December 9, 2024 • 19 mins
Jacob interviews Chris Shoals, Associate Director of Athletic Communications and Public Relations at UK. Jacob and Chris talk about UK Athletics, sports media, and the importance of sports to the college experience and in society at large.
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(00:04):
Hello and
welcome to the Community
Spotlight Podcast.
Each episode highlights
something interesting
in the community of Lexington
or surrounding areas of Kentucky.
The podcast was started by students
in the College and Career Studies program
at the University of Kentucky.
Thanks for listening.
(00:31):
Hello, my name is Jacob Tipton
and I am a student
in the College and Career
Studies program at UK.
Today I'll be interviewing
Chris Shoals, Associate
Director of Athletic Communications
and Public Relations at UK.
Chris has had
a lot of different jobs and experiences
in the area of sports journalism,
(00:53):
and he is currently covering
UK’s Volleyball and Softball teams.
I have been doing my practicum
with Chris and UK Athletics
and helping out and learning
about sports communications at UK
volleyball games.
Hello, Chris, how are you doing today?
I'm doing great today.
So happy to be with you on this Monday.
And I'm so excited
to be talking with you.
(01:14):
Thanks for having me on.
No problem.
Thank you for talking to me today.
I want to ask you a few questions
about your job and career
and also about your
interest in athletics.
First question,
can you tell
me where your interest in athletics
came from?
Were you interest in in sports
when you were a kid?
(01:35):
I was really interested in sports
when I was a kid.
I will tell you that the baseline
of my
athletics interests stems from the fact
that my grandfather played
in the National Football League.
He played in the NFL for 11 years.
He played seven years in Cleveland,
two years in Detroit,
and two years in Denver.
And so that kind of set the bedrock
(01:57):
for me.
Obviously it's someone who I'm very close
with, it’s someone who I adore dearly.
He passed that love of sports and,
competition and down to my dad,
who also played football
in college at the Division three level.
And, you know,
I always grew up in a house
where on Thanksgiving,
everything was centered around football.
And,
you know,
the football games
(02:17):
have been a really big part
of my childhood.
They've been a big part of my life
in general.
The fall is my favorite time of year
when the NFL is going on.
I'll watch games of any point.
You know, growing up, I was a big golfer.
To this day, I still love golf.
It's one of my favorite sports
to watch on television.
There are very few sports
that I'm not going to sit down and watch.
I enjoy watching all of them
(02:38):
and getting into them.
I think sports is just
one of the uniquely pure,
amazing things about our society
where it's mano
a mano, it's good on good, it's
a competition, it's unpredictable.
It's the best reality show in the world,
and now I get to do it for a living, too.
So the fact that they're paying me
to work in
sports is just,
I feel like I'm stealing money every day,
and I love every second of it.
(02:59):
My family has always
been really into sports.
We watch games and go to games
and spend a lot of time
with friends and family
when we are watching.
We have a lot of fun
and we are true fans. How important
are fans to the experience of college sports?
Well, I think what makes college sports
different from professional sports is
(03:21):
everybody has a team.
Everybody has a team.
You know, in pro,
if you're not growing up in a region
that is geographically centric
to a team,
you may have a harder time
investing in a team.
So, for instance,
if you grew up in Saint Louis, Missouri,
right now, you don't have an NFL team.
So, you know, you get to kind of
just pick based off of who you want.
(03:42):
Opposite of that.
You look at
college sports,
almost everybody has a college team
that they root for
because there are so many of them
and so many of them
have family connections.
Whether that be
you went to a school
or your best friend
goes to a school,
your mom went to a school,
your dad went to a particular school.
So everybody has a vested,
connected interest
in college athletics,
(04:03):
and everybody is a true
fan of one particular team.
And they will go to their grave
being a fan of that particular team.
To your question
of how important the fans are
to the college experience,
I think they're what separate us
from everything else.
They are what make us great.
The passion,
the tailgating, the loud environments
and the home field
(04:23):
advantages getting to know
somebody and pour
all of your heart
and soul at them for four years,
and then have to latch onto
somebody else.
And sometimes it doesn't
even last four years
with graduation and professional drafts,
and now the portal.
Fans are very important
to making collegiate sports whole.
And then I'll also tell you
from a financial perspective,
the more fans you have at games,
(04:45):
that's more money for your institution.
It's simple as that.
The more money you have
for your institution,
the more better players
you're going to
get to come to your school
to have on your roster,
which means you're going to win more.
