This page is dedicated to my experience being a Sports Intern at Dye Clay YMCA during my senior year at Old Dominion University.
My fall internship at Dye Clay YMCA was gratifying in several ways. This internship provided me with the opportunity to combine everything I learned studying in Strategic Communication with my deep passion of sports. Often, people only see the games that are played on the weekends. One thing that the internship did well was open my eyes to just how much goes on during the week to ensure these games run smoothly and kids are able to enjoy their time on the field or court. I appreciate that my supervisor did not hold back and gave me some interesting and crucial tasks to complete. The diverse tasks aided in not making the internship repetitive. For example, some days I would go through scheduling information to make sure that there were no scheduling conflicts. Other days, I had to organize sports uniforms for multiple sports. This organizing consisted of sorting them out by both youth and adult sizes. I had to make sure each age group (6 in total) had a certain amount of sizes based on a list presented to me by the sports coordinator. If that was not enough, I had to do this for two additional YMCAs as Dye Clay is like the head YMCA in the area. My communication skills were used as I communicated any changes with coaches, referees, or parents. I even got the chance to use all the persuasive communication tactics learned in previous courses to convince some parents to volunteer coach if a team still needed a coach. It took some convincing, but we eventually found a coach for every team.
All these tasks were fun, but the most rewarding part of my internship was coaching 9- and 10-year-old girls in basketball. This is such a full circle moment for me as I started playing basketball at this very same YMCA when I was 9. To get the opportunity to coach girls the same age and at the same YMCA that I started at is like déjà vu. I really valued my time here due to this experience. I never considered coaching basketball even after the many years that I spent playing it growing up. But the opportunity presented itself during the internship. I am thankful for the opportunity because it helped me gain back the spark that I once had for the game, and that regained sparked propelled me to be able to effectively communicate with players.
I was very careful with how I communicated with them because they are young, and I never wanted to seem like I was discouraging them. I admit that it was hard at times especially because some of them are playing basketball for the first time. There were many instances where I used common basketball terms or slang to explain something to them and they would look at me confused. I then had to change how I communicated with them because I realized that they did not understand me. Honestly, I wanted them to have a great experience filled with vivid memories that they can look back on as they get older.
I wanted this for them because as I look back, I had some positive memories during my playing days at the Y because of my coach. His name was Coach Littles and I played for him for many years. My time with him was filled with valuable memories. This was all due to how he was able to communicate with me. I hope my players can say the same about me when they reminisce on their young playing days. I want to be known as that coach that helped fuel their passion for the sport. And I know that this all starts with how I communicate with them. Positivity and how you strategically word certain things can do wonders to the confidence of a young player.
Every task performed gave me insight on the innerworkings of the sports world and just how much communication is valued in the industry. With sports and communication colliding for me, I was able to gain a positive experience filled with an uplifting work atmosphere. The feedback I received from my supervisor/ sports director and sports coordinator granted me the opportunity to move forward professionally.
I thoroughly enjoyed my internship experience and do not have much to complain about. I did a lot of my tasks with two other interns, and we were very efficient to say the least. Maybe too efficient because we completed tasks earlier than expected. This led to our supervisor scrambling to come up with additional tasks for us to do. My only advice to improve the experience of interns would be for the supervisor to plan additional tasks in advance if the interns move at a faster pace.
I now have confidence in my abilities after my time at Dye Clay YMCA. In my future work experience, I would make sure to showcase this confidence more. I can be unsure of myself sometimes and the unsureness will often show up on my face. This would cause my supervisor to double-check if I was alright with performing a task. However, as I got use to these tasks, it become clear that I could do it. As time went on, I was not afraid to ask for clarity and that helped ease my nervousness a lot. I am sort of a perfectionist and I guess this caused me to become nervous. I wanted to do the best that I could for my supervisor so he could see that he made no mistake hiring me as an intern.
(This is an example of one of the age groups I had to sort uniforms for. In this instance, I had to sort uniforms for 16 teams for 9-10 year old boys!)
My three smart goals were:
I want to improve my communication skills.
Expand my understanding of the sports industry.
Expand my network of contacts.
I would say that I accomplished the first two goals. My communication skills improved tremendously as I became more comfortable speaking up when I needed clarification on certain tasks. I also improved my communication skills by conversing with my players. They are younger so I had to keep in mind how to best communicate with them. I had to communicate how to do certain basketball drills or moves. Also, some of the players were eager to get into games so I had to effectively communicate with them that they will get a chance to get back on the court just not now. I was glad that they wanted to play but I had to make sure playing time was spread evenly among the thirteen players. Further, working behind the scenes allowed for me to understand the sports industry. I now know what all goes into preparing for the games and seasons. I do not believe that goal number three was a complete failure. I did expand my network somewhat by meeting other employees at various YMCAs, but I felt that I could have expanded contacts a little more. I left a good impression during my internship and my supervisor is very well connected in the North Florida region. Due to this, I feel that the opportunity is always there to expand contacts if I need to.
(I had to sort and fold the pink/ blue jerseys in this video in preparation for the upcoming basketball season.)
This internship really solidifies for me that I want to do strategic communication/ marketing in the sports industry. It is terrifying because this industry is ultra-competitive, but this internship has shown me that I can do it. I know that I can work in this industry and hope to get a job working for a reputable professional sports organization in Florida. In the meantime, I will be working at a familiar place while I finish up my senior year as YMCA has offered me a part-time position. I look forward to continuing to work in this environment and I am glad that the work I performed led to me being hired. This internship was the beginning of many opportunities to follow.
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