Today was a very exciting day! Today was ArenaBowl XVI and I had the fantastic opportunity to work at it! During the week leading up to the ArenaBowl, Adrian had sent out a couple emails to all of us interns asking who would be able to work the ArenaBowl. When I saw that email I was ecstatic! I have never attended any championship game for any sports so I was thrilled to get this experience!
When I got to the Amway Center, everyone was running around and there seemed like there were thousands of things to do! It was very hectic and what made it even crazier for us interns was that there were only about seven of us: Alec, Dakota, David, Jorge, Julian and Corey and me. Julian and Corey helped us out before the game but during the game they were going to be up in the press boxes doing media work while the rest of use were on the field. So the game day field crew was short about four people!
Before the game when everyone was working Adrian gave all of us interns official AFL shirts to wear because he wanted us to all look professional and we were going to be on national TV. It was pretty cool!
While we were waiting for the game to start I got the opportunity to talk with Coach Plank about his playing days in college at Ohio State, playing with the Bears, the rivalry against the Packers as well as his coaching experience. It was fun to be able to talk to him about those things and learning what he though about them, especially the Bears-Packers rivalry as I’m a die-hard Packer fan.
Coach Plank said that it was a hard fight every time they played the Packers. “Every time we played them we knew we would be in for a rough fight. Both teams hated each other and it was very physical. It was like a civil war.”
The two teams playing in the ArenaBowl were the Arizona Rattlers and the Philadelphia Soul and both teams played their hearts out. It was a very fun and exciting game to watch. One of the fun things that I got to do was be the pizza delivery guy again! I got to go up into the top section and give a pizza to someone and that was fun because normally those people never get anything promotion-wise so it was nice to be able to give them something in the biggest game of the year.
In the end, Arizona won and they were presented with the championship trophy and it was very interesting to see the presenting ceremony and to be on the field for it! I had a great experience and I can’t wait to be involved in something like this again!
My experience with the Orlando Predators this season has been fantastic! I’ve learned so much about coaching, scouting and the daily operations of a sports team in general from working at the Predators. So many people from coaches to office workers, to fellow interns have taught me so much about the game and working in sports. I would gladly work with the Orlando Predators again given the opportunity!