Meet Junior Lizzie Brown, an English major who also happens to work for the Demon Deacon Football team, Sports Illustrated, and ESPNU!
Brown has been working for the Wake Forest football team since she was a freshman. She could’ve chosen any sport, but she’s passionate about this team. They’re like her family. Brown talks about how much she cares for the guys. “They’re all just so funny. They’re always making me laugh, and they’re all different. I think the difference between our guys and other teams is that we have heart.”
Whenever Brown talks about the team, she always refers to them as “we.” She’s part of the team. She went to summer camp with them, she goes to every practice and every game, and she hangs out with the players outside of the requirements of her job. She says, “As someone who knows them so well, you get so emotionally invested in it. Without this team, I don’t think I’d be the person I am today.”
Brown’s strong connection with the team even allows her to write articles for Sports Illustrated’s college section! Brown says, “They want us to do articles about tradition, but we don’t have that many football traditions. I’m just like, ‘I have nothing for you,’” with the exception of her article on Wake’s timeless tradition of rolling the quad. Either way, Brown always manages to find something, taking a more untraditional approach. She’s covered everything from Wake’s top draft picks to the unfortunate time all the football players caught norovirus during camp. “The norovirus went through every position. Everyone lived in Taylor, and they all touch everything. We had to cancel practice,” Brown told Her Campus.
For her job with ESPNU, Brown gives tours to ESPN representatives whenever they visit Wake and fills them in on the latest Demon Deacon news. This year, ESPNU hasn’t yet come to record a game at the Forest, but Brown still had the opportunity to meet with correspondents at other schools. “Working for ESPNU gives me so many connections. I’ve met really great people,” she says.
All of her hard work hasn’t gone unnoticed. Brown wants to do sports broadcasting after graduating Wake. In the meantime, she enjoys making videos for Wake Forest Sports. She says, “I thought it was something just to add to my resume, but now the people who work there are like my family. I’m proud of everything I’ve done. It’s hard to believe that people are actually recognizing the work I do.”