College will undoubtedly be a costly time of your life. Whether that’s because of the price of textbooks, food, or the education itself, many students turn to the wide range of campus jobs to accumulate some money for their back pocket. Here at Skidmore, all campus jobs pay $12.75, with nothing cut out for taxes. Some jobs are more popular and have fewer positions, so upperclassmen are typically favored over the underclassmen. While there is a vast amount of opportunities, I will be highlighting the ones that those who are athletes, or just love sports in general, should turn to.
Manage a varsity sport
- Most teams find a manager to be super beneficial for them. Even looking at the job openings right now, winter and spring sports have still been on the lookout for one. Typical jobs may include: running the clock at practice, filling the water, bringing out the balls, and so on. This is also a unique way to connect and bond with members of the sports teams here at campus. Talking with one of the girls who was a manager last year, she loved meeting the players and learning about them on a deeper level than their sport showed on the surface.
Referee an intramural sport
- Here at Skidmore, there are countless intramural sports such as: basketball, tennis, soccer, and ultimate frisbee. For this position, it’s important to be well versed in the sport, as you will have to make calls such as fouls, out of bounce, and so on. While an important job, it’s surely a fun one, as people get really into the games, so it provides a great deal of entertainment as well.
Work the varsity sports games
- Score/time keeper: This is a popular job, as there are countless sports at Skidmore, all of which need the score and time to be kept throughout. For some sports, you may be able to assist with tracking specific stats throughout the game. However, this position needs little to no experience, as you will be taught how to operate the clock and scoreboard.
- Commentator: If you love a certain sport, or even played it in high school, then this may be the perfect job for you. All of the sports at Skidmore are live streamed, and coming from experience, most families love having somebody commentate the games. This can be a one or two person job, but it’s important that you have knowledge in the sport to not only call the play-by-play action, but also include some side information about the sport or even its players.
- Sideline staff: Examples of these include throwing in balls during soccer and volleyball games, being a line judge for the volleyball games, among other things that come up. When you sign up, you typically won’t be signing up for a certain position. Rather, all of these would fall under “Game Day Staff,” so you should be prepared to work a variety of rolls depending on the season.
Work in the Williamson Sports Center
- Front desk: The importance of this job is checking the photo with the person when they sign in using their Skidmore ID card. For those who are guests, you are responsible for having them sign in separately, or if it’s for a large number of people, such as fans for a sports game, just keeping track as people walk by. Additionally, sometimes students want to sign out equipment, such as tennis rackets and basketballs, so you are in charge of handling that. However, this job is relatively low pressure in terms of the time it allows for other work.
- Help as a strength and conditioning coach: This job is a bit more difficult, and is reserved for those who have experience in the field. Most assistants are current varsity athletes at Skidmore, and they help our strength coaches with lifts, being of assistance if peopleÂ
need help with their form.
Work in the McCaffery-Wagman Tennis and Wellness Center
- Front desk in the cardio/strength rooms: Just like in the sports center, this job is relatively simple. Making sure people use their Skidmore ID card to sign in is the main task. However, you may be in charge of wiping down and putting away the equipment periodically.
Other miscellaneous opportunities
- Practice player for a sports team: This is a more unusual and definitely uncommon job at Skidmore, though it certainly does exist. Take women’s basketball, for instance. They have started utilizing a handful of male practice players to make their practices even tougher. This may be a fun opportunity to play the sport you love in a collegiate setting. However, keep in mind that these opportunities are sparse, so if you are very interested, I would recommend reaching out to the team’s head coach individually.
- Social media manager: This job requires the sufficient use of technology, and an eye for pleasing visuals and coherent graphic design work. This job has people run the Instagrams, making posts for game days, birthdays, and anything else that may arise. These are just examples, but they are the most common tasks for Skidmore’s sports teams.
To conclude, I recommend checking out this link for updated information about which jobs become available. It’s best to start looking at the beginning of the year, as things can fill up quickly. If you are looking for a specific varsity or intramural sport job, keeping tabs on when their season starts will be beneficial as well. It’s also important to note that some jobs may have specific qualifications/prerequisites over others. There are such a wide array of jobs, so all of them should provide the opportunity to work somewhere that genuinely makes you feel fulfilled.