More and more in the business world, companies are looking to gain an edge through the development of homegrown talent. Personnel that can be a part of an organization from while they are still young and hook them as loyal to the cause for life. One way they accomplish this is through internships: unpaid workers mostly in college that are willing to take on mostly mundane and unglamorous assignments in exchange for college credit and the ability to put said experience on their resume.
It's a situation that generally benefits both parties. The company in question gets a lot of valuable and necessary work done by people without having to spend time and resources on more experienced personnel or spending monies on salaries and benefits; the intern in question hopefully gains a lot of valuable experience on the job in a professional work environment and can utilize those skills crafted in that workplace into a job opportunity in their future.
So what happens when you are a die-hard fan of the Los Angeles Kings since early childhood and want to live your hockey dream? Well, you can try to play the sport at a high level, but so few rarely can. And for those that can, success is not guaranteed. What happens when you have the talent to play but a before-it-starts-career-ending-injury occurs?
If you're Courtney Ports of Riverside, you get the chance to live out that dream through serving an internship with the Kings Communications Department. Of course, it's not all fun and games - it just seems that way.
"On a game day, I'll generally arrive at Staples Center at noon and leave about 11:00 at night," Ports recently told me. "I'm constantly on the run doing basically anything that is asked of me... the media might need a specific stat or have a question answered about something that happens during a game; the coaches may need some information for intermission; there are helping visiting media get acclimated with where all the information is, where they sit during games, how to log onto the internet to file their stories; there are so many things we can do, and it's never the same kind of day twice."
Ports just completed his second season with the Kings, and for him it was the culmination of a lifetime affair with the club as a fan that started when a legend first came to town.
"My dad turned me onto to hockey when I was really young, right when Wayne Gretzky came to the Kings," Ports recalled, "and it was the only sport I ever wanted to play. The Kings were my favorite team growing up."
But while he played well enough to land an opportunity playing junior hockey in Canada, fate was not so kind. A devastating knee injury caused his career to never even get started. But unfazed, Ports returned home and finished high school. He went to college thinking he was going to be a business major, but then things changed.
"I said to myself, 'Why am I doing that? It's not what I love,' so I started getting into sports writing," Ports admitted. "I was writing about hockey for the school newspaper and did a story on the Kings during the 2007-08 season. I contacted the Kings seeking a photo for the story, and Jeremy Zager (Supervisor of Communications and Broadcasting for the Kings) responded with the photo. So I took a shot and told him that if they had any internship opportunities that I'd be interested, and he told me to send in my resume and the rest is history."
"It's interesting that I haven't really had to seek out anyone, that people wanting to do this have always contacted us," Zager stated about the process of selecting interns. "Courtney has far exceeded my expectations for him; he is so determined to do the best that he can and has always I think prided himself on representing the organization with the highest level of professionalism. As far as others that have been here, we've been blessed to have people that genuinely want to be here working for us, and that helps a lot."
It's not all glamour, though. There's a lot of hard work behind the scenes to make a game night run smoothly. Ports told me about some of the tasks that he has had to handle, and as you might expect they are the sort of thing you would expect out of any internship. But Ports, and the others that have been part of the Communications Internship team the last few seasons, have shown that they can handle those responsibilities, which in turn has allowed them to take on a greater role as the season moves along.
"Just like in other industries, a lot of people behind the scenes don't necessarily get nearly enough of the credit that they deserve," Daryl Evans, radio game analyst for the Kings, recently said. "They are down in the trenches doing the work that needs to be done, and we are very grateful for those efforts. It's a major reason why we're able to do what we do - they are for example able to get us the statistical information we need at a moment's notice for our between period intermissions, and Courtney in particular is such a joy to work with because you can see his passion for the sport and the team."
The thoughts about Ports by Evans are echoed by countless others that you speak with about him and the other interns on the staff.
"Courtney has really become a great asset to our team," Mike Altieri, the Kings Vice President of Communications and Broadcasting, recently stated. "He has done a tremendous job of not only carrying himself in a way that represents the Kings to the highest standard but he has demonstrated leadership and a willingness to perform any task that is asked of him."
"When you get the chance to work with Courtney, you can understand where that passion for the game comes from and it's wonderful to have him around on game day because you know you can count on him, and the others, to do whatever is needed," Mike Kalinowski, Manager of Communications, said. "Jeremy (Zager) is really the point man for the interns and he does a really good job in getting not only a good group of kids that want to work hard to help the club, but also to learn about the business."
It's not just the Kings staff members that have glowing things to say. We members of the media that really come to rely on them for information and access appreciate what they do as well.
"A lot of interns have come and gone, but Courtney is definitely one of the most dedicated that we've had here," Gann Matsuda from Frozen Royalty stated. "He treats all of us, whether beat writers on deadline for print newspapers or internet media like me, regulars that are here every game or people here for just one game, we are all treated with the same level of professionalism from Courtney and the other interns. But Courtney tends to go out of his way to make sure we have what we need; there's a reason why he came back for a second season, and he is clearly the leader of that group."
Though he might not officially wear a captain's 'C' on his chest like Dustin Brown does, it's clear that Zager counted on Ports to act as the captain of the interns this past season.
"Courtney knows his stuff and when you talk to people throughout the organization, they know him," Zager reiterated, "whether it's players' family members or the hockey operations staff, or the sales team, or the equipment guys, they all know him because of his level of professionalism and dedication, and that's why I felt very comfortable giving him a kind of leadership role with the group this season.
"Jeremy basically wanted us to be available to do anything that came up. In the past, there were maybe some things that needed to get done that some of us weren't comfortable doing well. This season, I wanted to make sure that if for some reason I wasn't around on a game day, I knew that everyone could handle every situation that came up, as if I were there."
And for Ports, the exposure to this environment has been far more rewarding than he could have ever imagined it would be.
"I came into this a little bit in awe of some of the talented people I'd be dealing with every day," Ports admitted, "but very quickly they came to accept me for what I did and how I did it. They've come to treat me as an equal, which is awesome."
It hasn't come without its pitfalls though, and as part of the learning process, Ports has had to think fast on his feet on more than one occasion. Yet he'll tell you that dealing with those challenges is part of the learning process.
"I know there was one night where part of my post-game responsibility involved recording head coach Terry Murray's post-game press conference. I have a recording device on my phone that I set on the podium when he comes in, and I also would hold the extension microphone for the camera recording the video for KingsVision."
"On this one night, my battery died and I didn't know until it was over," Ports recalled, "so I went to Jeremy and told him what happened and he said, 'Well, you've got to figure something out here.' So I very quickly arranged to listen to the audio of what the camera recorded so that I could write down every single word of what Terry said so we had it accurately. That was very important and it taught me a valuable lesson."
It's one that he's not going to forget anytime soon, and hopeful that he might be able to pass on to an intern working for him someday, as he hopes to continue in the industry following his collegiate career, which will see him transfer next year to Cal State Fullerton.
"I hope I get the opportunity to continue this as a profession," Ports said. "I love the whole game day atmosphere, but also the off-day things too; I've tried to appreciate everything that I've experienced here."
If you are a college student and want to find out how you can join the Kings internship program, contact Jeremy Zager in the Kings Communications Department. His e-mail address is: jzager@lakings.com
Follow me right now on Twitter by clicking here to get my latest takes on the Kings and the NHL, the Dodgers and baseball, other sports stories, and life in general.
Comments