Tic Toc Tic Toc, Countdown to the finish line, or the halfway mark, at least...

        I started the morning off by driving to Monroe in a 15 passenger van with volunteers to pick up courtesy cars.  I am sorry, but the excitement over driving Escalades, and brand new SUV's is beyond me.  I was just fine driving back in whatever car they gave me, and when it happened to be a New Tahoe, I wasn't disappointed, but by the time I got back to the office, I was happy to not have to drive a huge, expensive car, that wasn't my own.  Besides, my Acura gets better pickup! 
        Today was a lot of the same; solving some problems and creating others.  AND...Clemson is now calling OFF THE HOOK trying to get the Bid for the Meineke Car Care Bowl.  They put something on their website with several of our staff's contact numbers for fans to call and request Clemson's presence at the bowl.  What is no doubt meant to be seen as enthusiasm, has started to make work towards the ACC Championship this week less effective.  Come on Clemson,  give Charlotte Collegiate Football a break until the end of the Championship Game at least! 
        Tomorrow, Sarah and I will be meeting with Chris and the Conference about setting up for the Night of Legends.  Tomorrow night, there is a Bridgette Tatum (who sings the ACC Football theme song) concert at Whisky River, so we will probably make an appearance there. 
        One more thing...last night I had a dream about bugs crawling out of my ears.  It was too weird not to investigate on the internet.  Not shocking what I found, the bugs crawling out of my ears symbolize anxiety over an issue,  or stress over a lack of control over an issue and stress dealing with a person in authority....HMMM

ACC CHAMPIONSHIP WEEK!

        It's finally here...the first game!  I have email sent to my phone from work, and when I checked my phone tonight I had 176 email messages...and it was the same yesterday.  That is an indication of the work load will be for the next while.  We are tying up loose ends, dealing with any issues that have come up with tickets, and dealing with leatherheads as this is the last week they can get in their ticket sales.  Needless to say, it's been hectic and 12 hour days are only going to get longer. 
        I have spoken with several...interesting...people trying to tie up loose ends.  Some can't read the most simple of instructions, some are mad at the world and taking it out on the first person they speak to, and some are offering me teaching jobs and asking me to meet up with them on game day.  There is a wide spectrum of attitudes represented with the ticket holders and it's been a reality check in customer service.
        Sarah and I were supposed to meet about the Night Of Legends with Chris Clouden and Allison today but we were so swamped that I had to stay behind and deal with game day stuff and leatherheads.  And Sarah missed our meeting with leatherheads about our hosting duties.  I think it's the most time we've spent apart in a work day! 
        I have nothing to wear for the Night of Legends event so I need to grab something, but there are two problems...I don't know when I will get off early enough to shop AND I don't have a huge amount of money to work with.  We'll see where that goes...maybe I can learn the art of dressing up a trash back like ke$ha...kidding.
        So tomorrow we have to head to Monroe to pick up the courtesy cars...two hours of time in the day that I don't have to spend, but it has to be done.

DOWN TO THE WIRE!!!!

The Ticket Puzzle

There are only so many ways you can say I have been counting tickets-checking section, row, seat, section, row, seat, section row seat-doing inventory, filling out fedex labels and sending out ACC championship tickets day after day for the past couple of weeks.  There's not much to tell other than to say that I spent several 12 hour days in the office last week, eating bad food, and responding to countless emails about when people are getting their tickets.  It's almost like a a GIANT puzzle.  Every ticket package you send out with zero problems is a piece of the puzzle that fits (fan packages are easier, like the end packages), corperate packages can be like trying to piece together the flower field kodak picture puzzle if you don't have all of the elements there...or if you are missing a ticket.  When you find missing tickets, it's like finding the pieces of the puzzle that have been nudged off the end of the coffee table by the dog's nose that no one realized until you happen go to find another piece you know has been dropped.  Does this make any sense?  I think Sarah would appreciate the analogies.  We have almost completely pieced the ACC Championship Ticket Puzzle together...just waiting to send out terrace packages tomorrow (hopefully) and we'll be good! 

