Current Position Title: Assistant Director of Media Relations, Limestone College

Hometown: Tupelo, MS

Degree: B.S. in Sport Studies, 2012

What are the responsibilities of your current position?

I am the primary media contact for several of the sports at Limestone and am involved with all 25 of our sports in some form or fashion. At a small school like Limestone, I have a lot more responsibilities that vary more than at a place like MSU. Some days all I have to do is staff an event and make sure my workers show up and do their jobs, like public address announcing and scoreboard operating. Other times we'll have five or six different games in one day, so our small staff will have to multitask, and I might do PA, keep stats, and write the game's press release. Or I might design a game program, host our hospitality room, and run a postgame press conference. It all just depends on what's going on that day and how many staff members we have available to work.

How did your education at MSU help prepare you for work in the field?

Beyond the actual knowledge aspect, Dr. Alan Morse was able to help me find a job in the athletic media relations office before I even got to campus, which was a tremendous help. The sport studies program at MSU surrounded me with people who share my passion for working in sports and who I enjoyed working with, which gave me lifelong contacts and a tremendous leg up in knowing exactly what specific area of sports I wanted to go into.

What advice would you give to current students looking for internships or jobs in the field?

Don't get frustrated when your first hundred job applications get no response, and don't get frustrated when your hard work goes unnoticed. That happens to nearly everyone I meet in this industry, myself included, but once you get going it all gets easier in a hurry. Also, don't be shy about taking an opportunity in a new area where you have less experience or where you think you have no interest. One of the best things I ever did was to take an internship in an area of sports I thought I'd never enjoy. It changed my perspective on daily operations, gave me a new outlook, provided some great connections, and opened up an entirely new field of job opportunities.