So there's a vested connection in fandom,
if you will, and winning.
And that's not too much of a stretch
to say.
So fans are critical
(05:05):
and they really are
what separates professional
sports from college sports.
I know I have been
coming to the UK volleyball games
and helping you out and learning
what you do for your work.
Can you describe what
your role is during a
game, and what kinds of things you do
while the game is going on?
Yeah, you've kind of seen it's all,
It's all hands on deck.
(05:26):
It's all crazy, isn't it?
But we put it together like a big circus.
You know, my
main job is to make sure
that the team is shown
in the best light possible.
So that requires me to make sure
that our stat crew
is operating at a high function
so that people know how many kills
and how many aces and how many digs
and what a team is hitting
and how many blocks we have.
That also goes into the in venue
arena experience
(05:47):
because all those stats
come from our stats computer.
I'm helping ESPN
put on the best broadcasts that they can.
So I'm feeding them information
throughout the match.
Whether someone has a career
high in digs or a career high in assists,
or what
the ramifications are for the game
in the standings, for instance.
So I'm
making sure that,
ESPN has a very informed,
(06:07):
fledged broadcast
on what the game is going to be.
Additionally,
I’m making sure
that all of our local media
that are covering
the game have an easy time covering it.
They have credentials at the front gate.
They know where they can film from.
And then at the end of the match, I'm
working with the players and the coaches
to organize press conferences.
So I'm sitting there
and I'm saying, okay,
who do you want to talk to?
How long do you want to talk to them?
(06:27):
Do you want to do it in the locker room?
Do you want to do it at the podium?
Do you want to do it on the court?
So all those different things
kind of go into a game day experience.
And sometimes it's a really smooth
game day where maybe
we don't have a lot of media
and the stats are easy,
and it's just a couple of interviews
after the game and I can go home.
And then there are other nights,
like last night
where you got to be a part of it,
and you were so important with it
where we got to win a championship.
(06:48):
And that is a crazy, crazy thing
because there are a lot,
a lot of moving parts that go into that.
So there's a lot of really cool things
that I get to do.
I will tell you
that one of the coolest things
that I get to do is meet new people
all the time,
because opposing teams
bring their own media contacts
and their own sports information.
Directors like me.
So I get to meet new people all the time.
(07:09):
But yeah, it's it's a high wire
act, but we make it work.
I know that a
lot happens behind the scenes before
and after every game.
I also know that players
and the people who work in media
have to travel
a lot to wherever
the games are happening.
What is it
like to be on the road
so much during each sport’s season?
(07:30):
It's something
you have to adapt yourself to.
I wasn't used to it
when I first started at this job.
You know, I,
I traveled when I was a kid,
but I traveled,
you know, maybe three times a year.
I went somewhere for Thanksgiving.
We always went to West Palm
Beach for my grandparents house.
And we had Thanksgiving there.
We went to a family vacation
in Kiawah Island over the summer,
(07:50):
and then we would do one more family trip
at some point during the season.
And that was all the travel that I had.
It's a lot different now
because it's traveling for work,
so you have a little bit
more of a constrained schedule
when you're on the road.
But, you know,
I can tell you that last year
I actually ended up counting it
because it's
just it's it's a number
that I don't think
a lot of people can fathom.
But, you know, last year
I spent 147 nights in a hotel
(08:12):
out of the 365 during the year.
And I love every second of it.
I'm not complaining about it
when I say that,
I'm saying that to be
someone who is saying that
knowing how to travel is important.
And to your question of what's it like,
you have to learn to time manage yourself
really, really well.
You've got to learn to know that, yeah,
you can plan on working on the plane,
(08:32):
but also sleeping is very important.
And so do
you want to catch up on some sleep
or do you want to work?
And when you're at the hotel,
are you focused on your work
or do you have things
that you need to do?
Where are you staying?
You know, do you have a roommate?
Is that going to hit
into your time to work
because you're going
to be talking with them?
Or maybe they don't want to talk as much.
So there's a lot of variables.
I also had the experience
(08:53):
of going to Australia
for the Australian Open
as a fan last year.
I'm going back again in January.
I'm very excited about that,
but I do a good job,
in my opinion, of mixing
what I prefer to do in my personal
life, with my work life.
You know, you just kind of
get used to flying on planes.
You like to check your Delta SkyMiles
every day
to make sure that you're
(09:14):
still in the high status,
that you can get upgrades
and all those things go into it.
