The plan was easy: join college students excited by sports with alums within the industry. After months of planning and outreach, efforts grew into the College’s first-ever student-organized sports conference, culminating in a two-day occasion on Friday and Saturday.
The brainchild of Josh Rubel ’26 and Maya Singh ’27, On Deck introduced college students and alums collectively for 10 panel conversations protecting matters comparable to knowledge and analytics, management in sports, and behind-the-scenes sporting operations.
Rubel and Singh created On Deck to fill what they noticed as a niche within the College’s profession programming. “We’ve both had this experience of seeing all these different recruiting events happen on campus, but not for things that we’re really interested in,” Rubel mentioned. “So we wanted to create something that bridged our personal and professional passions.”
In complete, 19 alums participated as panelists, together with Jonathan Kraft ’86, president of The Kraft Group; Mike Disner ’07, the chief working officer of the Detroit Lions; and Dave Clawson ’89, athletics particular advisor at Wake Forest University.
The conference’s success relied on alums’ willingness to have interaction with college students. Half of the professionals who participated got here after Rubel and Singh despatched chilly emails. “I was overall shocked by how many people just immediately said yes,” Singh mentioned.
Inspired by sports conferences at different colleges, the organizers started reaching out to alums over the summer time, unsure of how far their efforts would take them. “I don’t think either of us realized how big this would get,” Singh mentioned. “It’s turned from something that was just a fun activity into something that’s really special.”
For panelist Katie Stiffler ’07, the senior director of development and retention for the National Women’s Soccer League growth crew, Denver Summit FC, the choice to take part was a no brainer. “It was really one of the easiest yeses ever,” Stiffler mentioned. “I really wish something like this existed when I was here.”
Stiffler spoke on two panels centered on the expansion of girls’s sports and fan engagement. Those discussions emphasised how current investments, growth groups, and elevated visibility have accelerated development throughout ladies’s leagues.
Panelists additionally highlighted the logistics required to assist the expansion of girls’s sports, together with amenities, contracts, and neighborhood partnerships. Emerging sports, comparable to flag soccer, additionally assist appeal to new audiences, panelists mentioned.
Stiffler mentioned she hopes college students left the conference conscious that working within the ladies’s sports discipline is a viable profession path. “It’s a really successful, growing business with a ton of momentum behind it,” she mentioned.
Across the remaining panels, audio system examined how broader modifications within the sports industry are reshaping profession paths. A dialogue on new tendencies in sports media centered on the rise of streaming platforms, the digitization of sports protection, and the growing variety of methods through which followers devour content material.
Darren Hartwell ’13, a managing editor at NBC Sports Boston, mirrored on how his personal path to working in sports media started throughout his time on the College. “I started working in Sports Information my sophomore year, which was something that I really enjoyed,” Hartwell mentioned. “So I just kept following it.”
In panel conversations on how a liberal-arts schooling prepares college students for careers in sports, Hartwell centered on how educational rigor and lively participation in small lessons ready him for the fast-paced nature of sports media. “In the working world, there are things that come up unexpectedly during your day, and you have to do it fast,” Hartwell mentioned. “Doing things in an efficient manner [in college] set me up well for success.”
Hartwell additionally inspired college students to discover broadly and take initiative. “I remember being in the student’s shoes and trying to figure out where I was, where I wanted to go, and what career I wanted to be in,” he mentioned. “My advice is exploring and trying to get involved in as many things as you can and see what you like and don’t like.”
Rubel and Singh hope to increase On Deck in future years, probably involving different NESCAC colleges. “There is so much that can be done here, and there are so many people who want to be in this space that don’t know how to get into it,” Rubel mentioned. “The future of this conference is just getting more people involved.”
Editor’s observe: Ben Niewoehner, a managing editor for the Record and a coordinator for On Deck, was not concerned within the writing or enhancing of this text.