Kyle Nagdeman '10 - This summer I have been given the opportunity to intern at the NCAA in Indianapolis, specifically working with the statistics group in the Championship division. The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) for those who do not follow sports or know very much about college athletics is the governing body for college athletics for schools such as Purdue to small colleges throughout the U.S.
The NCAA conducts championships for 23 different sports from football and basketball to water polo and skiing. I became aware of the internship through our fine Sports Information Director at the college Brent Harris, who knows and worked with some of the statistics staff at the Final Four. It is an internship that the statistics group informs SID’s and athletic directors in close proximity to Indianapolis so they might pass it along to those interested in their respected institutions. Though it was not alumni sponsored I still have a connection to the opportunity given to me by the staff and Brent Harris who wrote a recommendation letter for me.
Interning with the NCAA really has been a great experience not only to be a part of the NCAA but seeing what goes into making the Final Four and College World Series; the championships we see on television. I enjoy working with all 7 members of the statistics group who open themselves up to me if I ever have a question about anything. I have gained great career experience and a good look into whether what my co-workers do daily is something I too would like to make a career. They are the keepers of the records for the 23 different championships sanctioned by the NCAA along with keeping up to date stats for most of the major sports. Someone has to keep the prognosticators and coaches aware of where Wabash’s defense stands in Division III rankings for takeaways or how Jake Thomas batting average this season ranks against the rest of the nation.
Obviously for the sports fanatics out there like me this number crunching and ranking players and teams is what keeps you up at night wondering who will win this week’s football game or who holds the record for career assists in men’s basketball at the Division I level. This is where my own interests in sports and a career in athletics stand out.
For a history major this internship kind of goes in the direction of being based in some history and archiving while also introducing me to the world of publications and design. I recently have been doing revisions from last year’s championship records books for men’s and women’s soccer to help in producing this year’s book, which will be solely viewable online through ncaa.org. Where my background in history has been in use is for a research project the statistics group has been given to complete. The project deals with the AIAW (American Intercollegiate Athletics for Women), this being the pre-cursor to the NCAA sanctioning women’s athletics and hosting championships. My whole goal has been to delve through folders of ten to thirty pages of scanned papers from the University of Maryland’s library. There are about 10 of these folders and each has information on the different sports they conducted championships.
It has been hard work dissecting and picking apart the important and non-important pieces in these folders but it has been fulfilling to help bring about recognition for female athletes that were forgotten because of pre-NCAA sanctioned events.