Ticket Hell, Judy Rose, and Clemson Tigers

        I've been in a little world I like to call Ticket Hell for the past week and a half.  We have GOT to get tickets out to ACC Championship so we that means packaging up ticket orders, putting in parking passes as needed and creating hundreds of Fedex packages.  Not too much to write about BUT Will Webb was kind enough to send us to the City Club for lunch with Judy Rose. The lunch was the perfect way to break up the monotony of the week, and what an awesome experience! Judy Rose is the Athletic Director for UNC Charlotte and one of the most well-respected figures in the profession.  Judy Rose's bio can found on the the UNCC website (http://administration.uncc.edu/cabinet/Bios/rose.html).  Most recently, she has led the efforts to bring football to to the 49ers, and with great success.  The 49ers will play their opening season in 2013!  She was also the first female to serve on the selection committee NCAA Division 1 Men's Basketball Committee.  Rose got her start as a GA at University of Tennessee and got the chance to work with legendary Women's Basketball Coach Pat Summit and they remain close friends to this day!  From their, she headed to UNCC where she started out as head Women's basketball coach and tennis coach, graduated to Head Women's Basketball coach and Associate Athletic Director, and then was selected as Athletic Director (i believe that was the order of events?!)  It was so refreshing to hear a positive, non-feminist, outlook on women in this sport profession.  She had a positive experience moving up in the profession, and seemed to offered more opportunities than she could even take (including being a finalist in the run for the head coaching position with UNC Women's Basketball...wow!).  She told us that she was treated, for the most part, as an equal to the men she was working with.  In fact, it was the women who treated her differently because she did not try to put herself into typical All-Women's sports corner.  She could not have been more down to earth and interested in our career aspirations.  Other than sports and careers we just talked about Charlotte, and she even shared with us how she met her husband...kind of just like a girl's lunch!  Sarah and I had so much fun...and I hope she did as well!
        On Friday, it was back to the ticketing grind, except without Sarah because she was getting her Side Line Reporter, which meant that I couldn't get away with leaving work early and subsequently missed out on all bu the last minute of the Belmont Abbey/ Clemson exhibition basketball game.  Luckily, I ran into Will Qualkinbush, got to sneak in through the tunnel with him, and got to hug Ryan as he was running off the court at the end of his game.  I got to talk to Susan, and all of the Basketball staff, Coach Brownell's girls, and even got to talk to Frank Smith (an assistant coach on OP's staff)!  He was very impressed with my weather appropriate outfit, as he once called me out for not wearing a jacket and breaking down my immune system, and one week later I got Mono.  Frank is starting his own drug testing company now and seems to be doing really well.  It was really great to see a member of the old staff...brought back memories!
        After the game I got to meet up with Mackenzie, Ansley Faria, and Amanda Suiter for a girl's weekend of fun!  A girl's weekend of fun got invaded by Will Sartin (I know...how many Wills can one girl know?), but it was SO great getting to spend the day with him and his best friend from home, Brooks.  It was his first game day off in his college career and I was so glad he chose to spend it with us!  Again, on Sunday I woke up and did NOT want to head back to reality.  It is so sad when you go to say "hey! I'll call you tonight and head over to hang out" and then realize that you will be in a different state in a couple of hours and that will be impossible.  I'm pretty sure this will be my last weekend out of town for a while, but these weekends with college friends have been so rejuvenating and have served as a very important reminder to me of the importance of great friends.  I wish I could see ALL of my friends...but those were some pretty good representatives for sure! 

OH YEAH!  And we beat NC STATE!!!! WOO HOO (I will be slightly less excited on the job...obviously I am very objective).  During the game, I stopped by the Raycom Truck and Jimmy (in charge of Raycom Production) gave me a tour of the entire thing!  I could tell that he enjoys teaching people about the profession that he is an expert at.  He was so sweet to do that.  I got to see what the difference is between the Producer, the Director and Technical Director's jobs.  He also showed me the audio room and I got to hear the sound that was coming in from the Parab (the job I did when I worked the game).  While we were in there, Rob (the producer) was trying to figure out which camera got the shot of Coach Steele passing out so that they could use it as a feature story for the next game.  The truck was high energy during the show, the fun, easy-going characters that I know from the offices become ALL business and have no time to joke around. I loved just getting to see how that whole thing works. 

