A new show has joined the crowded podcast landscape; “The Student Section” is providing Marist sports communication students with meaningful experience in the burgeoning field.
In its inaugural semester, the show has interviewed multiple guests and is even sponsored by the Hudson Valley Renegades, the High-A affiliate of the New York Yankees.
Prior to this year, students primarily had the option to craft their journalism skills with Center Field and gain experience with studio hosting and production through either the Red Fox Report or ESPN+ broadcast crew.
This semester, “The Student Section” has provided students with a new opportunity to get involved and experience the rapidly expanding podcast medium.
The bi-weekly podcast aims to focus on Marist, the MAAC conference and tri-state area sports.
They also interview guests and thus far have featured Marist athletes from a range of teams, including volleyball’s outgoing senior outside hitter Sasha van der Merwe, men’s basketball’s freshman guard Jadin Collins and softball’s senior utility Alyssa Grupp.
Through its first four episodes, the show has been co-hosted by junior Aidan Lavin and freshman William Rosen. Alongside the students on air is Gary Sussman, an adjunct professor at Marist, former director of Marist tennis and a seasoned sports public relations professional.
“Everybody’s doing a podcast; why don’t we do a sports podcast and talk about what college kids talk about?” said Sussman, who conceived the idea for the podcast.
Sussman worked for over 20 years in the Brooklyn Nets’ public relations department and wanted to use his experience and industry connections to grow the podcast.
Sussman analyzed what he saw as leading sports podcasts – “The Bill Simmons Podcast,” “New Heights,” “The Old Man and the Three” and “The Pat McAfee Show” – and took the commonalities between them to help build the structure for “The Student Section.”
Sussman pitched his idea to sports communication department leaders, then rallied students during a Center Field meeting and encouraged them to apply to be on the show.
“I want the show to be a professional show put on by college kids,” said Sussman. “Not a college show put on by college kids; it’s a big difference.”
Their team works on a two-week schedule, meeting on the first Wednesday of the cycle to discuss the previous episode and plan for the upcoming show. Their producers, researchers and communications team then dig through their resources to find stats and information, develop talking points and secure interview guests.
On the second Wednesday, they record their segments and conduct their interview, then stitch it all together before posting the following Monday.
Their segments so far include “The RedZone,” where the hosts dive into the recent results from Marist teams, “That’s Suss, Man,” a play on Sussman’s name and the popular “that’s sus” meme. In the segment, Sussman fields questions from Lavin and Rosen and shares his thoughts on happenings in the sports world.
There’s also “The Cafe,” a discussion of tri-state area teams’ recent performances and upcoming games, and “The Presser,” the formal title for the podcast’s interviews.
The interviews consist of light-hearted conversations discussing previous, current and upcoming seasons. This format allows interviewees to share their experiences and perspectives as collegiate athletes completely in their own words, an opportunity not usually provided, especially at the mid-major level.
The show’s profile has grown internally enough that senior Chris Dauser and junior James Conable of the men’s swim team requested to be on the podcast.
Leading the way behind the scenes is sophomore Eugene Barbieri, technical producer and editor. He acknowledged some growing pains in the beginning as everyone settled into their new roles, but shared that everything has “exceeded [his] expectations” now that the show is off and running.
“Listeners can expect a high-quality personable interview between students at Marist and athletes at Marist,” said Barbieri. “For the segments that don’t have interviews, listeners can expect to hear lots of insights and information on what’s happening in the sports world and also Marist sports as a whole.”
While “The Student Section” has primarily focused on Marist athletics out of the gate, they hope to expand their reach as time passes. The podcast has the benefit of Sussman’s long-established industry connections, which he hopes to levy to help broaden the horizons of the show.
“[I want us to] have a consistent product and have people who want to be on [the show],” said Sussman. “[From there] maybe we expand our talent pool by zooming in guests because I have a lot of contacts in different areas.”
“The Student Section” has created another avenue for Marist sports communication students to develop their skills and gain valuable reps. As the show goes on, the aim is to have students rotate throughout roles to keep the show fresh and ensure everyone is getting multidisciplinary experiences.
Edited by Luke Sassa and Jimmy Tsiantoulas
Photo courtesy of William Rosen
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