A group of Oklahoma State University students enrolled in the Advanced Sports Public Relations capstone course recently enjoyed a unique opportunity to apply classroom knowledge to a real world situation.  From March 26-29, the students filled various behind-the-scenes roles at the NCAA Women’s Basketball Regional Championship, held at Chesapeake Arena in Oklahoma City. 

“Our students helped coordinate and execute a large-scale media event, putting the skills they’ve learned in class into a high pressure, real-world setting,” instructor Erin Smith said.  “I was really proud of the way they represented themselves and Oklahoma State University.”

The event included the rounds most commonly known as the “Sweet Sixteen” and “Elite Eight” and featured women’s basketball powerhouses Stanford, Baylor, Iowa, and Notre Dame, which won the regional and made it to the championship game before losing to Connecticut. 

The class divided into two groups for the four-day event, with each group experiencing one day filled with practices and press conferences and one day consisting of games.  Duties took the students inside locker rooms, backstage of the press conferences, courtside during games, and firsthand exposure to the ESPN production trucks. 

Matt Leos, a sports media major from Mesquite, Texas, worked closely with the media.  During press conferences, he brought a microphone to media members who wished to ask questions and during games he distributed statistics.  He quickly learned to be flexible in a fast-paced environment. 

“Being able to adapt to everything that was going on was the biggest thing,” Leos said. 

Kelsey Thomas, a senior from Paris, Kentucky, managed the photography bay and had a chance to interview Notre Dame players in the locker room.  Watching Notre Dame lose in the championship game became more difficult following her experience in Oklahoma City.

“I connected with the Notre Dame players when I interviewed them,” Thomas said,  “and so when they played in the championship game, I was rooting for them.”

On top of making personal connections, the students received a crash-course in real world application of the projects they were assigned in class.  Smith directed each student to pair with an NCAA Division II, III, or NAIA school and develop materials such as game notes and feature stories. 

“We saw all of the information they have to produce for the media and it was kind of overwhelming,” Thomas said.  She also discovered how helpful that information could be when she pored over the notes and media guides to develop the questions she asked in the Notre Dame locker room. 

Thomas has been accepted to law school at the University of Mississippi and thanks in part to the positive experience she had at the NCAA Tournament, she intends to pursue a career in sports law.  The weekend also confirmed a desire to work in sports for Leos, who hopes to land a job in sports marketing or communications. 

For both, they can now add to their resumes experience working an NCAA women’s basketball regional.