Photo by Erin Nelson.
Students prepare materials for the Rebels’ jamboree game against Briarwood during a sports marketing class in August. The class is led by Morgan Jones, who also leads the Vestavia News Network and helps lead the Rebel Nation Sports Network.
A sports marketing class made its debut this fall at Vestavia Hills High School, offering students a chance to learn about a myriad of careers in the sports, entertainment, broadcast and marketing industries.
The class is led by Morgan Jones, who also leads the Vestavia News Network and helps lead the Rebel Nation Sports Network. These student broadcast productions create news packages, a morning news show and streaming of the school’s athletic events.
Jones said in the past few years, there’s been a push to make the sports broadcasts more student-led, and she’s hopeful the new sports marketing class will raise interest.
The class, which has 24 students, teaches skills related to sports marketing such as creating advertisements, building relationships with community sponsors and sports broadcasting. Jones said the class will also offer some more advanced career-readiness skills such as using social media in the sports marketing world, preparing promotional items, event planning and handling sponsorships. It is currently available to students in 10th grade and above, Jones said.
“It will give them hands-on experience,” Jones said.
Because of the overwhelming support of the community when it comes to education and Vestavia athletics, Jones said it usually isn’t a problem to get sponsors.
In the recent past, a student who broadcasted and worked on the Rebel Nation Sports Network was able to present her work when she arrived at the University of Alabama and immediately joined their student broadcasting network, Jones said. The new class, Jones said, is another attempt to help students be able to present their work to colleges and future employers.
“My goal is for them to have a marketing portfolio once they leave the class,” Jones said. “... They can say, ‘Here’s what I’ve already done.’”
Because the class is new, Jones said it allows teachers and students to continue to build it and decide where it goes from here, and it can be changed as needed. The class also offers students a chance at a business class credit, which, depending on their GPA, may help them get into the National Business Honor Society, Jones said. The society requires a 3.0 overall GPA and a 3.5 GPA in three or more business courses.
The class could help students find jobs in a variety of sports and entertainment-related fields, such as sports agencies, athletic directors, broadcasting, sports administration, ticketing and event planning and graphic design, Jones said.
“These are skills that you can directly from the classroom,” Jones said.
The class is made up of students from the broadcast classes, a few athletes and other interested students, Jones said, bringing in a “wide variety” to the classroom.
While growing the class is a challenge, Jones said that’s also the exciting part of the job, as well as working with a great team of leaders and students.
“We have the opportunity to make it exactly what we want, which is really nice,” Jones said.
