Sports Information Director – Internship (Summer 2023)
The Orange County Riptide, a collegiate wood bat summer baseball team playing games at the Great Park in Irvine, California, seeks interns with strong knowledge and understanding of sports reporting and journalism.
Please Note: This un-paid internship position will require your attendance at home games in Irvine, Calif. Qualified candidates will need to ensure they have housing available from June through early August 2023.
Summer interns attending college outside of the Orange County, Calif. area must make their own living arrangements for the summer. The OC Riptide cannot provide housing for out-of-the-area interns.
Interns chosen for this position will need strong critical thinking skills, excellent writing and self-editing skills, ability to work in a fast-paced environment, take direction easily and quickly, willingness to work nights and weekends, work well with hard deadlines and have a passion for the sport of college baseball.
Ideal candidates will be a Communications or Journalism major already working for a college Sports Information Office or school newspaper. Be prepared to submit writing samples, preferably baseball related writing samples to be considered for this position.
Learning Objectives:
- Baseball Reporters will learn to cover home and away collegiate summer baseball games writing news, game recaps, analysis and feature content.
- Interns will learn to reacting quickly and accurately during breaking news and to disseminate that news via web and social media channels.
- Interns will learn to augment content with photos and videos along with communicating proactively with content teammates and managers.
- Interns will learn interviewing skills for printed content as well as interviewing for video and podcast content.
- By the end of the internship, students should have gained exceptional knowledge in writing and reporting along with digital media distribution. Should interns pursue career advancement in sports, additional networking within the Southern California sports entertainment industry is available.
In lieu of compensation, academic credit is available for this internship. Academic credit is not guaranteed, and accepted interns need to verify/check with their respective academic departments to ensure this specific internship opportunity meets academic credit requirements.
Because this position requires attendance at home and some road games, (40 games spanning from June through early August) applicants are expected to work four (4) to five (5) hours per game. This includes pre-game, in-game and post-game interviews and content creation. Candidates chosen for this position will work within a team atmosphere with two (2) to three (3) others. Road game assignments will be divided equally within the department staff. Any lodging and per diem costs while on road game assignments will be provided by the team.
Ideal candidates will have knowledge of the game of baseball and knowing the differences that are unique to college baseball and summer collegiate baseball. Being open to feedback, direction and new approaches on how to cover a collegiate summer baseball team is a must.
Duties for the Baseball Reporter internship will consist of, but not be limited to:
Responsibilities:
· Reports directly to the General Manager
· Create interview preparation materials
· Conduct pre-game and post-game interviews with coaching staff and players
· Appear in social media videos and on podcast.
· Write game recaps and publish to team website
· Crop and resize images to accompany game recaps
· Update player profile pages on website
· General duties as assigned
Requirements
· Journalism major or similar field
· Good organizational skills
· Good team player with great attitude
· Ability to work in fast-paced environment
· Ability and willingness to work varied hours
· Flexible time schedule to cover home and road games