But, being on the road is a lot,
but it also keeps you away
from some friendships here in Lexington.
I think it can be hard
on your family at times because,
you know,
for instance, this week
my family will be in West Palm
Beach for Thanksgiving,
but I can't join them
until Thursday morning
because we're going to be in Missouri
beginning tomorrow.
(09:35):
And then we play Wednesday.
We get back Wednesday
into Thursday morning.
I think we land at like
230 in the morning.
And then I'm back on a plane at 6:00
to go to West Palm Beach through Atlanta.
So it's a lot of time travel.
It's a lot of, commitment on that end.
But if you stay hydrated
and you're focused
and you plan well,
it's something that I live for.
(09:55):
When the teams are not on the road,
they are playing games
at their home school.
How different does it feel
to cover a home game versus an away game?
It's a lot different.
It's a lot different.
You hit a great question there, Jacob.
I think the biggest thing is
when you're on the road
you have very,
very few responsibilities
compared to being in a home match.
When you're at a home match,
(10:16):
I like to tell people that
everything is your problem
when it's a home match.
So if the video board doesn't work, it's
your problem, if the stats aren't working,
it’s your problem,
if the media room doesn't
have capacity. It's your problem.
If you don't have anybody on staff
to run the stats during time out,
that's your problem.
Everything becomes your issue
that you're trying to solve.
When you're at home
on the road, it's
(10:37):
all up to that host institution
to hammer out those particular ideas,
whether it comes to press conferences
or stats and things like that.
So there's a lot less to do on the road.
Which tends to lend itself to
better coverage
because my mind is not taken up by stats
and taken up by press conferences
and taken up by
the logistics of the game.
It's just very simply,
(10:58):
I can cover the game,
so I typically tend to get
better coverage on the road.
But yes, they are very different.
So if you're asking me
if I'd rather have a home game
or a road game,
I mean, I'd rather sleep
in my own bed at night.
But in terms of a working capacity,
Jacob, I'd rather be on the road
because it's a lot less stressful.
I know you do
a lot of different things in your job.
(11:19):
What are some of the things you enjoy the most
about what you do?
Nights like yesterday
or what make it all worth it.
Winning championships is really fun.
And that's not the only reason
you get into college athletics,
because they're
so rare that, you know, if you do it
just for championships, it's
not going to be worth your time
because that moment is so cool.
And that moment is awesome.
(11:39):
But that was one day out of 365,
and we won't win
another championship again
with this particular team
for another 364 days.
But you know,
the thing that I enjoy most, I love,
the fact that I get to meet 7
to 8 new kids in volleyball
and 6
to 8 new kids in softball every year,
as those,
(11:59):
you know, as seniors
grow out, new people come in.
I think another thing
that I enjoy about it
is it keeps me young.
I have to learn to talk
like all of the student
athletes do and recruits.
And so
I'm constantly learning
and keeping myself abreast
of what is going on in the world,
because they are also constantly
keeping themselves abreast of
(12:20):
what is going on in the world.
And then additionally, I'm a competitor,
I love competition,
I love sports,
and this is a way for me to have a team
in almost every competition that we have.
I loved Kentucky,
my time here as a student,
and so this is my way
of giving back to them.
But I just I
love the spirit of competition,
(12:40):
especially in the SEC,
and it keeps me grounded every single day
to keep going
to be the best that I can be.
It sounds like
there is a lot involved
in the field of athletic communications
and public relations.
What advice
would you give to someone
who is interested
in learning more about that field?
I think the biggest thing
(13:00):
is, number one,
you're going to have to learn
to deal with adversity.
That's the biggest thing is,
as much as we have nights like yesterday
where we win a conference championship
and we've now run,
I think ten matches in a row.
We haven't lost a match since September.
You know, you look at that
and everyone's like, oh, that's so sweet.
Yes it is, but losses are crushing.
(13:23):
And you,
you feel the pain of those losses.
And so you kind of have to be able
to keep a solid equilibrium
there and a steadiness about you
that is really hard at times
because after wins
you want to get super high
and after losses you can feel super low,
but you've always got to be
the one that steadies the ship
as the captain of the pr team.
(13:44):
You've got to make it seem
like it was just another day.
And so I think
one of the biggest things that you can do
is learn how to steady your emotions.
If you're not really steady
in your emotions,
you're not going to be
a good public relations person
because it's always about dealing
with the unpredictable situations.
So I think being flexible is important.
