Getting a sneak peak behind the scenes

Hours of hard work and preparation go into assuring that sporting events at Liberty University run smoothly

Despite the fact that most people only see what happens on the court during a game or timeout promotion, there are actually many people who contribute to help each event run efficiently.

The Liberty Athletics Marketing team does a lot of behind-the-scenes work that ultimately makes these games happen.

“We have to have everything set up for promotions for before, during and after the games (to) make sure everyone has radios and stuff, and make sure they’re ready to go before, during and after the games,” graduate intern Caleb Eller said.

For example, the men’s basketball against rival the Longwood Lancers, Feb. 26 at the Vines. Tipoff was scheduled at 7 p.m. However, the sports marketing team was already at work at 5 p.m.

Luke Walker, a graduate student assistant for Sports Marketing, said there were nine people working for that game. While a couple of them usually work every game, the other six or seven vary depending on the day and game. The statuses of these students vary as well. Some are graduate students, such as Eller, others are undergraduate students taking a sports marketing practicum, such as Shelton Burkart.

“I’ve had a lot of fun with it,” Burkart said. “I plan on learning more on what sport marketing is about, learn more about the marketing department, because that’s actually the path I’m planning on going once I get out of college.”

As the game began, men and women on the marketing team got into their positions. Someone may be in charge of the events that surround teams coming out of the locker rooms, while someone else may search for people to participate in on-the-court events that happen during timeouts.

“We usually go around in the stands and find kids to play the games at timeouts,” senior and marketing intern Greg Ray said. “(We) make sure (promotion participants) know where they have to be, what they’re doing and everything. We have to go back into the tunnel and make sure we have all of the games set up and all of the T-shirts rolled.”

Distributing hundreds of T-shirts is also a key component in sports marketing. People may be sitting during the game, but when shirts are being thrown, the crowd tends to rise to their feet. Senior Daniel White said the team has folded more than 600 shirts for men’s basketball games during this season alone.

As they continued to prepare for the game, a large group of children poured into the arena. This group was a local league of basketball players affiliated with the Christian athletics program, Upward Sports. The children were not only there to watch the game, but they also stood in front of the court and greeted the teams as they exited the tunnel.

Walker and his team had to make sure each of them was in their proper place. The workload does not appear to turn off people who wish to get involved. In fact, some of sports marketing team members are volunteers, such as sophomore Hunter Hook.

“It takes a lot of behind-the-scenes work to run the logistics of a game,” Hook said. “There are things such as getting tents set up or getting and making sure fans are supposed to be at their designated positions when the time comes for them to play a game or partake in an activity.”

The job continues well after the final buzzer sounds. Most of the marketing team said they expect to get off work 45 minutes after the event is finished.

“With postgame, there is just a lot of cleanup,” Walker said. “We have gameday flags outside that need to be taken down. But there’s a lot of breakdown and cleanup.”

Just as is the case in any other team, unity is important. Both Walker and Hook used the word “family” to describe the relationship of the group. Others in the group also argued that leadership plays an equally important role.

“We have about 15-18 interns and volunteers that help us,” Dan Adams, a graduate student assistant, said. “So it’s really important to have other people delegate duties and whatnot, because we have several different events going on at once sometimes, and it is really important to have a leader at each one of those event.”

With the basketball season coming to a close, the primary focus of the Sports Marketing team will shift to baseball. And after summer break, they will go back to focusing on football, and the cycle continues. Whether they do it for the experience, credits or just for fun, each member of the department has a genuine love for Liberty athletics, and they do their best to make sure everyone in attendance has a memorable experience.