Encouraging words in the Football world

        "I don't fear the waves because I trust and know who made the Ocean".  This was the opening statement that Bill Stewart, head football coach at West Virginia, made when he spoke at the final Touchdown Club Luncheon of the year today.  I was reassured of the power to do good in the Sports Industry during the Touchdown lunch today.  In the opening prayer, the Father that typically does the invocation prayed that Football programs would bring joy to those who watched, and I thought, yeah!  If it's that easy to bring a smile to someone's face, why not work in sports?  And then I heard Bill Stewart talk about his football team.  If I'm a new fan of any football program it's going to be West Virginia after the speech he gave today.  He said he trains his team members to be *good husbands* *good dads (not father's but dads...he made the distinction)* *strong men of society* and *men of faith*.  As Coach Stewart was speaking I found myself thinking, I want my son to play football at West Virginia.  I don't have a son, and have also never given much thought to the West Virginia athletic program in general, but it didn't register with me how weird and out of left field it was that I was wishing my unborn, nonexistent child could some day play for a team I do not cheer for (and would certainly cheer against, should they play Clemson), until after the speech was over.  It sounds like they do it right in West Virginia.  They dot their I's, cross their T's, and tell their players to be good boys, according to Coach Stewart.  They train their players to be men of character, AND get them to buy into the program.  The boys are committed to playing the best football, and that COMBINED with the top priority being good men of character makes the football program great.  I mean, despite the loss this past weekend, I don't think many would argue that WVU has a strong football program.  But they do it the right way.  In the past several years they have had a very impressive graduation rate.  In 2008, Coach Stewart graduated all but 2 of his players (the 2 who did not graduate went on to play in the NFL).  In 2009, his graduation rate was %100.  Bravo.  Yes sports are fun.  Yes the industry is part of the entertainment industry, and can seem frivolous and silly in the realm of the world.  But I was reminded today that not only can this industry bring joy to those who participate in it or consume it, but it can also cultivate good leaders in our society.  Bill Stewart: you are alright in my book!
        We spent a total of MAYBE 2 hours in the office today which was a much needed change of pace for me.  Instead of counting tickets for hours on end, we ended up having meetings at Charlotte Convention Center to tighten up several aspects of the ACC Night of Legends event, at the Epicentre to talk about Fan Central and other events leading into the ACC Championship weekend, and Fuel Pizza to talk about media day.  Today was good.  Much better than yesterday.  Today I felt energized at the end of the work day. 
        As I'm writing, I'm watching the election results roll in, which has turned out to be a pretty incredible and historical political event.  I am so embarrassed to say that I was unable to vote today, as I was not punctual enough about looking into ordering an absentee ballot, and couldn't make it to Greensboro. But I did get to have dinner with a few of Ann and Bobby's friends.  They literally ordered dinner specifically to watch mid-term election results roll in.  A glimpse into the future...but I did enjoy the company of the Blanchfields and Mr. Murphy.  By the way, it blows my mind that these news stations can make their projections based on 2 PERCENT of the vote.  It baffles me!  I'm still trying to figure out how these numbers add up...On a side note, the Blanchfields have an unbelievable home on more than several acres in Charlotte, and a backyard with not one but two ponds that run down the hills.  You can hear running water no matter where you are in the house.  My mother would die.  They also had the sweetest boxer named Maddie that was the closest in age to me, so naturally I hung with her for the majority of the night. 

Back on Track

Let's knock this out and get back on track...