I think being steady
emotionally is important.
But the biggest thing that I can give you
(14:05):
is, is try to get involved,
try to go out there
and watch press conferences
and watch them online, or try
see if you can get in in person
and sit in the back
and talk to people and ask yourself
what questions you would ask
if you were in the situation
of being in a press conference room
and did that question get asked?
How did they ask it?
What part of the press conference
did they ask it?
Did they get the answer that they want?
(14:27):
Did they follow up?
All those certain
things are important
when it talks about communications
and public relations,
because you're trying to talk on behalf
of the people of the team.
And so those messages
sometimes can be confusing.
They can be confounding,
they can be complex. They can be diverse.
But as long as you are winning,
it's a lot easier.
So it's just about making sure
that you're managing your emotions.
(14:49):
I am proud to
be a UK student
and have always been a UK fan.
You also went to UK and now work
for UK Athletics.
Can you talk a little bit
about the importance of the UK Athletics
and what that adds to the experience and spirit
of the University of Kentucky?
Yeah, it's it's why I do what I do Jacob.
It's it's simply is that,
(15:10):
you know, this place built me
and I didn't know that for a long time.
But this place built me
into the professional that I am.
And, you know, full disclosure,
I have had opportunities
to go other places
and do what I'm doing now.
Even as.
And I don't say this
to be braggadocious at all,
I say this
just to answer the question, but,
you know,
there was a school that came
(15:31):
after me last week,
and they wanted me to come do
their football team’s PR for them.
But I'm indebted to Kentucky.
I'm indebted to the people here.
I'm indebted to the school here.
I'm indebted to the coaches
here, the players, my coworkers.
There are so
many people here that make Kentucky
a really special place to work.
(15:51):
And I think everybody can say
that about their own institution,
and that's fine.
But I've been around long enough
now, 15 years
in the industry to understand
how important Kentucky
is to the Southeastern Conference,
how important Kentucky
basketball is to the state,
and how important UK athletics
is to the Lexington community.
And while understanding all that,
(16:12):
I also understood
that the University of Kentucky
is the most important thing to me.
So all those things are,
you know, not hyperbole.
They're true.
They make me who I am.
And, I'm
blessed to be a part of this institution.
Last question.
Is there anything
we have not talked about that
(16:33):
you would like to mention
in relation to your job
or UK athletics or sports in general.
You know, I think the
biggest thing, Jacob, is,
working in sports for me is a dream.
There's nothing
that I've enjoyed more than doing
what I've done the last 15 years.
I think externally, people looking in
think working in sports
as fun and it's easy.
(16:54):
And for me there are easy days,
but there are also a lot of hard days.
And I don't think
people a lot of times appreciate
how hard it is to work in sports.
You know,
you look at it
specifically in the collegian
sports model,
you really only have two months
where you have
minimal travel,
where you have minimal sports
going on, and that's June and July.
And even this year, our
baseball team advancing to the world
(17:16):
with a men's College World Series.
Their last date was June 19th.
And so we really only got a month
and a half of
of having some time to be
with our family and our friends.
And so,
while you're only assigned
to particular sports
that you're in charge of,
you're also helping out
with other sports.
And so it's hard and it's time consuming,
and the losses
will tear you to your core.
(17:37):
And the wins build you up.
And so it's just it's
a very emotional experience
for a lot of people.
It's not just simply a game.
And I don't think a lot of people
take that into account
when they're doing these things,
because there are
a lot of different situations
where people can turn off the TV
if things aren't going their way,
or they can simply leave the arena
if the game is out of hand
(17:58):
and they want to go home
and watch it somewhere else, you know,
we have to stay
and we have to be invested
for the whole duration of every game,
and it can bite at you,
especially when you throw
the travel in there.
But it's the best thing in the world
for me. I love every second of it.
And I appreciate the fact
that competition breeds excellence and,
(18:19):
I'm really, really excited
to have talked with you today
about all these things and my job and,
I'm excited to to keep going
and make everything
the best that it can be.
Thank you.
so much for talking with me today.
This has been a great conversation.
Thanks so much for having me.
This has been a blast and,
I look forward to what's next for us.
(18:39):
Today's interview
has been with Chris Shoals,
Associate Director of Athletic
Communications and Public
Relations at UK.
If you want to learn
more and keep up with all the things
going on with sports at UK,
you can check out ukathletics.com.
My name is Jacob Tipton.
Thank you for listening.
This has been Community Spotlight.
