Colorado State University Athletics
On the Front Lines: Sharon Rady
4/29/2003 12:00:00 AM | General
Colorado State?s athletic ticket manager is the first person every fan sees. Sharon Rady is Colorado State?s Athletic Ticket Manager. For the last 14 years, she has dealt with any difficulties surrounding season tickets, the annual CU game ticket distribution, and ticket sales for all of the various athletic teams.
The office has to deal with a variety of people. She coordinates with efforts of the marketing department and makes sure that tickets are available to everyone from the marching band to prospective players. The crowd she sees the most are students. ?The best and worst part of my job is the students,? says Rady, ?They?re fun and enthusiastic attitude is great, but sometimes you have to say ?I hope I never acted that way.??
Sharon?s Colorado State career started out in 1977 as a freshman with the first four-year full-ride volleyball scholarship in the school?s history after the Title IX change. Title IX allowed scholarships for women?s sports and secured equal opportunity for both men?s and women?s athletic teams on campus.
Rady was a standout midhitter at CSU and her participation from 1977 to 1980 helped paved the way for the CSU volleyball program. ?When I came in, it was like a high school team. When we left, we were in the top 20,? remembers Rady. Today, the program is one of CSU?s best. The women have gone to eight consecutive NCAA tournaments and finished the 2002 season with a 22-10 (12-2 Conference) record and a Mountain West Championship .
After college, she sought a spot on the U.S. Olympic Volleyball team as well as a high school coach and instructor for various volleyball clinics. When she joined up with CSU athletics, priority seating was just beginning and Men?s basketball games had fans camping out the night before to get tickets for the sold-out games, much like the CSU v. CU ticket sales in September.
It takes a lot of patience to do her job. The CU ticket distribution has been Rady?s biggest challenge in the last few years. CSUPD and the Lory Student Center have taken a large amount of the pressure off by distributing them with security and personnel through their facilities, but complaints on the number of tickets and the priority seating of season ticket holders over fee-paying students have been plentiful. ?The biggest thing is education.?
The game this Fall will be no exception when home-game status goes to the University of Colorado and prices are expected to go up while the number of seats fall.
When Sharon is not working behind the glass walls of the ticket office, she is still hitting the hardwood playing volleyball in the city women?s volleyball leagues of both Loveland and Fort Collins. Her Fort Collins team, the Ewes (Lady Rams), is ranked second in 2003 .
Whether she is on the court or in the office, Sharon is a valuable member to any team.
by Brady Wicken, Media Relations Student Assistant
