Sport Manager Interview

Sean Pavel

April 20, 2014

RST 130

Sport Manager Interview

Growing up I had always had a passion for baseball and sports in general, because of that I had always had the dream of pressuring a career in baseball. But as for many there comes a time when you realize it is best to hang up your cleats.  In my eyes that was never enough I always knew that I want to be involved with sports in my career. When I began the college search I knew that I had the skills to be successful in the business world so ideally I would be searching for a position that allowed me to have combination of both.  When I was reading this assignment I knew that I would be looking for a professional who found that balance, and the person that I choose to interview was Scott Paulson of Wilson Sporting Goods.  His current role at Wilson is Director of Baseball Promotions dealing with both Major League and Collegiate relationships.  Wilson is an industry leader in providing gloves, bats and other baseball needs to players of all ages.  His role deals with managing the MLB and Collegiate players wants with their glove contracts.  Scott has a large role in creating endorsement deals with MLB players and elite collegiate programs.  He oversees the distribution and satisfaction of gloves, bats and all other equipment to players and teams with contracts.  He is also in charge of creating new relationships with new players and teams to build the Wilson brand.  I choose Scott Paulson because of the field that he is in, I would ultimately want to end up in a very similar position as him in my career.  I feel that his position is a great balance between business and sport.  He also works for a company that I have always found to be a superior product while playing the sport and that is seen as industry leader by many.

When talking with Scott the first area I wanted to address was, understanding what steps he took to reach the position that he is in today.  I feel that this is very important because it will allow me to create a plan that will hopefully lead to success.  One of the issues that he discussed with me is that many people try to enter into the sporting industry but don’t really have a set plan to get to where they want to be, which can cause a much harder path to achieving a career in sports.  I asked him what path he took; he started out by going to North Park University and major Economics, while there he played baseball.  He had said that when he had graduated he knew he wanted to pursue a career dealing with baseball so in 1985 he joined Wilson.  His path had lead him to working his way up through the company, he started out in sales and over time worked his way up taking on new challenges throughout the company.  Scott had said that this was one of his greatest strengths because it allowed him to gain a much better understanding of how the company and industry operate.  He mentioned that a business degree in marketing or a sports marketing degree would be crucial to entering the industry now a days.  He also stressed that a key to moving up and holding management positions would be to pursue an MBA after a few years in the corporate setting.