Jon Jennings is poised to become the president of Portland’s very own minor league basketball franchise. He’s worked as an assistant coach with the Boston Celtics and under legendary college basketball coach Bobby Knight at Indiana University.
Cheryl Hebert manages Olympic athletes. She’s worked alongside Maine’s Olympic gold medalist snowboarder Seth Wescott and helped create the record-breaking Facebook page of Michael Phelps.
Jennings and Hebert were both in Gorham last week, alongside two other panelists, as part of the Sport Management program’s Career Discussion Panel held in the Hastings Formal Lounge. The panel, which was held as part of the University’s open house, drew over 100 students. It offered prospective students the opportunity to hear sport business professionals discuss their career paths and field questions.
Jennings and Hebert were joined by Portia Lowe, Associate Athletic Director at Lake Forest College in Illinois, as well as Liz Riley, the Director of Group Ticketing for the Portland Sea Dogs.
Together the four panelists represented a breadth of experience and careers and showed students how far a sport-centered career can take you.
“You realize that you can reach your goals,” said Israel Jasmin, a junior in the Media Studies department. “It’s inspiring to know you can get there as well.”
Jasmin, who attended the session with only moderate interest in the program, left feeling as though the window of possibility had been propped open slightly more by anecdotes shared by the esteemed panel.
While Jennings and Hebert told of their interactions with marquee sports figures (like Phelps, Larry Bird and the late Red Auerbach). Lowe and Riley, the youngest of the four panelists, focused on their unconventional routes to their current positions.
But the themes for the discussion remained the same. All of the panelists stressed an active involvement in the field, the importance of mentorship and the willingness to do what it takes to succeed.
Jennings started his trek towards the sports world after being denied by Notre Dame and settling for Indiana University. It was there that he worked under the tutelage of Knight before moving onto the professional ranks with the Indiana Pacers and later the Boston Celtics.
Hebert, a Syracuse University graduate, originally wanted to follow in the footsteps of Bob Costas as a broadcaster. But after a critical self-evaluation and the discovery of his knack for marketing, she followed her dream of working for the Olympic Committee to her current position at Octagon Sports.
A music major at Colby College, Riley went on to pursue a fellowship at Springfield College in Masschusetts before ending up at Hadlock Field. While her youthful counterpart Lowe always wanted to be the “CEO-type,” it wasn’t until after an internship with the Women’s College Basketball Association that she narrowed her focus to athletic administration: a career path that took her from her native Texas to snowy Massuchusetts, New York and finally Illinois.
It was these real-life success stories that excited junior Scott Nevers. Hearing some names that he was familiar with got him excited about the program and joining the work force. “[The panel] showed that you don’t have to come from a big place to work with big athletes,” Nevers said.
And he’s right.
In fact, two of the panelists were from right here in Portland.
Octagon is a world-wide sport marketing firm that deals with athletes across the sports spectrum, but their action and Olympic sports branch is Portland. They have offices around the world in places like London, New York, Toronto, Tokyo and Sydney.
Even in its infancy, the USM Sport Management program has built a relationship with Octagon that has resulted in internships, as well as one hire in just a year’s time.
“We have a formal relationship [with USM] and we recruit on a quarterly basis,” Hebert said. “We’ve had six interns and they’ve been great.”
Other internship opporuntities available to students include working with the Portland Pirates, the International Tennis Hall of Fame, Arena League Football and others. Check out the program’s website through the School of Business (www.usm.maine.edu/sb).