BleedGopher
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per GopherSports:
Any Gopher fan in attendance at TCF Bank Stadium last season quickly became familiar with hearing Thomas Barber's name announced across the loudspeaker.
Any Gopher fan that stumbled upon a Gopher sports marketing booth this summer likely had a chance to interact with the breakout star without even realizing it.
The Plymouth, Minn. native was all over the field last year with a team leading 115 tackles. This summer, the junior became a Gopher sports marketing student intern and helped run new student orientations and events all over the Minneapolis area.
"It started off as an informational interview with (assistant athletics director of marketing) Mike Wierzbicki," Barber explained. "I just wanted to know what he does and learn how he got started in sports marketing."
A talk with director of student development Anissa Lightner led Barber to the initial conversation with Wierzbicki. The interview inspired him to get involved as an intern this summer.
"I know I want to stay in sports after football is done so I was looking into how to get started," Barber said. "You can't get into scouting while in school and you can't get into the sports agency field while in school so this has been a great start."
Gophersports.com recently shadowed Barber throughout a typical day with the marketing team while balancing out life as a student-athlete. The morning started with Barber promoting season tickets at transfer student orientation. Barber was licking his wounds after not getting a sale the day before.
"You should have shadowed me during freshmen orientation," Barber laughed while noting that it was the first time he had never seen a sale.
The ever competitive son of former Gopher Marion Barber Jr. was working the room hard, passing out fliers and looking for potential sports fans to avoid another skunk. He locked down a few sales and was only recognized as a Gopher football player once.
"I don't try to wear any football gear or polos," Barber explained. "It is funny when they find out I play football. I feel like it helps with the season tickets. I also get to hear how people talk about us. I don't lie to them, I tell them the truth about how the student-athletes are off the field, court and ice."
After orientation Barber had to run back to the office to meet with the voice of Gopher football, Mike Grimm, for an interview to preview Big Ten media days.
"I'm honored I was selected. I'm excited to be there, see what it's like and talk about how the process is going with our football team," Barber told Grimm before getting ready for the next stop on his busy schedule.
https://gophersports.com/news/2018/7/30/football-barber-spends-summer-behind-the-scenes.aspx
Go Gophers!!
Any Gopher fan in attendance at TCF Bank Stadium last season quickly became familiar with hearing Thomas Barber's name announced across the loudspeaker.
Any Gopher fan that stumbled upon a Gopher sports marketing booth this summer likely had a chance to interact with the breakout star without even realizing it.
The Plymouth, Minn. native was all over the field last year with a team leading 115 tackles. This summer, the junior became a Gopher sports marketing student intern and helped run new student orientations and events all over the Minneapolis area.
"It started off as an informational interview with (assistant athletics director of marketing) Mike Wierzbicki," Barber explained. "I just wanted to know what he does and learn how he got started in sports marketing."
A talk with director of student development Anissa Lightner led Barber to the initial conversation with Wierzbicki. The interview inspired him to get involved as an intern this summer.
"I know I want to stay in sports after football is done so I was looking into how to get started," Barber said. "You can't get into scouting while in school and you can't get into the sports agency field while in school so this has been a great start."
Gophersports.com recently shadowed Barber throughout a typical day with the marketing team while balancing out life as a student-athlete. The morning started with Barber promoting season tickets at transfer student orientation. Barber was licking his wounds after not getting a sale the day before.
"You should have shadowed me during freshmen orientation," Barber laughed while noting that it was the first time he had never seen a sale.
The ever competitive son of former Gopher Marion Barber Jr. was working the room hard, passing out fliers and looking for potential sports fans to avoid another skunk. He locked down a few sales and was only recognized as a Gopher football player once.
"I don't try to wear any football gear or polos," Barber explained. "It is funny when they find out I play football. I feel like it helps with the season tickets. I also get to hear how people talk about us. I don't lie to them, I tell them the truth about how the student-athletes are off the field, court and ice."
After orientation Barber had to run back to the office to meet with the voice of Gopher football, Mike Grimm, for an interview to preview Big Ten media days.
"I'm honored I was selected. I'm excited to be there, see what it's like and talk about how the process is going with our football team," Barber told Grimm before getting ready for the next stop on his busy schedule.
https://gophersports.com/news/2018/7/30/football-barber-spends-summer-behind-the-scenes.aspx
Go Gophers!!
