Last spring, Dante Leone, a current manager for the Merrimack football team, had an internship with the Massachusetts Pirates, a professional Indoor Football League team based out of Lowell. He worked as a gameday operator for the Pirates, which involved a variety of tasks to make sure everything was ready for their home games. Dante’s tasks included monitoring in-game activations, staffing the customer service table and helping people around the arena with the 50-50 raffle.
Dante found this internship through the website Teamwork Online. His professors at Merrimack told him about this platform, as many sports teams will offer jobs on this site that may not be found elsewhere. “For the sports industry, it’s hard to find jobs online because a lot of [them] are accounting, [and] marketing,” Dante said. “Teamwork online [is] specifically oriented around sports, so…my professors were hammering home that [it’s] a really good source.”
Through his experience as a football manager, Dante was well-prepared for his role in a more professional setting,
“A lot of my work with the football program at Merrimack [requires] communication skills,” he said. “It’s talking to the coaches and the players, seeing what needs to be done, and putting my head down and getting to work.”
While some tasks aren’t the greatest, such as doing their laundry and putting their jerseys away, there are glamorous moments as well. “We get to travel with the team on away games, and it’s really cool to be on the bus knowing that you’re making a positive impact and [the players] express their gratitude.” Dante said.
Another aspect of working in the sports industry is the long hours. For his internship, Dante would typically show up three to four hours before the game and finish his work a couple hours after the game. “It’s a lot of dedication,” he said. “It’s gonna be a lot of unusual hours…if you’re committed to it and you know that’s gonna be part of the job…then it’s a good experience.”
Dante’s experience with the Pirates was also very helpful with networking and building connections with people within his field,
“[The] knowledge that you’re getting in the field is obviously super valuable… but a lot of it is making an impression and building your network,” he said. “If someone knows that you’re working well and you ask for a recommendation or they know someone [where] you’re looking to work at…they could have nothing but positive things to say about you.”
For other people looking to work in the sports industry like Dante, his advice is to make the most out of every opportunity and have patience,
“Just know it’s going to be a slow process,” he said. “The sports industry is [about] working your way up and getting your foot in the door. People are going to look at…experience and [being] passionate about working in sports…if you have that resume filled out…with experiences…you’re going to stand out a lot more.”
With Dante graduating from Merrimack this fall, he hopes that the experience and the networking he received from this internship will lead to a full-time job in sports operations.