(19:00):
If you are interested
in being interviewed for the show,
please reach out and let us know.
And as always, thanks for listening.
Hello and
welcome to the Community
Spotlight Podcast.
Each episode highlights
something interesting
in the community of Lexington
or surrounding areas of Kentucky.
The podcast was started by students
in the College and Career Studies program
at the University of Kentucky.
Thanks for listening.
(00:31):
Hello, my name is Jacob Tipton
and I am a student
in the College and Career
Studies program at UK.
Today I'll be interviewing
Chris Shoals, Associate
Director of Athletic Communications
and Public Relations at UK.
Chris has had
a lot of different jobs and experiences
in the area of sports journalism,
(00:53):
and he is currently covering
UK’s Volleyball and Softball teams.
I have been doing my practicum
with Chris and UK Athletics
and helping out and learning
about sports communications at UK
volleyball games.
Hello, Chris, how are you doing today?
I'm doing great today.
So happy to be with you on this Monday.
And I'm so excited
to be talking with you.
(01:14):
Thanks for having me on.
No problem.
Thank you for talking to me today.
I want to ask you a few questions
about your job and career
and also about your
interest in athletics.
First question,
can you tell
me where your interest in athletics
came from?
Were you interest in in sports
when you were a kid?
(01:35):
I was really interested in sports
when I was a kid.
I will tell you that the baseline
of my
athletics interests stems from the fact
that my grandfather played
in the National Football League.
He played in the NFL for 11 years.
He played seven years in Cleveland,
two years in Detroit,
and two years in Denver.
And so that kind of set the bedrock
(01:57):
for me.
Obviously it's someone who I'm very close
with, it’s someone who I adore dearly.
He passed that love of sports and,
competition and down to my dad,
who also played football
in college at the Division three level.
And, you know,
I always grew up in a house
where on Thanksgiving,
everything was centered around football.
And,
you know,
the football games
(02:17):
have been a really big part
of my childhood.
They've been a big part of my life
in general.
The fall is my favorite time of year
when the NFL is going on.
I'll watch games of any point.
You know, growing up, I was a big golfer.
To this day, I still love golf.
It's one of my favorite sports
to watch on television.
There are very few sports
that I'm not going to sit down and watch.
I enjoy watching all of them
(02:38):
and getting into them.
I think sports is just
one of the uniquely pure,
amazing things about our society
where it's mano
a mano, it's good on good, it's
a competition, it's unpredictable.
It's the best reality show in the world,
and now I get to do it for a living, too.
So the fact that they're paying me
to work in
sports is just,
I feel like I'm stealing money every day,
and I love every second of it.
(02:59):
My family has always
been really into sports.
We watch games and go to games
and spend a lot of time
with friends and family
when we are watching.
We have a lot of fun
and we are true fans. How important
are fans to the experience of college sports?
Well, I think what makes college sports
different from professional sports is
(03:21):
everybody has a team.
Everybody has a team.
You know, in pro,
if you're not growing up in a region
that is geographically centric
to a team,
you may have a harder time
investing in a team.
So, for instance,
if you grew up in Saint Louis, Missouri,
right now, you don't have an NFL team.
So, you know, you get to kind of
just pick based off of who you want.
(03:42):
Opposite of that.
You look at
college sports,
almost everybody has a college team
that they root for
because there are so many of them
and so many of them
have family connections.
Whether that be
you went to a school
or your best friend
goes to a school,
your mom went to a school,
your dad went to a particular school.
So everybody has a vested,
connected interest
in college athletics,
(04:03):
and everybody is a true
fan of one particular team.
And they will go to their grave
being a fan of that particular team.
To your question
of how important the fans are
to the college experience,
I think they're what separate us
from everything else.
They are what make us great.
The passion,
the tailgating, the loud environments
and the home field
(04:23):
advantages getting to know
somebody and pour
all of your heart
and soul at them for four years,
and then have to latch onto
somebody else.
And sometimes it doesn't
even last four years
with graduation and professional drafts,
and now the portal.
Fans are very important
to making collegiate sports whole.
And then I'll also tell you
from a financial perspective,
the more fans you have at games,
(04:45):
that's more money for your institution.
It's simple as that.
The more money you have
for your institution,
the more better players
you're going to
get to come to your school
to have on your roster,
which means you're going to win more.
So there's a vested connection in fandom,
if you will, and winning.
And that's not too much of a stretch
to say.
