Knights Interns Hit Ground Running.
June 10, 2016Team Set for 2016
A motivated, focused and larger-than-ever group of interns will play a major role in the off-field success of the Corvallis Knights this summer.
Seventeen students from Oregon State, Oregon, Gonzaga, Baylor and Western Oregon will help the Knights celebrate their 10th season in Corvallis by providing excellent customer service and by aiding the Knights management team behind the scenes in every aspect of operations.
"I am incredibly pleased with our interns this season," said Holly Jones, the Knights Senior Vice-President for Operations. "They are motivated, intelligent and eager to learn.
"I could not be more excited to be going into the season with this group of young talent."
The interns will be involved with virtually all facets of the Knights organization, from merchandise sales, on-field entertainment, marketing, data analytics, ticketing and branding. They often receive academic credit and are exposed to the sports business via a wide range of preseason and summer projects that require critical thinking, creativity, enthusiasm and commitment.
The Knights 2016 intern team features:
* Assistant ticketing manager Anna Seydel returns from 2015. A senior at Oregon from Kennewick, Wash., Anna is in UO's Clark Honors College, majoring in advertising and Spanish, and is a member of the Warsaw Sports Business Club. Anna was the Community Relations intern in 2015. She coordinated community appearances and directed the Corvallis Knights Reading Club.
* Grove, Okla. native Kira Armstrong will assist Knights ticket manager Colton Surcamp and Seydel with box office operations. She is an OSU political science major who likes the Los Angeles Lakers.
* Estacada High School graduate Melissa Sullivan will be the team's Pointstreak statistician for the second summer in a row. She will help Director of Media relations Brooks Hatch with postgame quotes and other duties.
A senior-to-be at OSU majoring in speech communications with a minor in business, Sullivan is an intern in the OSU sports information department. She was a three-year varsity cheerleader at Estacada and also managed the football and baseball teams her senior year.
* The merchandise intern team features Albany native Ali Boehme, a management major at OSU who is a huge Los Angeles Kings fan; David Stark from Vancouver, British Columbia who attends Brock University in Ontario, Canada and is part of the school's Honors Sport Management program; Garret Koonce a sports business major at Oregon from Dallas, Texas who understandably cheers for the hometown Texas Rangers, and Steven Weseloh, an OSU merchandise management major from Martinez, Calif., who roots for the nearly Oakland A's.
* Alex Barringer, a native of Whittier, CA, returns for another season with the team. Alex attends Dakota Weseleyan and is majoring in Sports Management. Alex will assist with ballpark operations, be a section leader and act as a general utility intern for the Knights in 2016.
* This year's on-field promotions emcee is Nicholas Gardner, a Western Oregon student from Beaverton.
* The in-house music and scoreboard graphics will be operated by James Chavez, the Music & Video Board Operator. He's a new media communications major from Portland.
* Promotions/advertising/operations/social media execution intern Bryce Madden is an OSU marketing and management major from West Linn. He follows the Portland Timbers.
* Community relations/promotions intern Zoe Raiter is a sports business major at Oregon who grew up in Bend. She is a big fan of the Portland Trail Blazers.
* Stadium operations/promotions intern Kiel Larkin is an OSU marketing major from Corvallis who roots for the Dallas Cowboys.
* The other promotions interns are OSU speech communications major Courtney Bodine, a San Francisco Giants fan from Sacramento, the home of their triple-A Pacific Coast League affiliate; Jacob Kurian of Jefferson, Ore., a sports sponsorship and sales major at Baylor whose favorite team is also the Trail Blazers; Seattle Mariners fan Miranda Roth of Silverton, an OSU business major, and Ryan Cooper, a sports business major at Oregon who cheers for the Giants even though he grew up in the Oakland suburb of Alameda, Calif.
* OSU marketing major Ross Parker of Galt, Calif., is the promo and partnership accountability intern. He is a rare West Coast fan of the Tampa Bay Bucs.
* Future Gonzaga business administration major Brick Jennings is back with the team. He is a Corvallis native who follows the hometown OSU Beavers.
The interns got their first test under fire before a sellout crowd on June 1 at the Knights fifth annual that PEAK Internet Science, Engineering & Art Day, presented by OSU Colleges of Science and Engineering.
"They have hit the ground running and are off to a good start," general manager Bre Miller said. "They will be a great addition and they will be exposed to a real-world work environment.
"Our previous interns have been outstanding and we anticipate that will be the case this year as well."
