Like any other job shadow, Matt Swanson arrived at Ian Henry\u2019s office ready to work on the morning of Jan. 9.<\/p>\n
But unlike most other offices, Henry\u2019s sits just two doors down from an ice rink. An not just any ice rink, but the rink at the ShoWare center, the new home of the Seattle Thunderbirds, a Western Hockey League franchise.<\/p>\n
And Henry may work in an office, but as the director of public and media relations for a minor league hockey team, it\u2019s definitely not your typical job shadow.<\/p>\n
After all, in very few other offices does one get to yell down the hall \u201cDo we know where the blimp is yet?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like an office environment, but it\u2019s a little different,\u201d Swanson said about halfway through his 12-hour day following and helping Henry prepare the arena for the evening\u2019s game against the Tri-City Americans. \u201cIt just feels different than if you were sitting in a random office somewhere doing accounting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Swanson, 18, is a senior at Kentlake High School and is the first local student to take advantage of the new professional sports team as a way to complete the job-shadow requirement for graduation.<\/p>\n
Swanson, a fan of the Thunderbirds even before they moved to Kent from the Key Arena in Seattle, said a job in the sports industry interested him and the T-Birds seemed like a good way to see for sure.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been wanting to get into sports somehow,\u201d he said. \u201cSince they were moving down here to Kent … I figured I\u2019d come down and see if they had a job shadow (program).\u201d<\/p>\n
Swanson contacted Henry and set up the day, despite not really knowing exactly what he did.<\/p>\n
On Friday, during what Henry called a typical game day, Swanson sat in on meetings with the team\u2019s president and general manager, helped write and edit the night\u2019s public address scripts, planned out the evening\u2019s promotions, updated the programs and the scouting reports and met with the entire promotions crew, all before the game even started.<\/p>\n
At game time, Swanson sat with Henry in the press box, watching the game from a new perspective before collecting from the media in attendance the ballots naming the game\u2019s three stars and putting together a press release on the game.<\/p>\n
With overtime and a shoot-out at the game, Swanson easily put in his eight-hour requirement and then some.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou work in sports, it\u2019s going to be a long day,\u201d Henry told him with a shrug.<\/p>\n
Henry also told Swanson it was a lot of work and took a lot of energy, but sports was definitely a fun field in which to work.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery day is completely different,\u201d he said. \u201cToday it\u2019s \u2018How do we present Thomas Hickey and the other players in the best light?\u2019 Tomorrow, it\u2019s the trade deadline.\u201d<\/p>\n
But because it is such a competitive field, Henry said a local team could help give those interested a leg up on the competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a fun environment to work in, but a lot of people want to work in sports so you have to know what goes on behind the scenes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Though his favorite part was watching the game from the press box, Swanson said he was surprised to learn how much of what Henry did was seen by fans, like the video promotions and scripts and other giveaways.<\/p>\n
With a few days to think about it, Swanson said he enjoyed his job shadow and working with Henry behind the scenes encouraged him to pursue the field further.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter doing it, I understand more what they really do,\u201d Swanson said. \u201cIt seems a lot more possible now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Like any other job shadow, Matt Swanson arrived at Ian Henry\u2019s office ready to work on the morning of Jan. 9. But unlike most other offices, Henry\u2019s sits just two doors down from an ice rink. An not just any ice rink, but the rink at the ShoWare center, the new home of the Seattle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":223,"featured_media":4977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-4976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4976"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/223"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4976"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=4976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}