What three months in a virtual sport communication classroom taught me that I was not expecting to learn.

I will be honest. When I enrolled in Sport Communication, I was not thinking about sport communication at all. I came in with a vague idea that the field was mostly broadcasters doing play-by-play and journalists writing game recaps. I figured I would learn some things, check the box, and move on.

That is not what happened.

This class challenged me more than I expected, and somewhere in the middle of that challenge, it shifted the way I think about my own career. Sport communication is not one lane. It is an entire highway. Personal branding, digital media strategy, storytelling, athlete representation, content creation, all of it lives inside this field. The moment that clicked for me was realizing that the skills I was already building for brand consulting and social media management were the same skills driving some of the most interesting work happening in sport right now.

Every assignment pushed me to do something real, not just theoretical. The Sport Journal taught me that consistent storytelling builds a professional identity over time. The penpal assignment was the one that surprised me most. I connected with Palmer Edema, a former professional tennis player who left the circuit to join the Navy and care for his family. Building a written profile and a visual infographic around his story was not just a class exercise, it was real communications work. I had to make editorial decisions, choose a frame, and present a human being’s life in a way that was both honest and compelling.

The Quest pushed that even further by asking me to turn everything into something forward-looking. Developing a freelance sports communication strategy built around Palmer’s story forced me to think like a professional, not a student.

Before this class, sport communication was not on my radar. Now it is one of the most natural extensions of the career I am building. The athletes with untold stories, the organizations trying to connect with new audiences, the personal brands that need a strategic voice, that is a space I want to be in.

I came in thinking sport communication was someone else’s field. I am leaving knowing it has a place in mine.