How A Cornell Freshman Turned Passion For Watching Sports Into Real-World Impact

A lot of us fall in love with sports from the couch, not the court. Anya did exactly that—and then turned her love of watching games into real-world impact that lifted entire teams. We sit down with this Cornell freshman to unpack how she co-founded a 16-person media group in high school to spotlight undercovered athletes, ran pro-quality media days, and later stepped into strategy roles shaping D1 fan engagement.

We trace the first spark—seeing girls’ tennis and other “smaller” sports miss out on recognition—and how a student-led solution became Radar Sports: a nimble mix of photographers, editors, and community connectors delivering shareable, athlete-first content. From backdrops and pose coaching to editing and distribution, Anya shares the nuts and bolts anyone can copy to build visibility and pride on campus.

Then we zoom out to tactics that move the needle. At Cornell, Anya helped design an alumni-driven activation that lures non-fans with career networking, then converts them with the live-game experience. It’s classic segmentation done right for a pre-professional audience. We also get honest about the gender gap in sports business and why exposure matters—how growing up with games on at home builds the fluency and confidence to lead in broadcast booths, front offices, and advisory boards.

If you’re curious about careers beyond playing, this conversation opens the door. We dig into sponsorships and partnerships as the economic engine of modern sport, spotlight Formula One’s hidden roles—from engineering to logistics to performance psychology—and outline practical steps for students to start, scale, and measure their own projects. The throughline is clear: you don’t need to be an athlete to belong in sports; you need curiosity, craft, and the courage to ship your work.

Enjoyed the conversation? Follow, rate, and share the show with a friend who loves sports or wants to work in it—and tell us the behind-the-scenes role you’d try first.

The only podcast that is all about Athletes Supporting Athletes!

Transcript

Welcome And Mission: Athletes Supporting Athletes

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Hey guys, welcome to the Plan B podcast. If it's your first time here, hey, thanks for coming. Don't forget to like, share, and subscribe and share it with your fellow athletes, coaches, share it with the athletes. Parents, if you are hearing this and you think your athlete could benefit from, or if your athlete would like to come on the show, our show is all about athletes supporting athletes. That's the only reason this has been created. Now, when we talk about support though, athlete support takes very many different shapes and forms. And today's guest is someone who quietly supports athletes from behind the scenes. And this is such an important role. And when I discovered this person, and I'll tell you about that a little bit later, I was just so impressed because it wasn't something that she just plucked out of the sky and decided to do. This aspiring sports management professional has been is in college at the moment, but she has been doing this for some time and has been kind of working her way and developing her skills. So I am super excited today to welcome to the Plan B podcast. Anya. Anya is at Cornell University. So Anya, welcome. And hey, tell us a little bit about how what you first what first drew you into the world of sports.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Yeah, for sure. Well, thank you so much for having me. Um I've never really been an athlete myself. I grew up playing a lot of sports, but I was never really any good at it. I think what really exposed me to the sports industry as a whole was just that I was around it so much. I was constantly had a game on the weekend. I was constantly, you know, watching sports with my family. It's something that I associate a lot with community and something that I just genuinely enjoyed. And so I think that, like in high school, I kind of realized that because it's something that I really enjoyed, why couldn't it be something that I made my profession? My dad's always really been big about, you know, do something that you love. And so when I was thinking about what extracurriculars I wanted to get involved in in high school, especially, you know, when it comes to things like college apps and just kind of putting yourself out there and giving back to your community, what I wanted to do was really focused around sports. And so I did a lot in my community around sports that I'm happy to talk about later. But it was really kind of just driven by this motivation of doing something with my life that I genuinely love and I'm genuinely interested in versus kind of just going through the motions of like a corporate job, for example.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

Well, I, you know, your dad is is on the right track because you know, I I know myself, I only got into sport because I purely loved it. When I found out at a young age that I could be a professional, I decided then and there that I was just gonna keep that as my profession as an athlete. And then now, post-retirement, I'm still working with athletes. So, you know, you're right on the money with choosing something that you love. Now, Anya, I love that you say that you watch a lot of sports because I know a lot of athletes don't actually watch a lot of sport. They play it, but they don't actually watch it. And there is something called behavioral observation in sport psychology where you, Anya, you actually could probably be really good at sport. Even though you say you're not, I wouldn't be surprised with the amount of sport that you've watched that you would probably be better than you think.

From High School To Cornell

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Yeah, I mean, I think that like if I had the stamina, I have a very good understanding of pretty much every single sport, I think, like how the game works, like what you should be doing, where you should be on the field or the core. So I think if I had more stamina and more like actual just pure athletic ability, I I could probably be pretty good at some sports. Um, but I've just never really been one for like extreme exercise.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

So Hey, well, I hear you now. I I tried to go for a run today at lunchtime and nearly died. So I don't know what happened to me as an athlete, but that's disappeared. And but that's okay. We're on to different things. Now, Anya, you're at Cornell University. What year are you in at Cornell? Yes, I'm a freshman, so I just started in the fall. Um, I'll be going into my sophomore year. Okay, so hey, for listeners joining us today, Anya actually didn't just arrive at Cornell and go, hey, I this I want to get involved in sports management. She's actually been doing this since high school, as I said in the beginning. And she actually co-founded a sports management kind of company called Radar Sports, managing a 16-person student-run team. So, Anya, what inspired you to start that and how did you go about building a team in high school from the ground up?

