An inside look into how UW-Madison brand communications student assistants help pave the way for UW Athletics’ media.

Each of The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s 23 Division I varsity sports has a UW Athletics brand communications team dedicated to creating engaging content that best represents the team, players, coaches and fans. 

With the help of student assistants, these sports have a comprehensive media presence. 

Not every brand communications student assistant has the same sports background or communications path. Nevertheless, these students work outside of their comfort zones and produce media content for various UW-Madison sports. 

The Beginnings of Passion 

Prior high school experience with sports social media and communications is a great way that many brand communications student assistants started to hone their crafts. 

Sophomore and brand communications student assistant Clara Boudette started her sports communications in a different manner than most students. From Michigan, Boudette worked with USA hockey’s national team development program in Michigan. 

“I started when I was 15. They had just bought a new rink, USA Hockey Arena and needed some extra help,” said Boudette. “Through [USA Hockey] I learned that there is a whole other side of sports, like business and communications. There are so many people working behind the scenes.” 

After working with USA Hockey, Boudette explained she wanted to continue pursuing sports communications in college since it was so much fun being around sports and in a fast-paced work environment she explained. 

Similarly to Boudette, Dylan Vander Saden is also sophomore and brand communications student assistant. Originally from Hortonville, Wisconsin, Vander Saden began his brand communications in high school through social media fan pages. 

“I ran a page called The Bucks Page and a page called The Greek Freak and they were a Milwaukee Bucks and Giannis fan page,” said Vander Saden. “I built those up it was a good resume booster.” 

For some brand communications student assistants, their prior sports experience began after high school. 

Taylor Smith, junior and brand communications student assistant, wanted to work in sports communications but did not have a lot of prior experience. 

“I did not really do sports work in high school because I found out pretty late what I wanted to do,” Smith said. “I did do DECA which is a business club where I did sports marketing. I was an athlete in high school, but with everything with COVID I was supposed to be helping with social media and everything got shut down.”

Before working with UW Athletics, Smith worked with Madison Capitals as a media and marketing intern while writing for the UW-Madison student newspaper, The Daily Cardinal. Smith explained that she also worked for the Milwaukee Admirals the summer before starting with UW Athletics. 

Despite the differences in how these three brand communication assistants started their sports communications journey, they all were able to funnel their passion into college through working with UW Athletics.

Jumping into the Deep End 

Even with prior sports communication experience, nothing can fully prepare brand communication assistants for the transition of working in the media landscape of UW-Madison’s 23 Division I varsity sports. 

“I actually knew nothing about [wrestling and rowing] coming in,” said Vander Saden. “Since I am only a sophomore, I was one of the youngest, so I did not really have the pick of the crop. Nobody really wanted wrestling or rowing.”

Every brand communication student assistant is assigned one main sport to cover and then a few secondary sports that are not as popular as others at UW-Madison. New brand communication student assistants do not get to pick or choose their sports and are expected to work with two sports despite prior experience or knowledge. 

“I got really into it. The wrestling fans are something that I have never seen before,” said Vander Saden. “The atmosphere was great. People actually care about the sport and the players themselves. These players are famous in their own little world that not many people know about. I just find pride in sharing their experiences and their hard work with as many people as I can.” 

Pushing brand communication student assistants directly into these sports appears to be a huge transition but a rewarding one as well. Throwing them into the fire is how these students learn and perfect their skills. 

“It was a big transition for me just because I had not had a job yet during college. It was a big-time transition, but I would not trade it for the world,” Smith said. “I have learned so much about the industry. My supervisors have been great with teaching me and giving me enough responsibility where I do not even really feel like an intern.” 

A Day in the Life 

Brand communication student assistants divide their time between working in the UW Athletics office and being at actual sporting events. Depending on which sport is being covered, each day for brand communication student assistants looks very different. 

Smith was assigned women’s hockey and men’s and women’s golf. Her day looks extremely different when working with hockey compared to golf. 

“When I am working men’s and women’s golf there is a lot of virtual where I am just writing recaps and making social media posts while they are in sunny Florida and I am back in Wisconsin,” Smith said. “For women’s hockey, I worked every single game day and I even got to go to their national championship match.” 

Before each women’s hockey game, Smith takes pictures of the player’s outfits and posts a story on social media. During the game, she live tweets and incorporates clip highlights from the game. Directly after the game, Smith will write a short recap as well. 

Boudette, assigned to men’s hockey, explained that she works around eight hours a week in the office where she writes previews and organizes social media content for the following week. Office time for brand communication student assistants is essential to being fully prepared for releasing media content on game days. 

“Game days are pretty busy. Usually, the first thing I do is take pictures of players as they walk into the rink because I know they love to have those pictures,” said Boudette. “It also makes good social content and then from there, I gather additional social media content. I update and post score graphics after each period and then I write a recap as well.” 

Highlights of Sports Brand Communications 

With the rigorous tasks these brand communication student assistants have, there are a lot of benefits and rewarding aspects. 

“When Iowa came down, they actually broke the attendance record for a wrestling match here,” said Vander Saden. “It was just electric. I think there were 5,000 people. Everyone was in a small vicinity and we had an unranked guy take down the number eight ranked guy in the country who played for Iowa. I have never seen anything like it.” 

These students are able to form strong connections with players, coaches and fans that they would have never made without joining the UW Athletics brand communications team. For Boudette, one of her favorite moments came during senior night this year. After a game, she is usually in the locker room to escort players to the press conference. 

This is when a very special moment occurred. 

“Tony Granato talked to the team, luckily they won that night so the mood was pretty good. He talked about senior night and all the seniors gave their little speech,” said Boudette. 

“Tony said ‘Wait there is one more senior to honor’ and he called me into the locker room. He said that I am also a senior and it was my senior night and he gave me the game puck from that game.”