In the business that I work in, you really learn to enjoy Sunday nights. When it comes to intercollegiate athletics, it is usually the only time where an event is not going to be going on. All other days and times of the week (including Sunday afternoons) are fair game. This time at the end of the week allows you to catch your breath and gather yourself from the past week and prepare yourself for the upcoming one. So as I sit here watching NFL Countdown and writing this post as the snow falls right outside of my window, I am enjoying the peace and quiet of this Sunday evening. Actually, I am savoring this time even a little more than usual. This is because the start of an especially hectic week starts tomorrow. Call this moment right now the calm before the storm, because come tomorrow morning it is going to be the start of one of those weeks that makes me realize how much I really love my job!
Tomorrow, our men’s basketball team will take on the University of Great Falls at 7pm. Before I can even think of that game, however, I have to get through the normal work day. When I get into the office at 7:30am tomorrow, I will have my hands full. Mondays are always very busy for me as I update all of our weekly features on our website, write a couple reports, set our mascot’s schedule, put out a newsletter, catch up with everything (calls/e-mails/etc) from the weekend, do other website stuff, and more. The day will breeze by and before I know it, I will be needed courtside to start running music for the basketball game. Oh yeah, I am the DJ for the basketball games. It is a lot of fun. Besides the DJ part I also tell the guy who is controlling Griz Vision (our jumbo tron) when to run our ads and various other elements. The basketball game will end around 9pm and then I will go back to the office and update all of our social media outlets and write my checklist for the next day. I will get to my car at around 9:45pm, capping off a pretty typical fourteen hour day.
Tuesday will be my lightest day of the week with no home sporting event that night. I will spend the majority of Tuesday tying all the loose strings together for the Griz booster bus trip to Bozeman on Saturday. I am in charge of the bus that will be taking over thirty Griz fans and fourteen cheerleaders to the 111th Brawl of the Wild. I am so psyched for this trip as the game might be the biggest one in the history of the series. Anyway, on this day I will make sure everyone has an itinerary, make sure the bus service is on the same page as us, make sure all the payment information has gone through, and start planning out the tiny details. That night I will be sure to do something fun…as far away from work as possible.
On Wednesday, things around work will really start to pick up in intensity. With the Griz-Cat game only a few days away, the fever will be getting to everyone in the department. I will do a blog post this week on the 2011 Griz-Cat game just so you have an idea of the magnitude of this game. But anyway, a thousand different things are bound to come up that will need immediate attention. It will be another day that will breeze by. At 7pm that night, our Lady Griz will host Montana Tech as they search for their first regular season win of the season. The game will conclude, I will wrap things up in my office, and another fourteen hour day will be in the books.
On Thursday, our men’s basketball team will host Idaho. Along with the big basketball game, Thursday means there are just two days until Griz-Cat. By this time, the whole state will be in a frenzy. Christie and I will be getting calls/e-mails left and right from people wanting posters/pictures/shirts/random shit to show off. People will all of a sudden expect Monte to jump out of thin air and make an appearance at their particular tailgate party. The “powers that be” will put pressure on us to have certain things done. Basically, in addition to all of the regular work that we will need to get done, we will receive last minute projects that will test our ability to do sixteen different things at once. By the time I need to be courtside to do my basketball responsibilities I will be a little flustered. The drain and stress will really start to set in. After the game the chances are pretty good that I will be at the office past my normal 9:45pm. A fifteen hour day is very likely.
Friday will be a complete goat rope. I will be making final preparations for the booster bus. I am anticipating tons of calls from people inquiring about space on the bus that does not exist so they can somehow get on it. I will be going all over town to get breakfast items and drinks for Saturday. Social media wise the day will be huge. There is little doubt that our SM outlets will be buzzing and plenty of inappropriate stuff will be put up. On this day, the anticipation and Griz Spirit will be absolutely infectious and that is what will get me through the day and have me grinning from ear-to-ear. At 7pm our volleyball team will host Idaho State. For this match I will be in the production room watching our IT guy produce the streaming broadcast of the match. I am trying to learn as much as I can about this aspect just so I can be as versatile in the sports industry as possible. If you have never been behind the scenes of a sports broadcast before, it is truly a sight. I will be at the office late that night making sure everything is covered and accounted for. Who knows, I might just sleep in my office that night.
Saturday morning at 7am our booster bus will depart to Bozeman for the 111th Brawl of the Wild. With thirty boosters and our cheerleading team, it is going to be one fun bus ride down. I am going to do all I can to make it a memorable experience for everyone. We will get to Bozeman and then walk a short distance to the stadium for the 12pm kickoff. The estimated temperature for the start of the game is twenty degrees. Winning. We will watch the Griz and Bobcats battle for the Big Sky Championship and after Montana comes out on top we will hop back on that bus, make a quick stop at a nearby town for pizza, and then head back to Missoula. Once back at campus I will head back to the production room and sit in for the Griz Volleyball game against Weber State. After the game if I have any energy left I will go downtown and use every ounce of that remaining energy to party.
Sunday morning I will get up and once again head back to work. Our Lady Griz Basketball team hosts Idaho State at 2pm. By this time I will be running on fumes but I will throw back an energy drink and keep telling myself that I have the best job in the world and I know I will get by easily. After the game I will take a deep breath, analyze how the week went, and then head home to rest.
It is a great time to be a Grizzly! I can’t wait for tomorrow to get here and this week to start. I have to give fair warning that my blogging is going to slack a little bit this week but I am hoping you can understand why. It is a wonderful time of the year nationwide for sports and I hope all of you enjoy it. Have a great week and pretty soon we can all focus our attention to Thanksgiving. Don’t Blink.