The MFJS Reporter — Winter 2020 M-W

Working from his office in Magness Arena, Goodman does “a wide range of things” under his job title. 

“For basketball, I write all their game recaps, game notes, and any sort of press releases that need to go out,” he says. 

Goodman also creates graphics for social media, updates the athletics website with stats, and sets up interviews if needed. For the ski team, he does more outsourced work, where he mostly edits content and then sends it out to where it needs to be published.  

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), employment in the media and communications field is expected to grow 4 percent from 2018 to 2028, which is “about as fast as average for all occupations”. 

However, the BLS does not seem to have concrete data on the sports communications field specifically. According to ZipRecruiter, the national average salary for sports communications jobs is $48,571 per year. The average salary in Denver is slightly larger, at $48,942 per year. Goodman says that a starting salary for an intern like himself in the field would probably be between $30,000 and $40,000 a year. 

Working as an intern for the past three years, Goodman says that breaking into the field itself was “a little bit complicated.” 

“The one thing I’ve learned about the field is that it’s all about who you know and having connections,” he explains. 

While in college at the University of Iowa majoring in sports and recreation management, Goodman had “zero clue what athletic communications was.” He originally did not have the intention to do athletic communications at all, which was what made his first steps into the field harder than he thought they would be. 

“My original plan going into college was to become an accountant or do marketing,” Goodman says. “I knew I wanted to stay in sports (…) but I thought I wanted to be on the business side [of the field],” he continues. “This was a brand new thing for me when I entered- I didn’t even know if it was something I would enjoy.” 

Goodman ended up first getting an internship within the Iowa athletics department through a connection with a friend of his uncle’s. He worked with the women’s golf team, but also helped out with both men’s and women’s basketball, and did gameday work for the football team. 

When looking for a job in sports communications, your major does matter to some degree, according to Goodman. 

“I’ve done my fair share of job searching for internships and full-time positions, and a lot of what [employers] are looking for is sports management majors, communications majors, journalism majors, and even business majors,” he says. “[Your major] is not particularly as important as life experience is in this field, but it does carry a little bit of weight,” he continues. 

TheBalanceCareers, a website that assists with career planning, job searching, and internships, lists several different necessary steps to take and skills to have when considering a career in sports management, marketing, and communications. Taking a position with your school’s newspaper, radio, or television station and developing content for them is one of the main ways to gain experience in the field. 

According to Goodman, “communication is key” as a skill to have in the field, whether it’s making calls, writing emails, or doing interviews. Along the same lines, “getting reps in writing for sports” is another important skill to have when breaking into the field, says Goodman. 

TheBalanceCareers says that speaking to the athletic department at your school and getting to do work for them is also a crucial tip. Goodman first started getting in contact with the athletic department at Iowa towards the end of his sophomore year, and that helped him to eventually work for their programs. 

Goodman says “there is no typical day” at his job, but he still breaks down his ‘typical’ workdays into two types: in season and out of season. 

As for out of season days, “you come in at 9 or 9:30, and you leave around 3 or 4 just because there’s not much going on,” he says. 

An out of season workday consists of preparing anything that is needed for the upcoming season, such as updating athletes’ online biographies, updating records and stats, and taking care of other housekeeping work. 

While a team that Goodman works for is in season, he will typically attend the team’s practice and work while he’s there. 

“You’re always preparing for the next game- usually stopping by the coach’s office once a day just to make sure that they’ve got everything that they need,” Goodman says. 

Preparing for games also involves contacting the opposing team’s school to ensure that both schools have correct gameday information, creating gameday graphics, and taking care of anything else that might come up. 

“It is exhausting,” says Goodman of his oftentimes fast-paced schedule, in which he can work up to 80 hours a week. “Like most people, I do hate my job at times”, he admits. 

Goodman still raves about the positive aspects of his job, despite the negative ones.

“I do like the people that I work with, and it really is rewarding, especially being at a college, to watch the players develop and adapt throughout the one season that you might be with them,” he says.   

For Goodman, what matters most for this field at the end of the day is that you are determined to work your hardest. 

“What future employers want to see is that you’re putting the work in, willing to grind, and willing to just get that experience, no matter what it is.”