These student workers have been hired by the university to perform many different jobs at athletic events.
The students work under athletic director, Tommy Sadler and sports information director, Steven Aldridge.
“I have about ten student workers that help me from time to time,” said Aldridge. “These students do stats, the scoreboard or scorebook and the internet video or audio for all athletic events.”
“The students who work for Tommy work in the concessions stand, sell tickets and work the booster room,” Aldridge added.
Kelley Faulkner, junior physical education major, is one of the student workers for Sadler and can be seen at every home event fulfilling her responsibilities.
“As a student worker, I am responsible for some of the pre-game set up routines. I am also responsible for post-game clean up and then I work the concessions as well,” Faulkner said.
These student workers are relied heavily on in order to accomplish all the tasks that occur during each sporting event.
“As the SID, I try to be at every home game to work the event and to manage the sports information side of things,” said Aldridge.
“Of course, when we have two different home games going on at the same time, I cannot be at both events so it is a tremendous help for the students to help me cover these events,” Aldridge added.
Josh Graves, senior sports management major, is another student worker and works with Faulkner at many of the events.
“Since getting the job, I have learned how the behind the scenes stuff works plus all of the logistics that go into making sure everything is ready for games,” said Graves.
Faulkner added that on top of learning about the behind the scenes work, she has learned a lot about certain things that may help her obtain a job in the future.
“This job has taught me a lot about responsibility, professionalism, time management and how much work it is to host home athletic events. The entire staff in the athletic department works very hard during home games,” said Faulkner.
As a senior, Graves has been a student worker through Union’s transition from NAIA to NCAA Division II, as Union was still competing in the NAIA his freshman year.
“I have also learned that there are a lot of differences between NAIA and NCAA Division II. It is amazing how much more strict the NCAA is with paperwork and keeping track of literally everything you do,” added Graves.
The student workers, both for Sadler and Aldridge, claim to be a very tight knit group as they enjoy the time they spend together and the people they work with.
“My coworkers are awesome. They have taught me so much and actually make me want to come to work,” said Graves.
Aldridge also commented on how much he enjoys having the students around, not only to help out with the work load, but because of the family atmosphere they possess.
“They are fun to be around and really do sacrifice a lot of time to work in athletics. They spend so many hours working events together that they really do become part of the “family” and many times we stay in touch after graduation,” Aldridge said.