So fans are critical
(05:05):
and they really are
what separates professional
sports from college sports.
I know I have been
coming to the UK volleyball games
and helping you out and learning
what you do for your work.
Can you describe what
your role is during a
game, and what kinds of things you do
while the game is going on?
Yeah, you've kind of seen it's all,
It's all hands on deck.
(05:26):
It's all crazy, isn't it?
But we put it together like a big circus.
You know, my
main job is to make sure
that the team is shown
in the best light possible.
So that requires me to make sure
that our stat crew
is operating at a high function
so that people know how many kills
and how many aces and how many digs
and what a team is hitting
and how many blocks we have.
That also goes into the in venue
arena experience
(05:47):
because all those stats
come from our stats computer.
I'm helping ESPN
put on the best broadcasts that they can.
So I'm feeding them information
throughout the match.
Whether someone has a career
high in digs or a career high in assists,
or what
the ramifications are for the game
in the standings, for instance.
So I'm
making sure that,
ESPN has a very informed,
(06:07):
fledged broadcast
on what the game is going to be.
Additionally,
I’m making sure
that all of our local media
that are covering
the game have an easy time covering it.
They have credentials at the front gate.
They know where they can film from.
And then at the end of the match, I'm
working with the players and the coaches
to organize press conferences.
So I'm sitting there
and I'm saying, okay,
who do you want to talk to?
How long do you want to talk to them?
(06:27):
Do you want to do it in the locker room?
Do you want to do it at the podium?
Do you want to do it on the court?
So all those different things
kind of go into a game day experience.
And sometimes it's a really smooth
game day where maybe
we don't have a lot of media
and the stats are easy,
and it's just a couple of interviews
after the game and I can go home.
And then there are other nights,
like last night
where you got to be a part of it,
and you were so important with it
where we got to win a championship.
(06:48):
And that is a crazy, crazy thing
because there are a lot,
a lot of moving parts that go into that.
So there's a lot of really cool things
that I get to do.
I will tell you
that one of the coolest things
that I get to do is meet new people
all the time,
because opposing teams
bring their own media contacts
and their own sports information.
Directors like me.
So I get to meet new people all the time.
(07:09):
But yeah, it's it's a high wire
act, but we make it work.
I know that a
lot happens behind the scenes before
and after every game.
I also know that players
and the people who work in media
have to travel
a lot to wherever
the games are happening.
What is it
like to be on the road
so much during each sport’s season?
(07:30):
It's something
you have to adapt yourself to.
I wasn't used to it
when I first started at this job.
You know, I,
I traveled when I was a kid,
but I traveled,
you know, maybe three times a year.
I went somewhere for Thanksgiving.
We always went to West Palm
Beach for my grandparents house.
And we had Thanksgiving there.
We went to a family vacation
in Kiawah Island over the summer,
(07:50):
and then we would do one more family trip
at some point during the season.
And that was all the travel that I had.
It's a lot different now
because it's traveling for work,
so you have a little bit
more of a constrained schedule
when you're on the road.
But, you know,
I can tell you that last year
I actually ended up counting it
because it's
just it's it's a number
that I don't think
a lot of people can fathom.
But, you know, last year
I spent 147 nights in a hotel
(08:12):
out of the 365 during the year.
And I love every second of it.
I'm not complaining about it
when I say that,
I'm saying that to be
someone who is saying that
knowing how to travel is important.
And to your question of what's it like,
you have to learn to time manage yourself
really, really well.
You've got to learn to know that, yeah,
you can plan on working on the plane,
(08:32):
but also sleeping is very important.
And so do
you want to catch up on some sleep
or do you want to work?
And when you're at the hotel,
are you focused on your work
or do you have things
that you need to do?
Where are you staying?
You know, do you have a roommate?
Is that going to hit
into your time to work
because you're going
to be talking with them?
Or maybe they don't want to talk as much.
So there's a lot of variables.
I also had the experience
(08:53):
of going to Australia
for the Australian Open
as a fan last year.
I'm going back again in January.
I'm very excited about that,
but I do a good job,
in my opinion, of mixing
what I prefer to do in my personal
life, with my work life.
You know, you just kind of
get used to flying on planes.
You like to check your Delta SkyMiles
every day
to make sure that you're
(09:14):
still in the high status,
that you can get upgrades
and all those things go into it.
But, being on the road is a lot,
but it also keeps you away
from some friendships here in Lexington.
