Faith and Family game week

This week I only went into the office twice and worked the game on Saturday for a total of 22 hours. The first day in the office consisted of me stuffing more plastic eggs with the same vouchers. Later on in the day Alex told me that we would be getting more vouchers from another sponsor of ours and it was for a free round of bowling at B&B Lanes. I then spent the rest of my time cutting out and numbering the vouchers to stuff in the plastic eggs. At the end of the office day Alex found out that our other intern that does the stats would be out of town for the game, so I had to come in on Friday to learn how to use the stat program. Learning how to use the program and entering in fake scenarios was completely different when trying to do it during the game. On game day we had to report to the Crown at 8am because we were doing out youth league games again that went on till 4pm. The whole time I did the game clock, play clock, and score board for all the youth games. After the youth games were over it was time to set up for the Force game. During the game as I mentioned before I was going to be doing the stats. Before the game even started I had to help gather all the accessories in the tunnel for all the events put on during intermissions. I also went out to our block party/tail gate party that was going on outside the Crown and hand out flyer's about next week’s game. Once game time came around I went up to my position to do the stats and I had an injured player on the Force team be my spotter. His job was to call out the plays to me as they went on and I would enter them into the stats program on the computer. Let me tell you, it was quite difficult to do at first and the 1st quarter was not pretty. After the first quarter and especially after the first half we got it down and were able to enter the stats no problem. Once the game was over and fans cleared the field the other interns and had to go around and clean out the visitor locker room, our player’s locker room, official’s locker room, the cheerleader’s locker room, and the media room. The visitors’ locker room was perhaps the nastiest thing I have ever had to clean up before. I did not know that a group of men could be so rude also and leave trash all over a room and not think about it twice.

Preparing for faith and family night

This week I went into the office 3 days for a total of 12 hours. On the first day I spent a lot of my time contacting local churched to let them know about the theme of next week’s game. Some of the churches responded and said they were going to send out some of their youth groups to the game and set up a table. Other churches said they would get back to us but never did. The following day in the office I made photo copies of vouchers for a free round of mini golf at two of our sponsor courses, along with one free movie ticket to the Omni cinema. Once I was done making copies and cutting them out I had cut out over 1000 vouchers. My third day in the office was spent numbering the vouchers and stuffing them into plastic eggs since we would be handing them out to kids at the entrance. The purpose of the eggs was to hand something out to all the children that attended since the game was the day before Easter.

Game 4 Week

This week at the Force office, I went in Tuesday and Friday for a total of 10 hrs and then on Saturday I worked at the crown for 14 hours. During Tuesday’s office hours I spent a great majority of my time cutting out more voucher game tickets for coaches, players, staff, and coupon vouchers for a restaurant for players to use. This week I believe I cut out and signed close the 1000 cards. Once I was done cutting and signing voucher tickets I spent the last hour in the office rolling and rubber banding t-shirts to be shot out of the t-shirt gun and for our cheerleaders to throw into the crowd. On Friday, my day was a little more exciting then Tuesday. My first task was to ride along with Alex to get our game day fire extinguishers re-filled for Saturday’s game. The fire extinguishers are sprayed as each player and coach is introduced to the field. After we got back from filling up the fire extinguishers, Alex had me re-load the stat software on to a new computer for game day and become familiar with how the software worked. Once I was comfortable entering in fake scenarios that might happen in a real game, I helped Alex and Derrick come up with possible game day events to be put on during media timeouts, team timeouts, one minute warnings, and half time. Since this week’s game was military appreciation night, I suggested to use the relay game again at half time because who would not want to see four grown men carrying each other to win a prize. After the game script was written I rolled a few more t-shirts before I was done for the day. On Saturday, I arrived at the crown at 9am and was not done working till 11pm. Before kickoff which was at 7:05 pm, today was the youth league game which the Force set up several weeks ago. My duty from 9am to 3pm was working the game clock, play clock, and scoreboard for all the youth games. As I was learning how to control everything at once it took some time getting used to when to start and stop both the game clock and play clock. Several times I could hear the parents yelling as to why the game clock was or was not stopped. One time I even had a 14 year old player come running yelling at me “stop the clock we called a god damn timeout.” I did not stop the clock right away because the official did not give the signal yet and I was to follow their signals and not players or coaches. Once the youth league games were finished the other interns and I were provided a free lunch at The Dog House right down the road from the crown. Two hours before game time we spent it hanging rail signs and putting all the intermission event equipment in the tunnel. My duty for the first half of the game was helping another intern Bill track stats. The second half of the game I worked in the tunnel which consisted of bringing contestants down to the tunnel and helping set and break down the events as they went on. When the game was over, the interns and I put away the event equipment away and were free to leave.

