Published On: May 27th, 2019

 

New faces, new experiences

By: Ryne Ryskoski

Duluth, Minn — The 2019 Duluth Huskies Baseball Club season is just a day away, so the organization’s interns are currently in the middle of their training working diligently to prepare for the upcoming summer. There is an overwhelming amount of excitement from everyone involved and a great deal of eagerness to get the ball rolling.

One of the most noticeable features of this year’s interns is the diversity in terms of where everyone is from, what their duties will be, people’s ages, and the previous work experience they have. Huskies fans will be able to find interns from several different states with duties including Broadcast, Clubhouse, Waste Management, Social Media, and many more.

I spoke to a few of the interns to get their views on how their first experiences have been, some personal history on each of them, and what they think about Duluth so far.

Alex Abernathy, who is a 21-year-old Broadcast intern from the University of Tennessee noted that the fans were “awesome to meet and interact with” at last week’s Hot Stove. Alex also mentioned that everyone within the organization has been “very nice and easy to get along with.”

He will be a part of this year’s five-man broadcast team which is made up of two TV broadcasters, two radio broadcasters, and a PA announcer.

Alex has covered the University of Tennessee Men’s Basketball Team, talked on radio regarding topics such as sports and politics, and even created a radio broadcast for his high school which has amassed over 17,000 total listeners over its near four-year lifespan. He has never been to Duluth before and is looking forward to gaining a lot of experience as a broadcaster at a higher level. He will also be replacing the legend known as “Cowboy Dave” this summer so keep an eye out for Alex sporting a black cowboy hat around Wade Stadium.

For 21-year-old Special Projects/Social Media intern Amanda Grant coming from DePauw University in Indiana, enjoying a “new experience in a new place” is one of her biggest goals. She will be doing a wide variety of things for the team this summer such as running social media platforms, organizing and advertising special events, engaging with the community, doing marketing, and more. After starting just last Tuesday, she already described the Huskies staff as “very passionate, considerate, and cohesive” and acknowledged how impressive the fan support has been. Amanda would describe herself as “super driven, a team player, and people-oriented” which is represented through her experience at DePauw as an athletic department intern doing a variety of things like facilitating donations, organizing special events, and community services. She does all this while being a student-athlete for the DePauw Tiger’s Women’s Soccer team. She is looking forward to getting the most out of her time with the Huskies.

Jake Ogurek, who is a 25-year-old Scouting Analytics Coaching Hybrid (SACH) intern comes to the Huskies with a very seasoned sports background. His role will consist of assisting the coaches, throwing batting practice to hitters, hitting fungo to fielders, and helping the Analytics department amongst other things. He currently coaches baseball at Thomas Jefferson High School in Colorado and has sports performance experience as a Strength & Conditioning intern at the University of Denver. He has been a Hitting and Pitching coach at various private facilities. He also worked as a Grounds Crew member of the Colorado Springs Sky Sox, who was the Milwaukee Brewers’ AAA affiliate but have since rebranded.

Jake has never been in Duluth before but is hoping to “gain more experience working directly with players and coaches at a high level” in hopes to bring his career in baseball to new heights. He reiterated that he is excited for the start of the season and is ready to meet the coaches and players to begin inputting his coaching philosophies. Keep an eye out for Jake helping the team in many different ways this summer.

My name is Ryne Ryskoski and I am from Texas. I am a rising junior studying journalism at Texas A&M University and will be the Huskies first official Staff Writing intern. My duties will include writing various stories about the team, special events, and more once the season begins. This will be my first summer with the Huskies and my first time staying in Duluth for an extended amount of time. The last few weeks for me has been busy learning the ins and outs of the club, but very productive and informative. The moment I got started last Tuesday, I immediately felt the energy and passion that embodies this group and have had a great time getting to experience the lively fanbase. I’m very much looking forward to getting to explore a new place and am excited to be a part of this community for the summer.

The Huskies will open up their season with a five-game road trip in Canada starting this Tuesday. They will return to Duluth for their Home Opener at Wade Stadium on June 2nd against the Eau Claire Express at 3:05 pm. Don’t forget to stay connected with the Huskies on all social media platforms, including Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

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The Duluth Huskies are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. Now in its 25th anniversary season, the Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 22 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires and front office staff, more than 200 former Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champions Ben Zobrist (CHC) and Brandon Crawford (SFG) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET) and Curtis Granderson (TOR).  All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League portal. For more information, visit www.duluthhuskies.com or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play and set the Huskies as your favorite team.

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