Founding Radar Sports To Fix Visibility Gaps

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Yeah, for sure. So, um, as I mentioned before, I picked up tennis in high school and I'd never played before, but uh the team very quickly became really important to me. It was my girls' varsity team, varsity because we didn't have cuts. Um, but those girls became really, really special to me. And that team was some of the most fun I had. Like every day after school, we'd get out there, we'd hang out, we'd, you know, talk, play, like get our minds off of school and all the work we had to do. Because I did go to a, you know, very high at school that had a high pressure environment. And what I began to notice was that teams like the girls' varsity tennis team, the girls' varsity softball team, the golf team, teams that were less popularized sports, so not men's volleyball and men's basketball, for example, were getting little to no recognition on our um athletic media social media page. For example, like the men's volleyball team would make it to NCS, there'd be a post about it. We would be BCL champs, no post about it. And so that was some like a disconnect that I began to notice in my own community. I had been exposed to that kind of disconnect. Previously, I did a summer program at Wharton called Moneyball, and it was all about sports analytics. And I was one of four girls in a 72-person program. And so that was kind of my first exposure to this disconnect in terms of like gender. And then I started to notice it in my school community, not just in terms of gender, but also in terms of sports. And I think in an attempt to kind of bridge that and really highlight all the athletes in our community who are doing important work, me and a few friends got together, decided to pool our different skills and start this social media account that was really about highlighting every single athlete on our campus and making sure that they felt seen and recognized for their contributions. In terms of actually starting the team, it started with four of us. We brought in a student advisor to help us kind of get it started. And it's actually grown to a 16-person team that has applications now, which is something that I'm really proud of. Um, we worked really hard to bring it to where it was, and what it started as is very different to what it is now, so it definitely went through a lot of changes. But yeah, it's still going and even after we left, so I'm really happy about that.

Inside A Media Day: Poses To Posts

SPEAKER_01 6:23

Anya, that is so impressive. It's so impressive that at high school you saw a need, and particularly in some of the minority focused sports at the high school level, like some of these sports like tennis, obviously in golf, women's golf, that you get larger as you get into college. But you know, at the high school level, not everybody has access to tennis courts, not everyone can get on a golf course. So it's like it gets, you know, the people trying out for it can be kind of a lot lower. But it's fantastic that you saw a need and you identified it, and then you went out. So cool. And you went out and you just built something from nothing. Okay. And then on top of that, you organized at your school. This guy, this is in high school. Okay. So Anya Susan College, she's in her Cornell college freshman year, but she started all this in high school. What year in high school did you start this?

SPEAKER_00 7:05

This is a software year.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

So I was like 15, 16.

unknown 7:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

All right, so you're gonna be running ESPN one day, basically, is what I'm what I'm predicting. Yeah. That's hey, that's coming. If we hear, have anyone listening? Pay attention to what Anya's saying because she is amazing. So for at listeners who might not know what a media day is, can you walk us through what a media day would involve for a sports team?

SPEAKER_00 7:28

Yeah, for sure. So media days is essentially the photography that we develop for each athlete. So I don't know for any listeners who you know follow Athletic Media pages, like Golden State Warriors Instagram, for example, you see they have photos of their athletes and they announce their game days. So they're like, oh, you know, they've got one of their players on a post and then it's like game day. So that's what we do media day for. Not only do we do it for our account, but we also do it for individual athletes so that they have photos of them, you know, in their uniforms, in their like in their mode, in their zone of being an athlete. So what we do is essentially we bring every, or what we used, I used to do is we would bring each sport, so each varsity team, we hadn't rolled it out to junior varsity teams because it is a big time commitment, but we would bring each varsity team to our studio and we would essentially set up a background, bring in props, and we would have photographers take photos of them doing different poses. So I was in charge of you know, posing. So I would stand there, I would make sure, you know, the hair is in place, the shoulders are back, I would direct them on, okay, stick your racket out forward, lower it a little bit so the camera can see your angle properly, or you know, turn your body, or if we wanted to do any cool poses, you know, you kind of direct the posing essentially or what's going on, how the composition of the photo. And so we basically did that. We would bring in athletes, have them do solo shots, so each athlete got two to three solo shots as you got higher up, so seniors would get more photos. And then we would also do group shots. So for tennis, for example, we'd have doubles pairs go in and we'd do cool poses for them, develop this media. We'd then go in and you know, edit it. So lighting, like any kind of adjustments we need to make, editing, we would do that. And then we'd put all the photos together in a drive, send it out to the athletes. So they have access to these images. They can use them on their own Instagram, they can use them for their own purposes, whatever they might want. And then we would also ask them if those were images that we would be able to use for our own Instagram accounts. So then we would go and use those photos and develop our game day media. So what we post on our accounts is like, oh, you know, tennis game day today. And then we'd have like a cool image of one of our athletes, you know, with a racket in their hand, tossing the ball up in the other one. So that kind of stuff.

Why Aren’t More Women In Sports Business

SPEAKER_01 9:17

So you're basically the person I need to come to when I eventually one day reignite my social media account and need cool photos. You're the person who's gonna set me up and get rid of my double chin or whatever else is going on. So and I tell you, that takes a lot of skill to be able to do that because, you know, it's it's like a real art form. So I didn't just going back a tiny bit before we go forward, I didn't want to gloss over what you said about the the lack of women in your current chosen field because it just kind of dawned on me. Why is that? Why do you feel that at, you know, you started this in high school and then you went to that money ball program and was only there were only four females there and there was out of 72, so there's uh obviously, you know, a lot of male interest in it. Why do you think that more females are not sort of doing what you're doing and getting into the field?