I think it can be hard
on your family at times because,
you know,
for instance, this week
my family will be in West Palm
Beach for Thanksgiving,
but I can't join them
until Thursday morning
because we're going to be in Missouri
beginning tomorrow.
(09:35):
And then we play Wednesday.
We get back Wednesday
into Thursday morning.
I think we land at like
230 in the morning.
And then I'm back on a plane at 6:00
to go to West Palm Beach through Atlanta.
So it's a lot of time travel.
It's a lot of, commitment on that end.
But if you stay hydrated
and you're focused
and you plan well,
it's something that I live for.
(09:55):
When the teams are not on the road,
they are playing games
at their home school.
How different does it feel
to cover a home game versus an away game?
It's a lot different.
It's a lot different.
You hit a great question there, Jacob.
I think the biggest thing is
when you're on the road
you have very,
very few responsibilities
compared to being in a home match.
When you're at a home match,
(10:16):
I like to tell people that
everything is your problem
when it's a home match.
So if the video board doesn't work, it's
your problem, if the stats aren't working,
it’s your problem,
if the media room doesn't
have capacity. It's your problem.
If you don't have anybody on staff
to run the stats during time out,
that's your problem.
Everything becomes your issue
that you're trying to solve.
When you're at home
on the road, it's
(10:37):
all up to that host institution
to hammer out those particular ideas,
whether it comes to press conferences
or stats and things like that.
So there's a lot less to do on the road.
Which tends to lend itself to
better coverage
because my mind is not taken up by stats
and taken up by press conferences
and taken up by
the logistics of the game.
It's just very simply,
(10:58):
I can cover the game,
so I typically tend to get
better coverage on the road.
But yes, they are very different.
So if you're asking me
if I'd rather have a home game
or a road game,
I mean, I'd rather sleep
in my own bed at night.
But in terms of a working capacity,
Jacob, I'd rather be on the road
because it's a lot less stressful.
I know you do
a lot of different things in your job.
(11:19):
What are some of the things you enjoy the most
about what you do?
Nights like yesterday
or what make it all worth it.
Winning championships is really fun.
And that's not the only reason
you get into college athletics,
because they're
so rare that, you know, if you do it
just for championships, it's
not going to be worth your time
because that moment is so cool.
And that moment is awesome.
(11:39):
But that was one day out of 365,
and we won't win
another championship again
with this particular team
for another 364 days.
But you know,
the thing that I enjoy most, I love,
the fact that I get to meet 7
to 8 new kids in volleyball
and 6
to 8 new kids in softball every year,
as those,
(11:59):
you know, as seniors
grow out, new people come in.
I think another thing
that I enjoy about it
is it keeps me young.
I have to learn to talk
like all of the student
athletes do and recruits.
And so
I'm constantly learning
and keeping myself abreast
of what is going on in the world,
because they are also constantly
keeping themselves abreast of
(12:20):
what is going on in the world.
And then additionally, I'm a competitor,
I love competition,
I love sports,
and this is a way for me to have a team
in almost every competition that we have.
I loved Kentucky,
my time here as a student,
and so this is my way
of giving back to them.
But I just I
love the spirit of competition,
(12:40):
especially in the SEC,
and it keeps me grounded every single day
to keep going
to be the best that I can be.
It sounds like
there is a lot involved
in the field of athletic communications
and public relations.
What advice
would you give to someone
who is interested
in learning more about that field?
I think the biggest thing
(13:00):
is, number one,
you're going to have to learn
to deal with adversity.
That's the biggest thing is,
as much as we have nights like yesterday
where we win a conference championship
and we've now run,
I think ten matches in a row.
We haven't lost a match since September.
You know, you look at that
and everyone's like, oh, that's so sweet.
Yes it is, but losses are crushing.
(13:23):
And you,
you feel the pain of those losses.
And so you kind of have to be able
to keep a solid equilibrium
there and a steadiness about you
that is really hard at times
because after wins
you want to get super high
and after losses you can feel super low,
but you've always got to be
the one that steadies the ship
as the captain of the pr team.
(13:44):
You've got to make it seem
like it was just another day.
And so I think
one of the biggest things that you can do
is learn how to steady your emotions.
If you're not really steady
in your emotions,
you're not going to be
a good public relations person
because it's always about dealing
with the unpredictable situations.
So I think being flexible is important.
I think being steady
emotionally is important.
