Behind the Scenes of Sports Media Management
Written by Jayla Anderson ‘27
Sports media has become more recognized in athletic departments throughout the nation, and SJND has now become one the schools to be a part of it. Sports media a new way of highlighting sports players and giving information about games while posting on social media platforms. This year at SJND after the winter sports season, a new sports media team was formed. Olivia (9th grade) is our scheduling planner, Joel (9th grade) is our photographer, and I’m in charge of posting on Instagram about games and schedules.
Being a part of the sports media team can be very challenging especially since you’re technically on call whenever they need you, and being at the sports events can be very time consuming. Typically Ms. Jackson, the Athletic Director and basketball coach, will notify us ahead of time. Whether it’s posting on the SJND Athletics Instagram or taking pictures at away or home games for all 7 spring sports, it manages to get done. I asked Joel T. why he decided to be a part of the media team and here’s what he said: “I enjoy traveling with all the teams and connecting with them on why they like the sport they play.” I also asked him if he sees himself going into a career in the specific area in the future: “I do like taking pictures a lot, but I think I would rather keep this as a hobby instead.” Joel typically leaves early along with the teams, and sometimes that consists of him missing two classes. Meanwhile for home games he’s in charge of getting himself there and, when he takes pictures he has to make sure to send them to either Ms. Jackson or anyone who will be uploading them to Instagram.
Olivia B. is our wonderful planner and always keeps us notified on when game day is or any changes. Sometimes Ms. Jackson is too busy and doesn’t have time to update the sports schedule or announce it, so this is when Olivia tells us. If you’ve been in Ms. Jackson’s office you will notice a big calendar full of the whole entire month’s schedule, and this is all done by Olivia. I asked Olivia what she likes most about being a schedule planner and here’s what she said: “I really enjoy it because it gives me a chance to see how people in different work environments plan, and this is a skill that I can take on now and in the future. It’s helped me a lot with my time management skills as well.”
The last main part of the sports media field is social media posting. I’m in charge of the SJND Athletics Instagram page and I post almost 3 times a day, everyday. Not only do I post on the page, I also make the post that goes on there and that can be very time consuming. Typically I get all the information that I need to post, and I’ll get a picture from Joel and even our MaxPreps photographer. This is really helpful to have the sports schedule beforehand, so that I can be ready to just post it the night before or even the day depending on if it’s a post or story. Sometimes there’s last minute cancellations, rescheduling, and important updates from the Athletic Department that need to be posted ASAP. This means that I have to stay on top of it and make sure that it gets out to all the people following the page immediately.
Ms. Jackson has been very supportive of our ideas to expand the sports media team, and we highly encourage people to look into joining if they are interested as well. This can be a new way of expanding your interests especially if you like digital design, and possibly you could go into a career with this. Not only is this something that is starting to expand all over the country, but now it finally made its way to SJND and there’s more things coming along with it as well.
