Corvallis Knights Assistant GM Bre Kerkvliet Featured on Front Page of Gazette-Times Sports Page.

Kerkvliet Only Female Executive in West Coast League

By Kevin Hampton - Gazette-Times

The beer line was stretching out and the wait for a cold beverage was getting long at a recent Corvallis Knights game.

Servers were in short supply, so Bre Kerkvliet stepped in and started pouring.

Not her usual job.

Kerkvliet is the first female assistant general manager in the West Coast League.

At 25, she's also the youngest.

"She's got a skill set," Corvallis Knights team president Dan Segel said. "She's got a lot of energy and she's very well connected in the community and she gets it. She understands the product."

Kerkvliet has grown up around baseball. Her father, Bob Knight, has been a longtime umpire. Her stepbrother is Knights coach Brooke Knight. Her sister, Kelly Kerkvliet, works for the Boise Hawks, a minor league team.

She worked concessions as a volunteer with the high school team at Corvallis High and helped with American Legion baseball in the summer.

She was a member of the Diamond Aces as a student at Oregon State.

"So it's just kind of been something we've always been a part of," Kerkvliet said.

When the Knights came to town, Kerkvliet jumped at the chance to become an intern. The next summer she became the assistant to the president.

Kerkvliet graduated from OSU and was looking for a full-time position. The Knights hired her as director of business development and on Jan. 1 she was promoted to assistant GM.

"I guess with just a lot of hard work and working with Dan and trying to learn as much as possible, things fell into place and here I am, as the assistant GM, which is awesome and crazy and great all at the same time," Kerkvliet said.

Kerkvliet said she meets with advertisers and prospective clients as part of her position and she stays connected to the area communities.

"I'm a member of the greater Albany Rotary Club and I'm an ambassador for the Corvallis Chamber and board member for the Philomath Chamber and I'm on the board for the Young Professional Association of the Albany Chamber," she said.

"So definitely being involved with all the local chambers has been a great success to the Knights. They do a great job of promoting business and organizations in the mid-valley, so that's been a lot of fun."

During the summer, Kerkvliet is the director of what she calls the "show."

"So every night that we have a game, it's a show to us," she said. "And we want to make sure the audience has the best time of their life and walk away with great memories."

She is constantly on the go, trying to bring in more business for the Knights.

That includes more fans in the seats.

"It's definitely a grueling three months during the summer but it's a really rewarding job," she said. "It's fun to give the community something to do during the summer when there's not much else going on."

Kerkvliet enjoys her role model status and hopes that she can help other women work toward similar opportunities.

As a young GM, it can be tough at times. Kerkvliet is charged with managing interns who are just a few years younger.

"It's a challenging role to be their manager rather than their friend," she said. "But I definitely hope that I set a good example for them and am someone they can look up to."

Segel said Kerkvliet is in the grooming process to become the GM someday.

He's seen her hold her own in meetings with the league's heavy hitters and knows that she would be a good fit.

"I'd love to see her be the general manager someday. She's more than capable," he said. "She's got a lot of work to do but she's on the right track."