Game 2 Week

This week in the office we were preparing for our second home game. On Wednesday in the office, I spent a good amount of my time cutting additional badges and laminating them for more volunteers and additional staff members. I also had to copy and cut out 150 player voucher cards for them to give to family and friends. I know that I cut out 150 because I had to number each of the cards. In addition to those player voucher cards, I copied and cut out voucher cards for the office staff and couches. In total I cut out 400 voucher cards for staff. During my office hours on Thursday, I helped Derek develop the script for the game on Sunday. I specifically helped him come up with activities for breaks during media and team time outs, one minute warnings, and half time. One of the events I came up with for half time was the family relay race since it was “Family Night” at the game. The event consisted of a family of four with the husband carrying the wife fifteen yards then switching and the wife carrying the husband back fifteen yards. Next, the children wheel barreled out fifteen yards and switched roles on the way back. Obviously the family to complete the relay race first won. While in the office I also numbered more voucher cards for the staff and signed them. It was different to have the authority to sign the vouchers because in the past my signature had very little meaning. On Friday, I had to cut out additional voucher cards for the players along with numbering and signing them too. In the end, I numbered and signed a total of 284 voucher cards for players. I also spent some of my time folding pocket schedule box holders for the sales reps to bring out to places. Along with folding pocket schedule boxes, I rolled t-shirts to be shot out of the gun for game day. At the end of the day we went next door to king signs to pick up more signs for our dasher boards. Even though it seems like I do not do much in the office, the work I do helps the staff in preparing for game day and for them to use their time for more vital work in the office. On game day, we arrived at the stadium at 9:50 am for a game at 4pm. Right away when we arrived we were put to work. For the next two and half hours we spent our time ripping off the older sponsor signs from the dasher boards to place the new sponsor signs on the boards. This was an extremely long and exhausting task because the old signs were exceptionally sticky. By the time we finished ripping off all the old signs my hands were so sticky that if my hands touched each other I struggled to pull them apart. After washing my hands we placed the new signs on the dasher boards which looked spectacular. Once we were finished putting up the new sponsor signs we took a lunch break at the dog house which was free since they are one of our sponsors. When we arrived back at the stadium it was about an hour before kick off so we had to get all the other little things in place. During the game I was a runner in the tunnel which consisted of picking contestants off of a signup sheet for each contest and escorting them down the elevator to the back of the tunnel to walk on the field. While I was not finding and escorting contestants I was able to watch the game from the sideline and at times catch extra point field goals. At the end of the game I wrote an article about the game that will be posted on the team’s website.

Game 1 Week

Over the past few weeks I have been interning with the Fayetteville Force Indoor Football Team. For my internship I will be working with Alex Garmezy and Derek Hardy. Before this past week I had been going into the office about once or twice a week. At the time the Force was not needing my help all that much in the office and they did not have much for me to assist them with. Throughout those 3 weeks which I spent little time in the office, I did help with finding companies to provide helmets and shoulders pads at the best price offered. I also helped design and cut out cards for players to sign and handout to fans at a fan appreciation day. Another day in the office I assisted Alex in editing film from practice and moving each clip into a separate file to upload on the teams website. This past week was very crazy and hectic since it was the week right before the game opener on March 18, 2011. Alex and Derek both needed me in the office every day of the week to help them prepare for the home opener against the Carolina Speed. Prior to Friday’s game I helped Alex prepare field passes for all the interns, media passes, coach’s passes, and passes for everyone else in the office. Additionally, I helped prepare the dasher boards in preparation for Friday’s game. This was a very long and tiring process. On game day I arrived at the arena 5 hrs before the game to help set up sponsor signs along the railings, as well as making sure the field was fully prepared. I further assisted Alex in retrieving food for the Media room after the game as well as taking down all the sponsor signs after the game. During the game my duty was ball boy which entailed me throwing a football to the refs at times when a ball was thrown outside of the field or a field goal was attempted. Being a ball boy was first for me and a good experience since I was able to enjoy the game while working. Furthermore, being behind the scenes before and after the game was an eye opening experience to see all the time and planning that must be put in for such an event to be put on. As of now I have worked a total of 30hrs from spending time in the office and 9hrs this past Friday for the home opener. Now that the season has official started I will be going into the office a minimum of 3 times a week for 4hrs.