From Behind The Plate To Behind The Scenes
November 22, 2024 | Softball, Joel Coleman
Jessie Blaine gets a first-hand look at State’s athletic communications department.
STARKVILLE – Catchers are used to different perspectives. After all, a backstop is the only person on the diamond with a view of the entire field of play.
So maybe that's a key reason why Jessie Blaine was able to step up and shine two weeks ago when she took over the controls of State softball's social media accounts. She's spent her life accustomed to seeing things from a different angle.
"Athletes, at least softball athletes, we'll run and ask, 'When are we going to see this?' or, 'Why can't we post [something on social media] about this?'" Blaine said. "There is a lot more thought going into it all than just filming a video and clicking post."
Now, Blaine is keenly aware of exactly how much goes on behind the scenes.
This semester, Blaine has been interning inside MSU's athletic communications department. She's had the opportunity to touch almost all of State's 14 sports in some shape or fashion. But taking the reins of her own sport's social channels for a few days has perhaps been Blaine's most eye-opening experience of all.
It all started when head coach Samantha Rickets and State associate director of communications Brian Ogden developed a plan to take Blaine's internship up a notch.
"They had the idea to do something fun during November when it's the offseason and we don't have a lot to post," Blaine explained. "They wanted me to work with [the team] and work with athletes to try and figure out what we wanted on our social media pages."
Blaine, a communications major with a concentration in public relations, immediately showed she knows how to grab attention and promote. How about working alongside one of the most successful programs on campus to create and share a fun video project?
"My big idea that I was excited about was collaborating with the soccer team," Blaine said. "I'd seen teams do [similar things] before, and it always turns out great. It turned into some funny content, and the girls enjoyed it on both sides. That was fun to create some comradery between the teams and have something to post to congratulate them and wish them good luck on the rest of their season."
However, there's far more to putting out such content than just drawing it up in your head. Blaine got to run the gamut when it came to delivering on her dream, including hitting all the speed bumps that came along with making her thoughts a reality.
"I think I didn't realize how many people it takes to get one piece out," Blaine said. "One post might go through three different sources and get checked multiple times. It's a slow process. It needs a lot of forethought, lots of preparation and communication to get one post out."
There are indeed many cooks in the content preparation kitchen. Blaine got hands-on experience juggling all those schedules.
"Between working with video, working with graphics, getting everyone on the same page, it was on me," Blaine said. "Sometimes schedules didn't line up. It definitely turned into a challenge in communication to get everyone on the same page to create our content in a timely manner. I am also a student and an athlete, so my schedule is already pretty packed and I don't have the ability to rearrange most of my schedule. It became a challenge with other people who are students or full-time employees to make sure everyone can fit into my schedule and the other athletes' when we needed their collaboration as well."
It was all a lesson in adaptability for Blaine, who says her strong, type-A personality had to learn to become a bit more flexible.
"I like a schedule set in line and prepared and ready," she said. "I had my schedule worked out, but it needed to be adaptable. From Sunday on, I needed to be adaptable. I think that is important when you are working with lots of people and their own schedules and lives. It can be difficult to make sure everyone is on the same page, and everything gets done by their due dates or by their timelines."
In the end, Blaine hit a figurative home run with her work for the week. Her collab with the soccer team was top-notch. She knocked it out of the park with other posts, including a thank-you to the softball team's managers and a piece bringing awareness to keratoconous – an eye condition that impacts fellow Bulldog Leilani Pulemau, who medically retired last year due to the disease.
And how did Blaine know her week handling social was success? Well as any catcher does, she waited for the call.
Not from an ump, but from her head coach. Blaine said Ricketts was pleased. So, from an educational standpoint, and from a performance standpoint, mission accomplished.
"That's always the goal," Blaine said of putting a smile on her coach's face.