SPEAKER_00 10:04

Yeah, for sure. I think I think it's a matter of exposure. I think a lot of girls grow up and they're not put in front of the TV to watch a sports game. They're not, you know, given a ball in the sense that, like, yeah, okay, you go, you know, have them play soccer, but their idols are less likely to be, you know, athletes on a screen like it would be, you know, for stereotypically a boy growing up, you know, you're like, oh, how do we entertain them, put them in front of a basketball game? Or what do they do with their friends? They go out, they play basketball, they go to a basketball game. I just think that the culture around raising young girls is not necessarily focused on, you know, putting them in front of sports. But I really benefited from a family that loves sports. My dad loved it, like, you know, he's the biggest Premier League fan. And so I just kind of grew up with a game always on the TV. And so I knew what this industry was. I knew that it existed. I didn't see myself in it. But I genuinely, I think I was I went to an all-girls middle school, and there for nine years it was really ingrained in us. Like, you can do whatever you want no matter what it is. Like, that is possible. Like, you have the power to do whatever you want. So I naturally had an interest in sports that a lot of girls didn't. I didn't play sports, as I mentioned before, like at a high level, but I loved watching it. And I think a lot of girls, you know, they play sports, but they don't love watching it. Um, and I genuinely had an interest in the players and the teams in my own neighborhood. I wanted to go to the games, I wanted to be in that environment, and I wanted the same like access to that that my brother had. And so I kind of made that space for myself. But in making that space for myself, you do notice that because girls don't have that exposure, they don't see this as really an option, they're not there. They don't realize that this is something they could be doing. Even the girls who I know who I do bond over sports with, they've never thought about it as a career option. So I did, as I mentioned, the Wharton program, and I was one of very, very few girls doing that. And I also did a sports analytics program in Oakland through the Warriors. And even there, I was, you know, one of three girls on a 12-person team. So I I think it's complicated, and there's a lot of different reasons why a lot of girls don't end up seeing themselves going into sports as a career in terms of not the athlete side, but the business side. But I think a lot of the reasons why I ended up why, like where I am today is because I was, you know, surrounded by sports, not in the sense of playing them, but in the sense that like I had a general understanding of every single sport, and I spent my weekends and my afternoons and, you know, over dinner, like you have a game on in the background. So I just developed a natural interest in it and also I associated a lot with community. Like we would have friends over to watch big games, you know, the time when me and my family would like chat, reconnect was over dinner while there was a game in the background. So it was always just something that was important to me.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

You know, I really love that you bring attention to this theme. And I really hope that if there are other uh young females out there listening that feel inspired to do something like Anya, I'm gonna have all of like Anya's little link on the Plan B by Coach P insta page, and you can easily connect with Anya for like more inspiration. But what I'm really hearing from you, Anya, which I love, is that you and and we know it through science, through behavioral observation, you can learn so much about sports. And being a female, you know, we often see the female commentators on the site, and sometimes they get like a little bit of flack for commentating on the NFL. And I remember always going to like Reddit or something like that and reading all these comments. And but you're a prime example of someone who has lived and breathed sport from a young age, implemented a sports management program purely based on your lived experience. You might not have been actually swinging the bat, but you're right there interpreting it, understanding it, getting more knowledge about it. I mean, you're probably, to be honest, I think you might know more than the athletes.

Cornell Athletics Advisory Board And Fan Ideas

SPEAKER_00 13:27

Yeah, I think there's something to be said about having somewhat of an outside perspective. Like you you see the game in a different way when you don't play it and you're more focused, I think, on the whole picture itself. I think what's really cool is that I can kind of turn on any sport and understand what's going on because once you have like somewhat of a baseline understanding and you put yourself in the position to understand what's going on and you genuinely have a passion for it, you can pick up what's going on pretty fast, pick up, you know, even like, for example, like cricket, like a lot of my family is really into cricket. I've never understood the game, but I can watch it and get really into it because I conceptually understand what they're trying to do. So even if I don't exactly understand how the wickets uh are functioning or you know, the scoring is a little bit weird in cricket. I understand the game at a fundamental level and I can understand what they're trying to do just simply because I have that experience in terms of other sports. So I do I do love it. I do think it's a a different perspective to take.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

Oh, it's and it's such a valuable perspective. And honestly, I I feel like Cornell is so lucky to have you. So right now, you are on the Cornell Athletics Advisory Board. What does that role involve and what excited you about joining this?

SPEAKER_00 14:30

Yeah, for sure. So I think when I came here, I was looking for, you know, different ways that I could kind of do what I was doing in high school, but on a larger scale. There was something called the Big Red Sports Network that I was on briefly, but I think that I'd kind of wanted to do less graphic design and less of social media and more get into like the actual, you know, business side of it. So Cornell Athletics Advisory Board, I was really excited about that because especially Cornell's a very pre-professional campus, but everything is pretty much business or law-based. And so students are really like the culture around it is honestly very, very pre-professional and it's overwhelming. And so I was looking for different ways that I could get involved in sports on campus. Part of what I did was I'm a tradition fellow at Cornell, which basically means that you know I get grant money for working a certain number of hours. And so, you know, I got two athletics-based jobs, and I found Cornell Athletics Advisory Board, which is a club on campus that is sports focused and something that, you know, I hadn't really seen before on campus here.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

Is this type of board? Like to say we have college-age listeners right now listening, are they the boards on every at every college campus?

