By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
A team of BGSU students are on their way to Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans.
The 24 members of the Sport Management Alliance and their advisor Caitlin Shortridge are traveling today to New Orleans ready to suit up for an array of support activities before, during, and after the game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles.
Shortridge said Sport Management students have traveled to the Super Bowl to work since at least 2010, though not every year. This will be her third year in a row bringing a group down.
She likes to say that the Super Bowl is run by students, because so many come from institutions around the country to volunteer as well as from local schools.
The students will help with a variety of activities involving fans. They will be at the airport to greet them when they arrive and help them on their way. They will be at the airport after the game to help make sure fans make their flights. BGSU students will be coordinating other volunteers providing leadership experience, Shortridge said.
In between they will have a variety of roles.
“It’s a lot of fan engagement stuff, which is really cool,” said Lilly Schaller, the president of the Sport Management Alliance. This will be her second Super Bowl trip. She went last year.
Before the game, students will work at the NFL’s Super Bowl Experience events. These allow fans to tap into the excitement even if they can’t actually attend the game itself. And it gives members of the local community a change to partake, Shortridge said.
Jamey Fox, a sophomore from Buffalo said, she’s excited about the fan engagement part of the trip. ”We’re going to be some of the first people they are interacting with. The energy is going to be so high. We’ll be bouncing off that energy.”
On game day, the students will be inside the perimeter around the stadium. Schaller remembers last year helping with a large tailgate party with entertainment.
They’ll also be helping fans get around as well as snapping photos of them to help them document their Super Bowl experience.
They also are asked to keep their eyes peeled for any unusual activity.
They’ll be outside during the actual game. Shortridge said they may get short breaks to check out the action. But they will be close enough to hear the reaction of fans inside the stadium.
Lily Smith said if she wasn’t in New Orleans she’d be home in Oregon at her family’s Super Bowl party that they’ve hosted almost since the inception of the game. It’s like Christmas at her house, she said. “The Super Bowl is a massive deal.”
Her family is deeply involved in sports. Her father, she said, coached just many of the teams she and her brother participated in. A graduate of Cardinal Stritch, she played basketball, soccer, volleyball, softball and “my fair share of flag football.”
Smith said she wasn’t accomplished enough at any sport to play in college, but she wanted to pursue a sports-related career. She considered exercise science but was put off by the heavy math requirements.
It was during a visit to campus that Smith learned about Sport Management. She’s also added a minor in marketing.
Schaller, from Whitehouse, also came into Sport Management from another direction. Originally she was interested in criminology, but her experience on her high school year book taking photos and writing about sports, redirected her to journalism. After a year at the University of South Carolina, she came to BGSU to be closer to home. Here she discovered Sport Management which she is pairing with a degree in media production.
Shortridge said it is common for Sport Management majors to pair it with another major or minor.
Fox who was signed up for t-ball as soon as she was old enough also wanted a career in athletics. She wanted though to combine it with business, but something more specific than general business. So she’s specializing in accounting.
Besides the Super Bowl activities they will have some side trips to Louisiana State and Tulane universities, to visit their facilities and meet with sport management professionals there. “My biggest hope for every trip is they have as many learning opportunities as possible,” Shortridge said.
There will also be some down times to visit the city and partake in its famous food culture.
But Schaller said that having too much time off would be boring.
Deciding who goes on the trip begins about the time as the NFL season that culminates in the Super Bowl starts.
The SMA executive committee along with Shortridge call for applications from members before the semester begins and then meet in August to review them. The organizers need names in early September.
Of the approximately 50 SMA members who applied, about 30 were interviewed.
The board decided to bring a slightly smaller group than the 28 who went last year.The number of male and female participants needs to be divisible by four because students are housed four to a room. This year that’s three rooms for females and three for males.
Participants are selected based on their experiences, age, faculty input, and academics.
Schaller said preference is given to older students because younger students will have future chances to participate.
“We consider their standing academically,” Schaller said.
Students have to be prepared to be away from classes for more than a week.
Faculty have different approaches. The Sport Management professors tend to be more understanding. Some, Fox, who is on the SMA executive board, just tell them to go and have fun. Some require them to take any tests they may miss. “You just have to roll with the punches,” Schaller said.
Fox said she’ll have an exam to take while in New Orleans and one to take right after she returns.
Schaller said students have to have a strong work ethic, knowing they have to take care of classwork instead of going out to eat or shopping.
“Most faculty are very understanding,” Shortridge said, but she tells students “you have to advocate on your behalf,” but she’s also willing to weigh in if needed.
Students are responsible as well for paying their expenses. The food, air fare, ground transportation, and lodging costs $1,800. That doesn’t include money for extra excursions or fun activities.
The College of Education and Human Development and the School of Applied Human Development contribute a total of $300 toward each student’s cost. And the SMA has a number of fundraisers to help with the costs.
Taking that on, Schaller said, just shows how passionate students are about the experience.
