Liberty University’s Sport Management Interns Enjoy Wide Range of Work

From the NFL to IRONMAN and NASCAR, Liberty students gain great experience through internships.

Working with professional baseball organizations, an NFL team, NASCAR, and a variety of less traditional sports like rugby and ultramarathon, students enrolled in Liberty University’s Sport Management program gained a wealth of experience in a range of internship roles over the summer.

Internships in baseball

Opportunities abounded for students around the diamonds of Minor League and Major League Baseball teams.

Graham: Major League Baseball

To fulfill the prerequisite for his Sport, Event, & Tourism Management course, senior Graham Klause completed an internship with his favourite Major League Baseball team, the Washington (D.C.) Nationals. His duties included assisting with public safety and security around the stadium as well as prep work for the Savannah Bananas, who sold out Nationals Park in July.

“It has been a blessing to learn from my peers and work for this incredible organization,” he said. “I have been able to learn about the importance of ballpark operations and security protocols in place at Nationals Park. Hopefully I can come back, in the same role or different role within ballpark operations and logistics.”

Klause was part of Liberty’s Washington Fellowship program, where students live and work in our nation’s capital. He said the fellowship helped him acquire his internship through a recommendation letter, and living on Capitol Hill left him with a short Metro commute to the stadium.

“It was nice being in close proximity to my actual internship, and while working in my internship, it was good to have roommates and enjoy fellowship with other believers in the city,” Klause said.

Lauren: Minor League Baseball team

In North Carolina, senior Lauren Gebbie worked closely with the director of promotions and the entertainment team for the Durham Bulls (Triple-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays), to develop theme nights and in-game activities, music, and decorations. She also served as community relations coordinator for the Bulls’ mascots, Wool E. Bull and Blue Monster, using her experience on the Sparky Squad at Liberty (providing security for Sparky). She planned videos and skits as well as on-field games to help the characters interact with fans.

Andrea: Independent baseball league

In Utica, Mich., senior Andrea Marcella served as an intern with the Office of the President of the United Shore Professional Baseball League.

“It’s a stepping stone for players trying to get into the elite and professional levels,” she said. “I had a really great experience. My role was helping out game-day functions. I love the daily operations and event management interacting with fans of all ages, and it was a great environment with grandstand seating, suites, and lawn seats as well.”

Devin: Minor League Baseball

And close to home, recent graduate Devin Perkins, a Marine Corps veteran and former team manager for Lady Flames Lacrosse, provided music and sound to enhance the fans’ game experience and assisted in the ticket office for the Lynchburg Hillcats (the Low-A affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians).

Internship in football

Tony Bertolino, who graduated in May with a B.S. in Business Administration and a minor in Sport Management, continued his yearlong internship with the Pittsburgh Steelers this summer, assisting with the preparation and execution of gameday and event operations for all Steelers and University of Pittsburgh football games and other events at Acrisure Stadium, as well as managing seasonal staff.

“Throughout my internship, I learned numerous lessons in event logistics, crowd control, and staff management at a major facility, and I am looking forward to applying those lessons as I move forward in my career,” Bertolino said.

Internship with NASCAR

Senior Austin Farr is serving in a managing and administering role for his internship as NASCAR’s single make platforms coordinator for the International Motor Sport Association in Daytona Beach, Fla. Farr, a former racecar driver himself, has traveled with the series to road courses in the United States and Canada. He serves as a liaison between the IMSA series, its participants, and the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), which include Ferrari, Ford, Lamborghini, Mazda, and Porche.

“It’s definitely been life-changing, doing what I’ve wanted to do since I got involved in racing 19 years ago,” he said.

Internship in Major League Rugby

Though she had never witnessed a match before starting her social media and marketing internship with the Dallas Jackals’ Major League Rugby program in May, Emily Calavan caught onto the sport quickly.

“It was a whole new animal for me,” said Calavan, who grew up watching baseball and football and swam competitively for 12 years.

She helped the marketing manager and social media coordinator create graphics and send e-mails to fans. During the games, she captured videos to post, and she also recorded videos of practices. The team won the most games in the program’s four-season history and broke attendance records at Choctaw Stadium, former home of the Texas Rangers, as it qualified for the conference finals in the 12-team league, headquartered in Dallas.

This month, Calavan started another internship with the Dream Team Sports Center, a Christian-oriented youth baseball player development organization in Mansfield, Texas, southeast of her home in Fort Worth.

Internship with IRONMAN

In late July, Jessie Zealand, a rising junior on the Lady Flames’ Cross Country and Track & Field teams pursuing a B.S. in Hospitality Management — Conference and Event, served on IRONMAN’s event management team in support of the Speedgoat Mountain Races in the Wasatch Range of the Rocky Mountains near Salt Lake City. For the main event, a 50-kilometer race, she was based at the highest aid station along the course, Snowbird Resort’s Hidden Peak at nearly 11,000 feet.

“It was definitely a great experience, helping on their event team with whatever was needed, doing race check-in, as well as setup, and teardown of the course, working all aspects of the race,” she said, noting that she encouraged runners while retrieving their timing chips as they finished the 28K. “I really enjoy the running atmosphere and creating the experience for the runners as well. I also love running them myself, but I can’t do both.”

In September, Zealand will coordinate more than 300 volunteers serving 1,000 registered runners from around the world at the Grindstone 100 in the Alleghany Mountains around Swoope, Va. The multi-distance race festival is one of 43 UTMB World Series qualifying events for the 2025 Finals in Chamonix, France, and one of only six in North America.

Zealand’s father, Dr. Clark Zealand, a sport management professor and an avid ultramarathon runner, created and directed the Grindstone 100 in 2008. He has encouraged his students pursuing hospitality and sport management degrees to consider alternate sports for internships and potential career opportunities.

“The vast majority of students coming into our program are most interested and most familiar with mainstream sports — football, basketball, and baseball,” he said. “We try to get our students to think broadly and keep their horizons wide on what their interests may be in order to get experience and internships and then ultimately, jobs. You never know where the path leads you, where God is taking you.”

Internship in sports radio

Other Liberty students gained experience locally over the summer, including Caleb Weissinger, who worked for VTRN Sports Radio in producing The Fast Lane with Ed Lane, an hour-long daily program featuring recent interviews with Flames Football Head Coach Jamie Chadwell and Director of Athletics Ian McCaw. Students Abby Coleman and Kyle Harkabus fulfilled internships with Virginia Amateur Sports in Roanoke, Va., serving as an operations/media relations & social media intern and games and sports logistics intern, respectively, for the Virginia Commonwealth Games.