Some might say that it can be challenging to work your way into the center of a sports team like the Syracuse men’s basketball team after graduating from a small suburban high school. But through a love of the sport and some personal connections, Jeff Maizes, a senior sport management major, landed a spot as one of four student managers.

“It’s everything no one else wants to do, and everything you wouldn’t expect,” Maizes said.

Maizes arrives at every practice an hour early and often stays late after the players leave. He attends every game in the Carrier Dome and travels around the country with the team.

During his freshman year, Maizes reached out to a resident of his hometown who put him in touch with the team’s graduate assistant at the time. He was then interviewed to be a student manager for the team and has held that role ever since.

Maizes describes his work as “a lot of small stuff you wouldn’t think about.” Some of his roles include keeping the stat book for away games, making sure all the players have their jerseys and shoes on the road, wiping up sweat or practicing shooting with the team. Though these tasks may seem mundane, they are essential to the entire production running smoothly.

His dedication and hard work has allowed for a fulfilling college experience including both his job as the team’s manager and two major internships in sports.

This past summer, he interned for the 2016 Rio Olympics. Through connections he had made as manager, Maizes followed a lead and applied for the position working not in Rio, but in an office in Stamford, Connecticut. Collaborating with other interns, he controlled one of the live mobile streams that followed the entire games.

“Everyone’s talking about (the Olympics) for those 18 days. The cool thing about sports (as a whole) is that it brings you together as a team and really makes you think, ‘Wow, we’re working for this great thing, this thing that is bigger than myself,’” he said.

During this past fall, Maizes interned at Turner Sports Network, a division of Turner Broadcasting. There, he created a sales pitch with other interns to present to a room of executives, including David Levy, a member of SU’s Sport Management Advisory Board.

Entering his last semester, Maizes reflects on his past four years as the basketball manager and his varied internships and feels grateful for what they have given him. In addition to traveling to the Final Four game last spring, his experiences fostered a true love for Syracuse as he and the team evolved together.

He plans to attend graduate school for a degree in either business or law. Ultimately, he wants to work in the sports industry. Receiving a degree in sport management from the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics with a minor in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, he said, will provide endless possibilities for his future whether it’s in sports, business, or a combination of the two.

Published on January 17, 2017 at 10:55 pm

Contact Chloe: cjgreenw@syr.edu