SPEAKER_00 15:29

I'm honestly not sure. So this board was started just a few years ago. It's pretty recent. And what we do, or what I did last semester, was essentially come up with fan engagement initiatives for different sports. Because Cornell, you know, Ivy Leagues are not really known for their athletic prowess. And I think that's something I had at my high school too. People called us can't play sports because our acronym was CPS. So I've always been in communities that have never really had a lot of school spirit. And so I think this club was really founded to kind of, you know, take a more business approach to sports, but also like really beef up our school spirit. So I developed with a team, we developed a fan engagement initiative for the basketball team, and we got to present it to the Assistance Athletics Director. And from there, she chose one of four projects that then got to actually be rolled out. She chose an app, um, which was a really great project. That was not one of the teams that I was on, but it's a really great idea, and I'm really excited to see what they do with it. I did take a step back this semester just because I do have a lot of other things going on. So I'm not exactly sure what the prog what the project is this year. I will get back into it next year. But it was a really cool experience in that I think around me I saw a lot of people doing very like finance sector focused thing or pre-law focused thing, and I got to do something that was all about sports.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

I I think that's unreal. And uh, you know, Ida League schools, you know, don't get the biggest lift in regards to sport, but there are some pretty impressive athletes at all of those schools. Now, can you walk us through a little bit? When you were doing the fan engagement and Anya was actually doing it for Cornell's Division I athletics program, was that the male or the female team?

Designing Alumni-Driven Fan Engagement

SPEAKER_00 16:51

Yeah, so I we did it for the men's team. The the project that we did was for the men's team. The jobs that I had are women's and men's. You kind of just sign up for an event shift that works for you. Um, but the reason that we did our project for the men's team was, you know, partially due to like trying to incite long-term engagement in terms of like March Madness. Cornell is hosting the Ivy League tournament. So that, you know, there are factors that go into, you know, why we chose the men's basketball team. But I think the reasoning behind that does tie into the general, like, you know, the general distance between or the general struggle that we have in terms of gender and athletics. And that, you know, our men's basketball team does get more eyes than the women's basketball team. So Yeah, I mean, I think that's better to kind of think about long-term engagement.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

Yeah. Well, I think it's it's almost like a little bit of a universal problem that we have. I and as far as women not getting the exposure that they deserve. Women, I know in sports psychology, it's it's fairly, you know, fairly balanced. But I know as a female coach, prior to like just fully being immersed in this and what I'm doing now, is that being a female coach, you definitely are in the minority. And, you know, you you kind of have to have I don't want to say, well, maybe you would agree with this, you kind of have to have thicker skin a little bit in the role of sport to be able to communicate with both the male and female athletes. But when you were, I mean, aside from the gender differences, what other kind of problems or solutions did your team propose for the fan engagement that you did for the basketball team? Just to like to give, you know, some tips out there to people listening, going, hey, I I want to do the same for my team, but I wouldn't even know where to start. So what what did you kind of were able to do together as a team? You know, it doesn't matter that the the professor didn't pick it up or chose the app. It's still like invaluable experience that others could learn from.

Careers Beyond Playing: Seeds And Pathways

SPEAKER_00 18:37

Yeah, for sure. So what we developed was essentially an like alumni engagement event. So we kind of you have to think about the demographic of your school. And we know that our demographic is not one that's really into sports, but we do know that what's really important to Cornell, as I mentioned before, is the pre-professional focus. People are always looking for how to get their next job. They're always looking to network. That's one of the biggest things here. And it does create somewhat of a competitive culture, but it is, you know, it is honestly like something that is kind of integral to this school. I feel like every student has this drive to just network and, you know, be pre-professionally focused. And even if you don't come in with that drive, it kind of is does get pushed on you. But so we kind of recognize that and said, okay, so how can we the goal is not to attract students who are already into sports because they'll go. The goal is to attract students who are not into sports. How do we get them to show up to the basketball game? What incentive could we possibly give them? And so we kind of planned this whole weekend around bringing back famous alumni from different fields. So an actor, a writer, a scientist that different students of different backgrounds, different interests might want to engage with and having them come in and do, you know, a pregame sort of guest panel, post-game dinner with students, you know, mid-game, like have them be part of the shootouts and the halftime shows, you know, bring them to these sports events and then hopefully attract students who aren't necessarily going to show up to the game for the sport, but will show up to the game for the person we're bringing and the opportunity to network with them. And then once you've brought them to the game, maybe they'll actually enjoy what they're watching. And we're kind of just banking on the fact that, you know, they'll want to come back for the sake of coming back because they had a good time. So that was a project that we developed. And through that, we obviously had to research, you know, other schools, what if they had done things that were similar. And so we did, you know, I actually talked to someone at Berkeley at Cal about their alumni engagement weekend that they did for one of their teams and the numbers that they got from that. And granted, they only had, I think it was around 100 people sign up for the event. 100 people at our school is a lot more people than are usually showing up. So even getting an increase in a hundred per people, then you just kind of hope that they want to bring their friends and they don't want to go alone. So I think, Anya, I think it's so clever.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