Chris Clouden called Sarah and I and asked if we would volunteer for this Amazing Race that the Charlotte Sports Commission was putting on with Visit Charlotte. a couple of weeks ago  Participants came from all over the area, most worked in sports industries, and were considering bringing some kind of sporting event to Charlotte-whether it be a youth league or an event.  The "race" was set up so that people would have to make stops at some of the most well-known places around uptown Charlotte.  There were stops at The Panthers Stadium, Time Warner Cable Arena, the site for the future baseball lot, Wachovia Plaza, Bojangles (i have no idea), Ri Ras, etc...We were set up at Alexander Michael's a little restaurant that is known for their fried pickles.  Each team had to come by and eat a basket of fried pickle's at our stop.  These teams were serious about winning the race, and getting to Strike City to bowl the first strike and win the event, so much so that they were stealing each other's cabs while teams were inside finishing their challenges.  It wasn't too bad of a deal for each of the participants...winners or not, each person received an iPad for doing the race and participating in the three day event.  Afterwards, their was a party at Strike City for the racers and volunteers, and once again, we really enjoyed getting to know some of the Sports professionals who were selected to help run this race.  We did have to bowl, and I had to show my ability to laugh at myself, as bowling is NOT. MY. SPORT. 

The next day we headed out to the ACC Basketball Media Day where we got to see lots of all of our favorite BBall stars.  They had it set up so that there were several different rooms, one for Raycom (the ACC Network), one for Fox Sports, one for Radio, one for Print Media, and one for other television stations.  They rotated pairs of players from each team around to the rooms...and were there for approximately 5 minutes a piece.  It really ran like clockwork.  In the ACC Network room, they interviewed each player individually, but in the "other stations" room, they interviewed press conference style.  They also had another station set up at ESPNU where the Coaches were stationed, and they with the players half the way through the day.  I had no idea how a media day was run so it was cool to see.  Not what I expected. 

Other events we attended in the past couple of days-

Touchdown Club Luncheon featuring John Randle:  What a funny, INTENSE guy. 
He loves him some trash talking.  Here's a little nugget of fun for you all:

http://www.youtube.com/user/nieminenj

He said that he'd spend hours studying video and knew when a guy would be making a passing play versus a running play based on whether he had one chin strap buckle fastened or two.  He would also study his opponents personal lives and find out ways to get inside their heads on the field.  Interesting guy with a good game plan.

The Charlotte Sports Commission Golf Club:  Cold. Rainy. Inappropriately Dressed for the weather.  But we did get to watch a lot of men golf, some were funnier than others.  For example, when one guy teed off and literally hit the ball into the parking lot BEHIND HIM.  Hilarious.  We sold some extra point passes, but I don't know how many extra point passes we would have had to sell to make the weather conditions really seem worth it.  We had several people bring pieces of clothing by, and one guy even ran up to another hole where they were serving apple martinis and brought some back to us. 

Other than these events, we got tickets in this week and have been trying to get inventory done.  Do you know what that means?  It means we look through every single ticket we get, and cross referencing them with a list of every single ticket we are supposed to have.  Tedious.  It literally made Sarah feel sick today.  YIKES.  But it's got to get done, and honestly it's not the worst job in the world if you do it in doses. 

Thank you for your patience with the blog these past couple of weeks!

I owe you a bunch of blog posts

I know.  It's been a long past week, filled with out of the ordinary events, long days at the office, and feeling a bit under the weather which has led to major blog regret.  I apologize...major literary party foul on my part.  I'm just going to jump right in so bare with me.  

PARAB: Saturday, October 16, 2010

        The Clemson vs. Maryland game was my first time working for Raycom's production side, and I must say that I could not have had a more positive experience.  As a Clemson fan, the ultimate experience is to get to stand on the field and watch a game.  The ultimate experience is to be in borderline inappropriate proximity to C.J. Spiller throughout the entire game.  The ultimate experience is to get to listen to the Dabo Sweeny and his boys talk football in there huddles.  The ultimate is to watch the Tigers cruise to victory...in short, the ultimate is to work the Parab on the field during a Clemson game.  I had the ultimate Clemson (and work, for that matter) experience that Saturday. 

