The climb to the top: Gerrit Van Genderen
In life, everyone has their own calling and sports is Gerrit Van Genderen’s.
“Call me nerdy but before going into high school I’d like to read the sports section of the newspaper,” Van Genderen said. “I’d always be in tune with the news and what was going on.”
Although playing sports may not have been for him, writing about them has and continues to be.
“If there was one thing I was decent at in high school, it was writing,” Van Genderen said. “I liked the idea of piecing words together in different ways to tell a story.”
The Cary, North Carolina native earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism with a minor in media studies at Appalachian State University.
“I didn’t really know what I wanted to do for probably the first two and a half years which got close to being a problem, but then I stumbled upon communications and, specifically, journalism,” Van Genderen said.
After graduating in five years, Van Genderen took his sports writing interest to the Hickory Daily Record, a 22,000-circulation daily newspaper located in North Carolina.
“I learned a lot and worked an awful lot. I got to really expand my writing skills but realized that I didn’t feel fully fulfilled in what I was doing there,” Van Genderen said.
During his time at the Hickory Daily Record, he spent a lot of time covering Lenoir-Rhyne University (NCAA Division II) athletics and worked a great deal with their sports information director, John Conyers.
“I got to see the things he was doing and I (thought) that could be something I enjoy doing,” Van Genderen said.
Van Genderen spent close to a year as a sports writer for the daily but began his search for sports information positions and internships. He landed a sports information internship with Mercer University athletics. At the end of his internship, his superior, Jordan Brenner, offered him a graduate assistant position where he would be able to earn his Master’s degree.
“As a graduate assistant I really got a ton of hands on experience,” Van Genderen said. “It was not a full-time position but I was being treated like a full-time employee.”
Van Genderen began his journey at the bottom of the totem pole but his hard work and dedication led to his quickly earned success. He was promoted to Director of Media Relations at Mercer in July 2017 after spending only one academic year as a graduate assistant in the department.
“(Mercer) had approached me about taking over the director role, which I certainly wasn’t ready for in many ways, but I felt like I should take the opportunity and run with it,” Van Genderen said.
Running with it paid off.
While overseeing the media relations department, Van Genderen is responsible for covering Mercer football, baseball and men’s and women’s golf.
Van Genderen has only been in this field for a little over eight months. He said a challenge that he faces during day-to-day responsibilities is trust.
“I don’t have years and years of experience to base my decision making, I’m still very new in this field, he said.” “I just have to trust my gut on what I feel is right.”
Van Genderen said that something as simple as sending a tweet can be a challenge.
“In many ways we are the mouthpiece, we’re dealing with the website which people are looking at, we’re dealing with social media, photography, video and all of the writing aspects. All of this is the promotion of our student athletes,” he said.
Another aspect in this field that Van Genderen said could be challenging is work and life balancing.
“This field takes up a lot of hours of your day but if you take the right approach to it, you can do it the right way,” he said.
Van Genderen found it hard to pinpoint his single favorite aspect about the work he does but easily explained his gratitude for where he is in his career today.
“ While the job should be taken very seriously you have the opportunity to work in college sports which can certainly be looked at as a little bit lighter of a career than some out there, so why not have some fun with that on a day to day to day basis? It’s important to remind myself of cracking a smile having some fun with it every single day,” he said.
For those looking to enter this field, Van Genderen said that the best advice he can give is to learn how to communicate. He said that being able to communicate with colleagues, athletes, and coaches is the most important skill to have as a sports media specialist.
