Nick was born and raised in Charlotte, North Carolina. This past May, he graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a BBA in Marketing. He recently moved to San Antonio and joined the Valero Alamo Bowl team as the Digital Media and Marketing Coordinator.
What is your favorite thing about living in San Antonio?
My favorite thing about living in San Antonio has been the golf. The Alamo City Golf Trail has 8 great member courses, and all of them are nearby, affordable and in good condition. Even with the summer being so hot here, it’s still been great to get out and play some quality courses on the weekends. The food is also fantastic. The Culinary Institute of America has a campus here, so it’s not hard to find graduates who have decided to start their own food trucks/restaurants.
What has been your favorite part about working for the Valero Alamo Bowl?
From the moment I joined the team, the people I work with have been incredible. Before I moved here, they offered me advice on everything from where to look for affordable housing to where to find good spots to eat. Since I’ve arrived it has been no different, both in the office and out. I know I can count on them for anything, whether it be a recommendation for a date spot or a project that needs to be completed by the end of the week. The feeling of community and trust among my coworkers is not something I’d imagine can be found to this degree in many other larger companies that my friends work at.
What inspired you to pursue a career in sports?
I grew up playing sports and have always considered it to be the greatest source of life lessons for me outside of my parents. Sports teaches you everything from accountability to discipline to honesty to teamwork, and I’ve tried to carry those lessons with me even after my playing days. The old saying “if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life” is cliché for a reason, and when I think about how that applies to my life I can’t imagine truly loving what I do if it’s not in sports. Here at the Valero Alamo Bowl especially, it’s gratifying to know that we have the opportunity to host two teams to play in our game with kids that have worked their whole lives to play Division I football at a high level. To make it to a bowl game, much less a game as high-profile as the Alamo Bowl, is quite the achievement, and I look forward to celebrating that accomplishment with them during Bowl Week.
What do you enjoy most about marketing/digital media?
I love the connection that marketing, and digital media especially, can create with fans when done right. Sports is such a unique industry to market in because our “consumers” are much more than that – they are fans. They have infinitely more passion for the teams they support than any typical consumer does for a company’s product, which means that we have to work that much harder to ignite that passion every single season and gameday. It’s an exciting challenge, but given the digital resources we have at our disposal now even something as simple as social media can be a powerful tool to foster than connection over time and create lifelong fans not only of specific teams but of San Antonio and the Alamo Bowl.
What are you most looking forward to during bowl week?
I am most looking forward to collaborating with the media departments of our two schools. We have had great success in the past working together to promote the game on our digital channels, and I hope this year is no different! We had some great footage go viral last year of one of the players riding a roller coaster at SeaWorld, and it’s those types of moments that can be captured and shared via social media and other platforms that I think is really cool. I’m excited to see who the teams are that visit San Antonio this year, and hopefully create some more high-profile content!