Good week of work!

This past week was a good one at the University of Hartford. During the week, there were three games, two men’s home games and one women’s home game. Last Monday was my first time ushering the balcony area of Chase arena, and everything went as planned. Since it was the lone women’s game of the week, my area wasn’t too crowded with many spectators, making my job a little easier.

Last Wednesday, I went in a little earlier than normal to shadow both Ted and Chris in their daily activities. Both received numerous calls from other department heads in our conference, trying to schedule practice and shoot-around times for their teams when they play us in Hartford. Chris also received a call from the University of Tennessee, who happened to be playing the University of Connecticut in Hartford Saturday afternoon. Apparently there was a scheduling conflict with the XL Center, Uconn’s arena they play at when they are off campus in Hartford. Therefore, Tennessee was forced to find an alternative gym to practice at the Friday before. Chris was able to work out a time where the Tennessee men were able to use our court for their practice before the game. I thought this was really cool, as it gave us a chance to see a more prominent men’s basketball team use our facilities when they had no other place to go.

Last Saturday was by far my longest day at the University of Hartford. I arrived at the arena at noon for a four o’clock game. We were asked to arrive early mainly because classes had finally resumed and we were expecting close to a sell-out crowd with Boston University, our biggest rival, in town. I was given the task of ushering the student section of the gym, which was actually pretty full for the first time since I had started there back in early January. All in all, things went pretty smoothly and Hartford actually pulled off the upset, winning by 4 against the lone team undefeated in conference play.

I have now currently amassed a total of 51 hours working for the University, and I must say, I am enjoying my experience a lot. I have met some great people and everyone has been really nice and outgoing to me. Ted and Chris have been a huge help, and I have definitely learned a lot from them so far about running a Division 1 facility. I’m looking forward this week to spending an entire day with Chris and Ted, to see what goes on during a non-game day.

Huge snowstorm!

Well I was supposed to go in this week for an entire day to see what goes on a day-to-day basis but the massive snowstorm that CT received stopped me in my tracks. We got over 25 inches in my area alone, thus making travel extremely difficult.

I hope to get in there sometime next week!

Successful first week at the University of Hartford!

     I have successfully completed my first week of my mentorship at the University of Hartford. Last Monday, January 3^rd, was my first full day of work at the Reich Family Pavilion, located in West Hartford Connecticut. The arena is surrounded by a number of student dormitories along with a number of educational buildings. Also, the arena has a decent-lobby, with a receptionist desk, ticket booths, a computer lounge for athletes, a snack bar with adjacent seating, and two cases of memorabilia dedicated to two of the all-time great alums from the University of Hartford’s athletic department; former NBA all-star Vin Baker of the Milwaukee Bucks and former Major League all-star Jeff Bagwell of the Houston Astros.

     The employees, myself included, are expected to wear khaki or dress pants, and either dress shoes or sneakers with no jeans, boots, or hats allowed. We are all given a red long-sleeve shirt with the words “Hartford Hawks” in the upper right hand corner and “Event Staff” on the back in white. We are expected to work with each other in a professional manner, meaning we shouldn’t converse too often with each other and also not use any electronic devices while working.

     Over the week, I performed a number of different duties and responsibilities while working at both the men’s and women’s basketball games. On my first day, I was able to both monitor and view mostly all of the activities for a game day, which included: setting up the lobby and VIP section for the game, checking to make sure all of the scoreboard and microphone equipment was functioning properly, and walking around the arena to make sure everything was in order. The lobby setup consisted of hanging signs to help direct fans in picking up their tickets, setting up railings to help funnel the fans through the ticket entrance, and set up any tables used for promotions during the game.

     After the conclusion of each game, we are instructed to “break down” the court. What is meant by this is that we are supposed to clear the lobby of what we had set up while also clearing the arena as well. At the end of each side of the arena, we remove all of the concession stand equipment while also removing the floor mats that are taped down to the ground. After doing this, we remove the steel siding from the sides of the bleachers so that we could manually power the bleachers back into their original upright position. After accomplishing this, we then set up two baskets on the court for the men’s and women’s teams to practice on. Depending on the type and length of the following days practice, we either break down both sides of bleachers for the next day or just one side to allow for practices.

     Overall, I thought it was a great learning experience to follow Ted and monitor how a game day set up is actually implemented. I am excited to get back to the campus to learn even more about how this process works. I will be visiting with Ted this week on a non-game day to see also see what goes about on a day-to-day basis.