I actually think it's incredibly clever that you and your team created that idea because you're you you bring in a writer, you bring in a musician, and you're inviting them to a sports event. People turn up really to see the musician or the writer, and then they're exposed. So just like you talked about before about you being exposed to this to sport from a young age and how that kind of planted a seed in you to keep going, here you are. You're basically doing the same thing to other people. You're planting seeds, sports seeds, and I love it. And it what it does is that it, you know, they may not have loved the game initially, but it generates conversations. And the reason I say these guys is because like Anya being in San Francisco and already at Cornell, our paths would have never crossed, and I never would have discovered Anya had I not brought up a conversation at a party in San Francisco. I was there for a friend's birthday, and Anya's parents just happened to be at that party, and I just started talking sport. Okay. And so this is what I'm talking about. Anya is is creating different avenues. So if you're a creative, anyone listening, if you're a creative thinker like Anya, this could be a way, even if you're not playing any sport, but to have a lifelong enjoyment possibly in sport.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

For sure, for sure. Yeah. I think I I honestly didn't think about it that way in the sense that I'm kind of planting the seeds that were planted for me. But I love that idea. And I think that it is so true. Like when when you find, if you can find community and anything you're interested in and actually love it, your ability to be creative and produce things that are unique and innovative, it increases a lot more. Versus if you're doing something that you don't have your full heart in, you're not necessarily gonna be producing something that you're I wouldn't say, I mean, you can be proud of it, but maybe not as invested in it. But because I've just always loved this so much, everything that I produce, I think, is inherently a little bit more creative and a little bit more innovative because I love spending the time on it. It's not just busy work or work I have to get out of the way. It's something that I genuinely enjoy doing.

Strategy Vs Content: Finding Her Lane

SPEAKER_01 22:29

Well, I mean, I can actually just think off the top of my head, so many times, like people go and watch sport, and maybe they're going to watch their boyfriend, maybe they're going to watch their girlfriend or they're be brought because their sibling is competing, and they're sitting there and and they're They're kind of either not really into it, but perhaps if they were given a camera, or they were given a notepad to go around and interview people, or they were given a mic to kind of get on-the-field comments from coach or half-time comments, or just even to do what you're doing and creating the marketing and the sports management material which goes to support these athletes, I think that so many more people would be looking at sport a little bit differently. So you're well, you're practically a veteran because you're in your like fourth year now at Cornell of doing this sports management. So it, you know, it's crazy. But I just wanted to say, like, for other girls that are out there or other women, we know that it you're in the minority and it hasn't been easy, but would you say the comment is this true or not, that women have to work twice as hard to be taken half as seriously?

SPEAKER_00 23:27

Yeah, I mean, I think that I think on one hand, if you work hard and you, you know, go above and beyond, the work that you put out there will be recognized. I think especially there is like there has been more of a turn towards like, you know, looking at like taking women more seriously. But I do agree in the sense that I often feel, just by nature and how our society is structured, that what I say about sports is not taken as seriously as it would be if, you know, a male-identifying individual were to say the same thing. I think you do have to prove that you're actually interested in it and not just like, you know, saying something you saw on your Instagram, for example. Like I do feel the need to prove myself. And it's not, you know, people ask, what are your interests? I don't say I'm interested in sports because I have this inherent belief that people aren't gonna take it seriously when I say that and think I'm just, you know, trying to get bonus points for something or trying to, you know, find some way to like arbitrarily connect. And so there, there I do agree in the sense that like I feel like sometimes I have to like kind of not really like hide hide that part of me that does love sports genuinely out of fear that it's not gonna be taken seriously. And I do think women in the field have had to work double like harder. I mean, for example, Erin Andrews has always been someone I look up to, and she has faced a lot in her career, a lot of things that are not right, not fair, and she's persevered through it, and is one of the biggest names in like female reporting in in sports. And she's somebody that I really admire who I've had to watch work twice as hard and go through things that her male counterparts have not had to go through. But I think that the work that she's doing is amazing, and I think that people are starting to recognize that you know she's a really integral part, and other girls like her, other women like her, are really integral parts of sports. I think you're seeing more female coaches on athletics teams as well that are being recognized. So there, I think there is a shift that is happening. There is a lot left to be done, and I do think for the majority, in in the majority part, like women do have to work harder to kind of be taken seriously. But once they do the work and once they approve themselves, it is starting to get picked up.

Social Media As A Force For Good

SPEAKER_01 25:22

Yeah, so many great points that you say there. And uh I, in a way, like getting you on this platform was uh was really for me, I was super and the fact that you were female, if there had been a male come out there, I would have done the same thing. But I think it's you know, there is that drop-off that we see of young girls in sport. We do know the statistics, they that girls get to the senior years of high school, and for whatever reason, we do see a significant drop-off of participation in sports. And this is another way to stay connected and still be involved in sports, even if you feel as though you're being pulled in other areas. And I guess one thing I wanted to ask you, Anya, is that having been doing this role now, you know, since your sophomore year at high school and now you're freshman college, what have you learned most about yourself in this process? Because I mean, apart from being like an entrepreneur and you know, a whiz with a camera, like what else has it really taught you about who you are as a person?

