On game day, Concordia students showed up strong to help Super Bowl LX come off without a hitch.
Thanks to Concordia’s Center for Career and Vocation, in partnership with Joey-Lynn Bialkowski-Peterson’s Leadership Studio, ten Concordia students took part in a six-month career development opportunity which culminated in a week spent interning with the NFL for Super Bowl LX in San Francisco.
“Boy, did it change my life,” says Madison Urrutia ’23, an undergraduate Concordia alumna now enrolled in the traditional MBA program.
The event and the six-month coaching process prior to it helped clarify participants’ career goals and pathways in the wider world of sports.
“Joey-Lynn believes this younger generation has the ability to step into the world of sports and do well,” says Mariah Lucas, director of the Center for Career and Vocation. “Students love working with her and appreciate the one-on-one coaching and mentoring she provides which helps them look at specific fields they want to get into.”
Around 30,000 interns worked at football’s biggest event, and all ten Concordia interns were placed in a handful of “coaching” roles which gave them responsibility over teams of interns.
“The NFL was so impressed with this initial group that they are looking to secure more leadership spots for our students next year,” says Lucas. “Because of this strategic partnership, our students can bypass thousands of applications for high-touch point opportunities in the sports business world.”
During the hectic and exhilarating week, Concordia interns worked with guests at pre-game VIP experiences and the popular general-admission Super Bowl Experience, a week long series of exhibits and events for fans. Urrutia, who played softball at Concordia for four years and now serves as a graduate assistant in the athletics department, was appointed an area manager at that large-scale event.
“It was a number of sleepless nights but so worth it,” she says. “Being behind the scenes and seeing how it gets done was fascinating to me.”
Urrutia’s area of responsibility included the popular 40-yard dash and extra point kick participatory activities. She and the group of interns she managed called for medical help numerous times for pulled hamstrings and the like sustained by “a bunch of dads who wanted to run the 40-yard dash that they hadn’t run in years,” she says, laughing. She also had to stop “influencers” who tried to cut in line to film themselves. At one point she and the San Francisco Police reunited parents with their lost child.
Most days began at 5 a.m. and ended at around 1 a.m., but instead of allowing themselves to become miserable with a pace that rarely slackened, the intern group made a choice to always see the bright side. The positive energy it created “was infectious,” Urrutia says.
“We’re at the Super Bowl, so why are we complaining?” she says. “I’ve been able to take that mindset back into life.”
One memorable task was to nightly help put all 59 displayed Super Bowl rings back in their case. To keep them in order, protocol demanded the rings be worn on fingers as they were carried from the display case to a secure setting in another room.
“You start with your pinky and put on all five, walk to the box and put them away in order,” Urrutia says. “It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.” See photo below.
Blake Bastos, a native Long Islander studying sports business in Concordia’s MBA program, says he “look(s) at life differently after that week in San Francisco. It changed how I see myself as a person and professionally.”
He spent time serving guests at the invite-only NFL Culture Club which honored certain groups throughout the week. “It was super eye-opening how things move on the fly and how you have to critically think to make sure these experiences are what people are expecting,” Bastos says.
By Sunday he also became “desensitized to the fame I was seeing all day long,” noting that pro players like C.D. Lamb and Jaxson Dart came through often, as did NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
On game day he “coached” nine interns stationed on level 100 of Levi Stadium, close to the Seahawks’ end zone. Posted at the south tunnel for most of the game, Bastos guided people where they needed to be and made sure tunnels were clear for attendees, players, coaches and the blizzard of halftime stages entering and exiting within a limited time frame. His friends and relatives were able to see him on television standing against a wall when Patriots quarterback Drake May came through at one point.
“I am extremely grateful to have been on the ground for the game,” he says. “It was invaluable.”
Just as helpful were the regular Leadership Studio Zoom calls throughout the fall featuring question-and-answer times with sports business operations personnel, along with coaching from Joey-Lynn and the accompanying “self-work” which helped interns identify their strengths and weaknesses.
Luke Addington, a sports business major and marketing minor graduating in May, served at the NFL’s Culture Club and at the stadium on game day. His particular group was responsible for the movements of Patriots organization members to and from parts of the field and stadium.
“You don’t realize how many hands on deck there are in the service level of the stadium,” Addington says. “Hundreds of people are walking these tunnels for eight hours, everyone doing something.”
With ten minutes left in the game he situated post-game media interviewers to make sure they were in the correct spots on the field to conduct post-game interviews. He says participating in Super Bowl game-day logistics “was definitely life-changing,” and he “got more out of the six months leading up to it than the Super Bowl itself.”
“The biggest part of this program are the networks you can tap into with people who work with teams like the Detroit Pistons and Major League Soccer’s Orlando Pride,” Addington says. “It was essentially six months of networking and meeting people three to four years down the line from me.”
As a result, “I’m much more keen to start my career in event management, event coordinating, and event experience,” he says. “What draws me most to professional sports is you get so many people from so many different areas of life, all united over a game. As an event coordinator, I’d like to be part of bringing people together.”
Urrutia, Bastos, and Addington performed so well that they were singled out by NFL employees for special mention.
The partnership helps Concordia’s Center for Career and Vocation fulfill its mission to launch students into careers in their fields within months of graduating. Because many employers want new hires to have a year or two of experience in the field, “This is one way we can get that experience for students,” says Lucas.
Through continued partnership with the Leadership Studio, students will serve in the Super Bowl in 2027 and the Olympics in 2028, both in Los Angeles. Other Concordia students are already serving, or planning to serve, in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ organization and with the NBA’s Lakers and Clippers for an exclusive All-Access VIP event and a Books and Balls community outreach effort, respectively.
“Through the opportunities provided by the Center for Career & Vocation, we are not just building resumes, but forming leaders who are grounded in purpose, prepared to use their gifts to make a meaningful impact across life’s callings,” says Lucas. “When students are given intentional opportunities to step into leadership, they rise.”