X statistics in the press box on gameday. “I did my internship in the morning and then, in the late afternoon, I’d go down to the 49ers’ facility and help them.” Barba earned a permanent spot with the 49ers on the sports information staff where he worked for five years. He also had a public relations job with the San Jose Sabercats of the Arena Football League and then worked for Pepperdine’s sports information department for nine years before coming to KSU. With football coming to KSU in 2015, Barba will be in charge of organizing all of the communication tasks that come into play when producing games. He says it will be a lot of work—much more than what’s usually done. “We’ve already had meetings in regards to what football gameday is going to be about, and that’s going to be entirely different than the other sports just because of the magnitude and the amount of people it’s going to take on gameday,” Barba said. “What we do every week when we have home events, we have
game operations meetings that consists of communications, marketing, development and gameday operations. We go over everything from who’s singing the national anthem, what youth groups will be at the game, how tickets will be distributed, who’s in the suites, who’s doing statistics, whether the game is going to be video streamed and who the announcers are,” Barba said. “That’s where communication is important. Everyone has
Al Barba, Director of Athletics Communications
to be on the same page as far as gamedays will go.” No, a journalism degree won’t limit you to the cubicle of a news room. With athletic communication jobs on the rise at hundreds of colleges and universities across the U.S., there’s a plethora of opportunities for communication graduates to get involved in sports communication—from the inside, out.
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Technologies team for live stream events. Tanna Balke, a junior communication major, is in her first year with the team. “I enjoy very much the work at AV and consider it an honor to be a part of the team,” Balke said. “I get to invest in my own passions more and more and serve KSU every time I pick up the equipment. It’s a good foundation for a future career in the media.” This phenomenon of media integration is just one example of many communicationrelated responsibilities that exist with sports information and athletic communication jobs. Barba found alternatives to conventional newspaper work back when newsprint was more primary. Barba worked as the sports editor at a junior college newspaper and did freelance writing with local newspapers before transferring to Pepperdine University where he earned a journalism degree. His first job after graduation was as a sports information assistant with the University of San Francisco. While there, he worked for the San Francisco 49ers, helping hand out
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