But the biggest thing that I can give you
(14:05):
is, is try to get involved,
try to go out there
and watch press conferences
and watch them online, or try
see if you can get in in person
and sit in the back
and talk to people and ask yourself
what questions you would ask
if you were in the situation
of being in a press conference room
and did that question get asked?
How did they ask it?
What part of the press conference
did they ask it?
Did they get the answer that they want?
(14:27):
Did they follow up?
All those certain
things are important
when it talks about communications
and public relations,
because you're trying to talk on behalf
of the people of the team.
And so those messages
sometimes can be confusing.
They can be confounding,
they can be complex. They can be diverse.
But as long as you are winning,
it's a lot easier.
So it's just about making sure
that you're managing your emotions.
(14:49):
I am proud to
be a UK student
and have always been a UK fan.
You also went to UK and now work
for UK Athletics.
Can you talk a little bit
about the importance of the UK Athletics
and what that adds to the experience and spirit
of the University of Kentucky?
Yeah, it's it's why I do what I do Jacob.
It's it's simply is that,
(15:10):
you know, this place built me
and I didn't know that for a long time.
But this place built me
into the professional that I am.
And, you know, full disclosure,
I have had opportunities
to go other places
and do what I'm doing now.
Even as.
And I don't say this
to be braggadocious at all,
I say this
just to answer the question, but,
you know,
there was a school that came
(15:31):
after me last week,
and they wanted me to come do
their football team’s PR for them.
But I'm indebted to Kentucky.
I'm indebted to the people here.
I'm indebted to the school here.
I'm indebted to the coaches
here, the players, my coworkers.
There are so
many people here that make Kentucky
a really special place to work.
(15:51):
And I think everybody can say
that about their own institution,
and that's fine.
But I've been around long enough
now, 15 years
in the industry to understand
how important Kentucky
is to the Southeastern Conference,
how important Kentucky
basketball is to the state,
and how important UK athletics
is to the Lexington community.
And while understanding all that,
(16:12):
I also understood
that the University of Kentucky
is the most important thing to me.
So all those things are,
you know, not hyperbole.
They're true.
They make me who I am.
And, I'm
blessed to be a part of this institution.
Last question.
Is there anything
we have not talked about that
(16:33):
you would like to mention
in relation to your job
or UK athletics or sports in general.
You know, I think the
biggest thing, Jacob, is,
working in sports for me is a dream.
There's nothing
that I've enjoyed more than doing
what I've done the last 15 years.
I think externally, people looking in
think working in sports
as fun and it's easy.
(16:54):
And for me there are easy days,
but there are also a lot of hard days.
And I don't think
people a lot of times appreciate
how hard it is to work in sports.
You know,
you look at it
specifically in the collegian
sports model,
you really only have two months
where you have
minimal travel,
where you have minimal sports
going on, and that's June and July.
And even this year, our
baseball team advancing to the world
(17:16):
with a men's College World Series.
Their last date was June 19th.
And so we really only got a month
and a half of
of having some time to be
with our family and our friends.
And so,
while you're only assigned
to particular sports
that you're in charge of,
you're also helping out
with other sports.
And so it's hard and it's time consuming,
and the losses
will tear you to your core.
(17:37):
And the wins build you up.
And so it's just it's
a very emotional experience
for a lot of people.
It's not just simply a game.
And I don't think a lot of people
take that into account
when they're doing these things,
because there are
a lot of different situations
where people can turn off the TV
if things aren't going their way,
or they can simply leave the arena
if the game is out of hand
(17:58):
and they want to go home
and watch it somewhere else, you know,
we have to stay
and we have to be invested
for the whole duration of every game,
and it can bite at you,
especially when you throw
the travel in there.
But it's the best thing in the world
for me. I love every second of it.
And I appreciate the fact
that competition breeds excellence and,
(18:19):
I'm really, really excited
to have talked with you today
about all these things and my job and,
I'm excited to to keep going
and make everything
the best that it can be.
Thank you.
so much for talking with me today.
This has been a great conversation.
Thanks so much for having me.
This has been a blast and,
I look forward to what's next for us.
(18:39):
Today's interview
has been with Chris Shoals,
Associate Director of Athletic
Communications and Public
Relations at UK.
If you want to learn
more and keep up with all the things
going on with sports at UK,
you can check out ukathletics.com.
My name is Jacob Tipton.
Thank you for listening.
This has been Community Spotlight.
(19:00):
If you are interested
in being interviewed for the show,
please reach out and let us know.
And as always, thanks for listening.
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