Interning
I intern with the Chicago Slaughter indoor football team, based out of Hoffman Estates. I am a sports writing and reporting major, and I intern in the media department. It’s pretty much perfect.
The internship is extremely time consuming. I spend about 15 hours per week in the front office. On game days, I spend about seven hours at the arena covering games and doing whatever media-related “stuff” needs to be done.
I have learned quite a bit so far. It is a very eye-opening experience. I had some good and some bad experiences. On a trip up to Madison, I saw how terrible some arenas and situations are. For example, the home team didn’t supply a stats person, the arena was in terrible condition, workers didn’t know what was going on and no one was helpful.
The field was clearly borrowed from another team because the logo was spray painted out in each end zone. The sponsors from the one team were simply taped over, even if the ad was in the middle of the field. I am absolutely shocked that there were no ankle injuries that game.
However, everything I am learning will be applied in the very near future. I graduate in December and hope to get a job as soon as I can. And I would love to work with a pro sports team. I just hope that by the time the season is over, I take away even more from the team and have had a chance to build my portfolio.