SPEAKER_00 26:14

Yeah, for sure. I think the biggest thing it's taught me is that like I truly am somebody who with my life does need to do something that I genuinely love, like and that I'm genuinely interested in. Because there are a lot of things in my life that I do because I feel like I have to, or I do because I feel like that's what everybody else around me is doing. And when I do those things, I don't have my heart in it, and therefore, like, you know, I'm not as invested in the results, or I'm not as invested in seeing it through. But everything that I've ever done with sports, I I want to know more. I'm my commitment to curiosity is like tenfold. Like I want to get to the bottom of everything. I want to research everything, I want all the numbers, I want all the statistics because I do have a passion for it. And so I've learned that even if what I do is not sports management, and even if I choose to do something business, like more financey, for example, there, like the fact that it would be in sports or in an environment where I'm, you know, maybe not directly working with athletes, but working to support athletes, as you mentioned before, that's something that I want. Yeah. I just want kind of a touch point to the industry in general. And I've learned that like I can keep my options open and say to myself, you don't know what you want to do yet. And I don't know what I want to do yet. Like, honestly, like career-wise, I'm not sure where my life is gonna take me, but I do know that working in sports is the goal. And what what I've learned is that there's so many different jobs available in sports that cover every industry. And I think a lot of people don't know that. Like, I've developed an interest in like marketing through all the social media work that I've done. And there are so many amazing, incredible marketing jobs that are related to partnerships and sponsorships and brand deals that literally like franchises and teams would not exist without. So you can be an integral part of a team without actually being on the team. Like you can be the reason a team is still there without actually being on the team. And so I just want to contribute in that way.

Formula One: Sponsorships And Hidden Roles

SPEAKER_01 27:56

Well, I know you are 100% like you know, part of whatever team you've worked on in the past with the sports marketing, you are a hundred percent such an important piece of that team because without the exposure, like you said, it's like a ripple effect. So many things will come of that. And I would and I'm gonna sort of throw this in there. In I think it was episode eight of season one, we had Joe Miller on, and Joe was an equipment manager. Okay, so he was a quarterback in high school. He went into college and he was like, I don't know if I want to keep playing, I'm not sure. But hey, I love the sport, I'm good at what I do, I have a bit of an obsession with equipment. I didn't even know this role existed. And he so we turned up at Montana State and was like, hey, do you guys need an equipment manager? And the coach said straight away, what position do you play or did you play? And I was like, Well, I was a quarterback. And he goes, Right, not only are you the equipment manager, but you're now throwing with the quarterback. So it was like because of his interest in equipment, that has now kept his, you know, his love of football going. And and for those who didn't know, Montana won their section championship this year. And so uh Joe Miller was part of that. And so if you're on a team, Anya, that goes on and wins whatever, what what section is Cornell in? What are they called? What you know, over here it's like a big west. What are you guys called?

SPEAKER_00 29:05

It's just the Ivy League. We're not really in.

SPEAKER_01 29:08

Okay, what whatever team that you work on, you you know that your contribu contribution is significant. And one thing, like for girls in like high school right now who are thinking about, hey, this I'm pretty good with the camera, my Instagram photos rock. I feel like I could contribute to some of the teams that get zero mention in like the school shout-outs or the school newsletters. Can you walk us through both, you know, either in at high school or where you are now in college, what was the initial steps that you had to take to get it going?

Rapid Fire: Favorites And Inspirations

SPEAKER_00 29:39

Yeah, for sure. So I think like there was obviously, so there were four of us who started radar sports, and it was an idea that I floated to a friend, and his friend had already kind of been toying with this idea of doing something photography-based with sports. And so, you know, we put together this team, and two of them were really, really good at photography. So we knew that that was gonna be a part of what we did. I was really interested in making sure that we were highlighting every single athlete. So, what I wanted to do, like when you're starting something, and if it's anything that you want to be of a big platform, it's harder to do it by yourself. So, what I think was really important to what we did was we formed a team where we each had different interests. One of us was really, really community focused. Like he was involved in the community in every single way possible. He knew everybody, and you know, he had a lot of school spirit. I was really interested in kind of solving the problem that we had in terms of our previous athletics social media account. And we had two people who were really into graphic design, photography, that kind of stuff. And so we pulled together our interests to create this multifaceted platform that had a that was tackling a lot of different problems. And two of the two of the boys who we were working with actually ended up becoming the editor-in-chief of our newspaper. And so we were able to connect radar sports to our newspaper and then bring in, you know, sports writing, sports articles. So I think what was really important for us was the multifaceted nature was that we had a lot of people on our team who were interested in taking radar sports in different places. And so while that did create challenges in terms of you do want to have one central idea and you want to be unified and know what you're doing, it did take a lot of refining, but it was also our strength in that we were able to like expand into different things. We all had different connections with different people. We all were able to bring in different aspects, different recognition, different community bases, different sports to get involved. And so I think like the first step that we did take was like forming this team and figuring out what we wanted to do as a team and combining all of our interests into one product. Like I think what was also really important is that we did have to streamline a lot of what we were doing. Like we started with all these big ideas and all these things we wanted to do. And we had to condense it down to let's start with one thing. Today we're at we're at about, we're tackling about three of them, and there's still a lot, a long way to go, but it is a process. And so I think having that team of people who are interested in different things, but also understood that we did have to produce one product at the end of the day, especially as we were starting as only four people and disaffiliated from the school pretty much. That was really important. But yeah, I think just forming that team and combining all of our interests together was really important for what we ended up producing.

SPEAKER_01 32:03

It's such a fantastic, like life skill, life lesson that you have been part of and that you're kind of developing yourself. And you've worked now both on content creation side and strategic side. Which do you enjoy more? And how do you see those skills complementing each other, like maybe in the future?

