve ever had considering I grew up going to so many games and now I got to work with the team I grew up watching for so long. Baseball has always been my first love, and that only grew during my time in Pensacola and as our #2 baseball contact. That led right into a graduate assistant position at MSU, giving me a couple more years in StarkVegas!
If I could describe the last two years in one word, it would be “flexibility.” I’ve worked with several sports either full-on or as a fill-in, and it’s been my goal to be prepared at any moment to jump in and help out wherever. Whether it’s handling SID duties for our SEC Champion men’s tennis program and cross country, filling in as an interim SID during track and field, writing recaps for football and basketball or hopping in to fill-in during when we need additional help at an event, one thing I feel like I’ve really developed over this time is my versatility.
I feel that, although our job is often thankless, the SID is crucial in a sports program at ANY level, and a major piece of that is writing. My versatility has shown in my writing ability, which I’ve honed over the last few years and have really come to love. If I had to pick, one of my favorite things about this profession is working with so many great athletes and telling their stories—about their successes and tribulations that have made them the people and athletes they are today and what inspires them to succeed, as well as learning about their goals and dreams (and then getting to be there to cover some of those being attained). Ultimately, as I progress into my first full-time position in a few months and as I continue growing as an SID, my goal is that I will continue to love this part of the job and continue to grow personally and professionally.