I Think I Love Football?

By Shamaria Massenburg

As someone who aspires to be a broadcast journalist–I love all things sports. Anything that empowers an athlete or contributes to my overall understanding of athletes and the difficulty surrounding that, count me in! I come from a family of athletes, and pretty much have been around it my whole life. Especially because I was a cheerleader from Age 4, until high school. Because of that, I jumped at the invitation to go to a Division 2 soccer game with Mauricio. However, I can’t say that it was always on my to-do list to understand soccer. It wasn’t. I come from a basketball and American football family, and I still hardly understand American football. But, an internship offer from Apple quickly changed that for me. Apple bought out MLS last year–making them not only a tech company, but a sports streaming service–which is very new for Apple. Ultimately, creating new internships for sports programmers. I want to be clear, I am a broadcast journalism major–I’ve never taken a class involving any type of sports programming. But, I was told that if I had a good understanding of soccer in my second interview–I would still get a fair chance at the position. Fast Forward 3 months later, and I got the job offer one day before our London trip. This news came right before my spring break trip out of the country, I was elated. I couldn’t wait to tell Mauricio the news. Before the trip, I was having doubts about if I would get the internship or not, but the offer alone motivated me to continue to study the sport, because what if the next job offer gets taken away due to my lack of knowledge? I didn’t want to take any more chances–so, I was going to go to the soccer game regardless, but finding out I’d actually been selected for something so huge, really made this special.

Mauricio, Alexis, and I–spent the day indulging in tailgate activities and meeting semi-pro athletes. I have never been to a professional soccer game, nor did I realize they do a lot of things similar to American sports and pre-game planning. It’s just in a different market.

Feeling the sense of family the two teams created, and fan involvement–I was able to treat soccer as any other American sport. I vlogged the entire game, wanting to remember every second of it! Eventually, I had to put the camera down because Mauricio and I were screaming for Manchester United, to score and tie the game. This moment was so special for me, because I really understood what was happening, and without thinking–decided to support a team.

I am very grateful to Mauricio for inviting me with him, and giving me a crash course on soccer rules–throughout the entire game, with no complaints! It was an amazing experience and one that I am sure will separate me from the other interns.