Final Takeaway: There’s A Place For You

SPEAKER_00 32:22

Yeah, for sure. I think that I have enjoyed the strategic side more. I think there is a lot of merit to public-facing roles, you know, like social media roles, but I think I've enjoyed the strategy part a lot more just because I think that allows me to like be involved with the team in a deeper way. While I'm not coaching them, you know, I like to be a part of like the internal network, like what's going on under the surface. I like to, you know, know a little bit more about a team, understand a little bit more about how they work versus just kind of produce the content that other people see. While that's incredibly important, digital design is something that I've always loved, but I do genuinely enjoy like the strategy part a lot more. And I think that was something that I explored. I had an internship at a sports management company two summers ago, and that was a lot of, you know, like writing briefs on, you know, investors who might be interested in investing in companies that wanted to sell their equity and thinking about bringing them together and what new partnerships, what new sponsorships could look like. And I love that. I I would love to, you know, work as a, you know, in sponsorship and brand deals because I think that that combines that public facing aspect of sports with the strategic part as well, as well as just being like genuinely integral to the existence of a lot of sports in a lot of leagues.

SPEAKER_01 33:34

Anya, I think you're an absolute rock star. Like I'm just sitting here listening to you and just going, I really wish that you had worked on like I, you know, I've coached multiple teams over the last like 10 years, and you know, I'm no longer coaching now because I'm focusing purely on the psych side. But I was just listening to you talk and I was like, oh my god, I wouldn't have killed, I would have killed to have an Anya supporting and you know, instead of coach throwing up some ridiculous post which you know looks stupid with the wrong music, I haven't had like an expert. And I just know that there are teens in high school and you know, and young adults in college that are so awesome. Like I was just, you know, and I'm thinking of this like as an evolving role. Like I I remember when, just off the top of my head, just because of this generation, you guys are so like tuned in. And I asked my daughter, who's about to graduate from Baylor, could you like fix my reel? And literally, something that would have taken me at least five days, she did in like five minutes, went and there you go, mom, you know, boom. I just looked at it and went, holy smoke. And I think that speaks a lot about your generation. Would you agree?

SPEAKER_00 34:34

Yeah, for sure. I think we like we have just naturally developed different skill sets, not better skill sets, but just different ones, because like we've grown up with all of these tools that you know you guys didn't necessarily have. So I think that also like is what creates this like ability to see this as a job. Like, you know, you tell someone you want to work in media and marketing, they don't really think of that as like, you know, pathway that they would have necessarily explored because it is something newer, it's something that like involves a lot more social media than it used to. So it definitely, I think our ability to kind of have that different skill set has been part of the reason why we have a lot more interest in social media roles, for example, or things that have to do with marketing and media as a whole.

SPEAKER_01 35:17

And I kind of have to say that this week, because last week I was like hating, I was like hating on screen time. But guys, just to clarify that, I wasn't hating on screen time because I like I know like the audience is being down last week because everyone saw the title and was like, I'm not, I don't I don't, I don't want to hear Coach B lecture me on on screen time. But that is a specifically around scrolling before competition, what it does to your brain chemistry. That's completely different. I am a hundred percent behind doing things with the social media, what Anya's doing, because without it, one teams don't get seen, fans don't know where they are, sponsors don't know who to sponsor. And so having a support network like Anya, and if you're great at social media, 100%, like that is one of the best ways to use it. And they say that. It's like use social media to be creative rather than just be this stagnant, like just, you know, doom scrolling, which hey, we're all guilty of. But it's so nice to have you come on this week and go, hey, this is how you should be using it.

SPEAKER_00 36:09

Yeah. I think like honestly, I think marketing as a whole is a lot more important to everything than people kind of understand it to be. Like, it's really important for small mom and pop shops and neighborhoods trying to get their names out. But it's also the foundation of like Formula One, for example. That's one of my favorite sports, a sport that is my dream to work in. And the reason the cars exist is because of sponsorships and brand deals. Like for people who've watched Formula One, if you look at the cars, it's covered in brand logos. Like it's just literally like 30 odd brand logos all over the car. And that car and that team would not exist. I mean, so much so that the cars themselves are like often named after certain brands. Like you have Visa, Cash App, Red Bull. Like that's that team exists because of their sponsorships. And so I think people just kind of tend to overlook the importance that media and marketing and what we consume with our eyes through our screens, like brands that we recognize, brand recognition. Like people underestimate the importance of developing those kinds of things in general. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 37:06

Well, I just think, like I said, you're a rock star. I am so excited on where you might be. I know that, you know, you played it down, but you have such a passion. And I love it when I'm listening to people who have a passion about what they do. And the that passion can honestly fuel you to be uh successful anywhere, anywhere. Like, and we heard that from a case who was, I think it was episode three on the season uh two. And he had finished D1 soccer, but he had a passion. He's now channeling his passion that made him a fantastic player at college soccer. He's now taking that passion, he's channeling it to, you know, life after sport. And here you are. You created something amazing through radar sports as a high schooler, and then took it with you to an Ivy League school. Kudos to you, by the way, for getting an Ivy League. Like, that's awesome. So here you are, you're not even making a big deal about it. You're just like going in and supporting the sports team. So you know, it's it's so cool. And I think it's just so inspirational for other people who are listening to go, hey, you know, that's a that's a role I could do, or even just to ignite the thought process, like you said just before. This is one of many jobs in sport that maybe people don't know about. What are some others that you can think of?

