Career Paths: Change in Plans Gives Warren Perfect Fit
Her work in athletics has taught her to be adaptable
Mike Brohard
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FORT COLLINS, Colo. – You don’t have to know what you want to do with your life the first day of college. Besides, you may be wrong.
Maddie Warren was, which she can laugh about now. Sure, at the moment it gave her more than a reason for pause, but she overcame the alarm it caused her. Warren’s newfound ability to do just that led her to find what makes her happy, direct her toward an education with purpose.
“If there’s one thing this job has taught me, it’s learning on the fly and just diving in head first,” Warren said.
One the junior admits had to become a learned trait.
Heading to Colorado State from Pleasanton, Calif., as a freshman, she knew she wanted to be in athletics, and she was going to be a physical therapist. After one semester, she was half correct.
The next semester, she considered psychology as her path, and when it didn’t really raise her heart beat, she knew a new plan had to surface, and it was with help from her mother she looked into journalism.
“It was the perfect fit. Along the same time is when I got involved with the communications department,” Warren said. “With journalism, I did the open idea of I could go into broadcast if I wanted, but the nice thing about the JMC program here is it’s also media communications. There are PR classes and communications classes and sports reporting, and all of that ties in well with sports information. I wanted to get involved, and I felt I needed to have experience in the industry while I was still in school. I didn’t know how to do that, but I started in the marketing department with a friend, and she set me up with an internship there.”
She also sent a letter to the Colorado Rockies, who, though they liked her enthusiasm, pointed her toward then-communications director Paul Kirk for some on-campus seasoning. From day one, she learned the roll with the changes, which is why she moved her way up the ladder so quickly.
Last-minute things will throw off my groove a little bit, so that was honestly a good personal-growth experience of being better at going with the flow, taking it a day at a time and taking things as they come up.CSU Student Maddie Warren
She was drawn in by the tasks other students shied away from, such as sorting photos, was directly in her strike zone a she considers herself “an organization freak.” With basketball, she started out by dishing out notes for women’s radio play-by-play announcer Matt Wozniak. Then she was calling action to be input to the stat’s program. Then she was typing up the stats.
Each new challenge, be it with football stats or basically assuming control of her own sport, she would have a momentary spark of stress, then would move past it and go full-bore into the work.
“She’s willing to learn, willing to adapt, and she did that quickly,” said John Martin, the CSU communications director who oversees student workers. “She has the right mentality. I’d stake my reputation that she’ll succeed. I’d stake it with my friends in the business, that if you hire her, she may have a learning curve, but she’ll knock it out of the park for you.
“I think with her, it’s about understanding it’s bigger than herself, understanding she is part of a bigger puzzle of trying to promote what is great about college athletics. When you have that kind of feeling and that kind of attitude, and a desire to learn and grow, the sky’s the limit.”
That particular aspect really struck Warren this fall as she worked as the primary contact for women’s soccer in a season which was historically memorable for the Rams.
With help from communications director Austin Hannon, it was Warren who was setting up interviews, composing releases and award nomination bios, all while still running game-day operations at home matches.
“It was a lot more than I thought it would be. The thing about this job is you don’t realize all that goes into it,” Warren said. “At the surface, it’s OK, we have these jobs, but a lot of it changes on a daily basis. There’s this email to send at this time, or this nomination, or somebody calls to request an interview at the last minute. It was tough, for somebody like me, who is such a planner. Last-minute things will throw off my groove a little bit, so that was honestly a good personal-growth experience of being better at going with the flow, taking it a day at a time and taking things as they come up.”
Just as she was with basketball, at soccer, she was the girl behind the computer, the one everybody knew, but nobody knew who she really was. Working with soccer gave her the chance to develop relationships with the players and coaches and help promote the program with a more personal touch.
From their initial meeting, head coach Bill Hempen trusted what she was doing.
“Initially when she came in, she did so not afraid,” he said. “She was very confident in herself and willing to do anything we’d ask her to do. You wouldn’t have realized it was a student doing the work.”
As a former softball and volleyball player, she likes still being involved somewhat with the action. Looking back, she’s not really sure physical therapy would have given her the same rush.
For Warren, a good, well-thought out plan is always the preferred course of action. Learning to cope when an added action alters the timeline has proven she’s can adapt and still remain on course to the end goal.
The knowledge is something she knows she never would have gained from a classroom. In some fields, experience is a must, and despite some odd hours and at times heavy demands, she can’t imagine having more fun.
“There’s no way I’m prepared just taking classes,” Warren said. “I think I would be so out of my element and so deer-in-the-headlights about it. You don’t know what goes into the job until you do it. You can work in the industry for 10, 12 years and something new will come up. You can sit in the classroom, you can learn how to write a press release, you can learn how to write about sports, but until you actually do it, until you actually work in your field, nothing in a classroom is going to compare to that at all.”
For a person keen on sticking to a plan, she’s glad her original idea fell apart. Same for the backup pursuit. Without those life experiences, she would never find herself courtside, headset on and her fingers keeping track of every basketball possession for every home game – and loving most every minute.
There are still times when a keystroke is missed, or a computer goes hinky during a game. Now she knows it’s going to happen, and just a moment is all it takes to get back on track.
“It’s a better fit. This was the fit I didn’t even know about,” she said. “Once I found it, it was perfect for me.”
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