des moines menace
In summer 2022, I was given an exceptional opportunity to work full-time with Des Moines Menace, the premier pre-professional soccer club in the country. My time with Menace gave my my first experience in a sports front office and allowed me to prove my skills in sports information, media relations, play-by-play commentary, public relations, internal and external writing, and more related disciplines.
play-by-play broadcasting
One of my largest roles at Menace was serving as the team’s play-by-play voice for home broadcasts at Valley Stadium. i was excited to call six home matches on YouTube for thousands of Menace fans during the USL League Two regular season, and I also commentated six more playoff matches in July which Menace hosted.
Working with some of the best colleagues in the business, Iwas the creative director of our broadcasts and distributed a weekly audit of every aspect of the broadcast performance after every match. thanks to the hard work of so many people around me, we created by far the best broadcasting product in USL League Two and a product that rose to the level of professional broadcasts with budgets well above ours.
media relations
Working with Menace meant I got to spend a summer in Krause Gateway Center, the headquarters of Kum & Go (Menace’s parent company). I was spoiled to have top-class resources at my disposal in the crown jewel of downtown Des Moines, Iowa.
Throughout the summer, I was the direct media contact for local media outlets ranging from radio news stations to major cable TV networks in the Des Moines market. I created weekly press releases and maintained a media list to send those releases to.
I also occupied a sports information role, scheduling and conducting interviews with members of the team. Media requests and player appearances ran through me, and I developed and cultivated relationships with media members to increase quality and quantity of coverage.
Menace would earn placements on three major TV networks, multiple stories on Radio Iowa, and various written articles for newsletters and major news outlets.