SPEAKER_00 38:11

Yeah, for sure. I think Formula One is a great example because you look at a team and there's a car, there's a driver, there's the garage, and then there's the management side of it. So the car itself, like there's engineers, there's scientists that work on those cars. The team that are, you know, changing the tires on the cars, those are also people who are into STEM, people who have engineering backgrounds. And then you have the driver themselves. Well, they have train, like they have fitness coaches, they have people who plan their meals, they have psychologists helping them. You know, the size of your neck is really important in Formula One. Like you need a lot of training for that. So there's a lot of you know, PT athleticism that goes into that. And then you have, you know, hang on, stop, stop.

SPEAKER_01 38:53

Why why is the size of your neck important in Formula One? That's why why?

SPEAKER_00 38:57

Yeah, so you have to have a lot of strength in your neck because of all the G force. So like you're going around a turn at like 200 miles an hour. Like, how do you make it around that turn without your head literally like slamming constantly along the sides of the car? You have to hold it still, going 200 miles, 200 miles an hour around like a hairpin turn, for example. So you really have to work the muscles in your neck. And so a lot of what Formula One drivers do is build muscle in their neck, and therefore they just have really large necks. So, like if you look at Formula One as just one example, you can be interested in literally anything and find a job in Formula One because, like, you know, even simply like having a cultural understanding of the city that the race is in and planning events based on that, even figuring out how to transport the cars across the world, like from Singapore to Mexico or San Paulo, for example, like figuring out how to transport the car. Like you could, there's so much that goes into that. And you could have an interest in literally any field and find a job in Formula One because it's so multifaceted and people don't realize that. I think that's the case for a lot of sports. Like you could be really into, you know, event coordination. Like you could go from planning weddings to planning athletic events, and there's a lot of like similarities that go into that because, you know, I think at the end of the day, people forget that it's not just about the athletes. Like, sports isn't just about the athletes. Like, yes, the athletes are obviously like what makes the sport a sport, but athletics on the scale that it is today would not exist without all the other things that go into it. You see, you know, you have reporters, you have people who are down there doing media photography. Like, there's literally everything under the sun in Formula One and in most sports that people just don't realize.

SPEAKER_01 40:26

There's so much coming out of you. Anya, like I am like trying to wrap my head around this, and I'm almost like as you were speaking, I was thinking, I almost need an Anya part two. Maybe that is something that we're gonna touch base with you again once the net once you move into your sophomore year and the sports season start rolling around. I think with your level of knowledge in sport and what contributes to sport, because at being one of those people in the driver's seat who used to be an athlete and then exiting that and then seeing the need, it does give you an amazing perspective because I was able to see, hey, I think there's we need more mental performance coaching because we're not training our brains the way we should be training our bodies. Yeah. And so, and you're coming at it from the logistics, the media, the nutrition, everything. And and it's super exciting. So I am just like, okay, we just need to have Anya part two because we we could um talk for hours. But you have to get back to class. And so we're gonna finish up with just some rapid questions that I, some kind of rapid fire questions that I wanted to ask you just to cap off, you know, Anya, who is clearly one of the best supports an athlete could have. So I'm just gonna fire these questions off to you. Okay, so what is your favorite sport to watch?

SPEAKER_00 41:32

My favorite sport to watch is American football. A sports moment that gives you chills every time. Watching Lando Norris win his world championship this year in Formula One. One person in sports that you'd love to have dinner with.

SPEAKER_01 41:46

Ooh, Eileen Q for Oh yeah. Yeah, and very interesting with how she was received like received because she was born in America, but chose to represent China where her mum was from. She has dual citizenship, and she is huge in China with her sponsors, and that you know, that would be an amazing interview for you to have with her.

SPEAKER_00 42:08

Yeah, that would be from the Bay Area, so I know a lot of people who have crossed paths with her, and I just think her, you know, her whole attitude around the Olympics, specifically the most recent ones and the things she said in the media is so inspiring and just awesome.

SPEAKER_01 42:20

A sports organization that you admire for how they run their organization.

SPEAKER_00 42:25

Ooh. How they run their organization. I would say probably the Golden State Warriors. That's my home team, but I've also gotten like I've gotten a lot of exposure to the business side of sport because of programs that they run that I've been a part of. Okay. So they've given me a lot, a lot of exposure.

SPEAKER_01 42:43

And what is one word to describe your sports management journey so far?

SPEAKER_00 42:51

I would say multifaceted. I think I've just explored pretty much every like side to sports, not every side, but a lot of the side to sports that you could possibly score. I've done analytics, I've done media, I've done business, I've done marketing. So, you know, I've just kind of tried to explore all the different aspects of it.

SPEAKER_01 43:05

And and finally, like in in closing today, and hey, again, I I honestly will think I'll have it on your part two. So guys, and and and I'm sure our listeners would be stoked just to hear more from you. After sharing today, what is you know, what is the one thing that you hope, like just people or even our young listeners take away from your story today?

SPEAKER_00 43:25

Yeah, I think the one thing that I hope people take away is that like if sports is something that you love and you genuinely have an interest in, there is a place for you. Like you can find a place to be in it, whether you play sport or not, whether you're able to or not, whether you have the resources to or not, and even regardless of whether you're good at it or not, you don't need to be good at sports to work in sports. So, like if you love it, there's a place for you.