        But let's start from the beginning of the day.  We were expected to check in at the Raycom truck by 8:30 and head up to the Press Box for breakfast.  The first person I ran into in the press box was Mike Hogwood (Raycom sideline reporter), and I got to introduce myself to him, which was cool because he is actually a friend of Uncle Chip's from Greensboro.  We got to meet a lot of the people on the Raycom production team during breakfast while we were waiting to hear our assignments for the day.  Several of those people were ones I interacted with throughout the day and the entire production staff for Raycom could not be more accommodating and fun to be around.  By 9:15 we were told our assignments: Sarah and I would be working the parabs that day, which I later found out is short for Parabolic, because of it's shape.  I don't know if you are familiar at all with this...and again, this is a rookie explanation, as are every one of my production explanations...but the parab is the bubble like shape that you will normally see guys holding on the sidelines of a football game.  

This picture was found on the following website: http://www.dailynews.com/sports/ci_13674073.  Photographed by Michael Owen Baker, Daily News staff photographer.

        More about that later.  We didn't have to report anywhere until 11:15 so we had a large amount of time to simply hang out with the production staff and walk around the stadium which was one of the many highlights of the day for me.  The production truck had a lot of people going in and out of it, and everyone was working on some kind of job, whether it was organizing the pregame show for the broadcast, or editing graphics that would appear when players were being discussed during the game.  We also walked into the "First and 10" truck.  Yes, there were 2 guys who's sole purpose was to move the first and 10 line throughout the game.  Most of their work was done before the game ever started, and needless to say, their is potential to get quite bored if you are working first and 10 for a game in which you are not emotionally involved.  I suggested they bring an extra laptop next time and pull up other games on the Internet to keep themselves entertained throughout the 3-4 hours of isolation in a truck.  SO if in the next couple of weeks you are watching a Raycom Broadcast that seems inaccurate, it could be my fault.  

        We still had plenty of time so I walked out to the empty stadium and looked out over the perfectly manicured field.  The sky was clear and blue and the balloons had all been secured by Central Spirit at the bottom of the hill and were ready for release when the time was right.  There was no one out there, no fans, no football players, and yet you could still tell it was game day.  Death Valley has that intangible quality on a game day and I got chills just walking up and down the steps.  When I stepped out on the field, I got that feeling that I used to get before a lacrosse game in High School.  I don't know if it was that I have never stepped on that field on Game Day, or that I knew I was about to work a device that I had no idea how to operate, or that we had lost the past 3 games, and I could feel the added pressure to win, but I got a nervous feeling that I haven't felt in a long time when I realized that I would not be heading up to the comfort (and I use that term loosely) of the student section. 

        I reported to my station at the 20 yard line 45 minutes before kickoff for a quick rundown of what I was going to be doing during the game.  I found out that I would be holding a Parabparab.  The things you want to pick up are any clear contact with the ball (kicks, big catches, etc...), tackles and fumbles, and banter on the field and in the huddle among coaches and players.  It was like discovering a whole new part of the game the first time I heard each of these sounds.  I found myself experimenting with the best way to capture the most clear sound.  I found that I almost wanted to try and get up AND over the sound, so for me holding the parab up higher and tilting it slightly forward often worked best.  You have to be careful about where you point it, because if you are aiming at a play, but the parab is also in line with the band, that is all you will hear.  I mean, this device picks up a clap from across the field, so you can imagine what a marching band would sound like in your headphones. 

        Highlights of the game were: Actually enjoying the parab (many find it boring but I found it fascinating!) Getting to enjoy a game day experience at Clemson on the field.  Standing next to C.J. Spiller for the vast majority of the game...I didn't reach out and touch him, against the wishes of many of my friends, for fear of being fired.  Almost getting tackled 3 times!!!...So close to making sports center.  The last time it happened I seriously considered NOT running backwards out of the way.  Overall, I learned a lot that day and enjoyed every tiring minute of it!  

TBC...with more adventures from this week!

COMING SOON (as in hopefully tomorrow):

Monday Night Amazing Race with Charlotte Sports Commission and Visit Charlotte

ACC Media Day: Basketball

Clemson Game