Sport management alumna engages fans

Elsa Paulick (B.S.Ed. ’24) always knew she wanted to work in sports. A Savannah native, she got involved with an up-and-coming baseball team, the Savannah Bananas, in 2020 to gain experience in the sports industry and build her resume.

“I think what really drew me to working here was the atmosphere, and it’s so fun. We’re fans first, the energy is insane in the best way possible,” said Paulick, an alumna of the Mary Frances Early College of Education’s sport management program.

Since then, the Savannah Bananas, an independent professional baseball team based in Savannah, Georgia, has exploded in popularity. The team is known for a high-energy version of baseball called “Banana Ball” that intersperses choreography and stunts, like walking on stilts, into the game.

Now in her fifth season with the team, Paulick stayed involved as the Bananas grew and worked her way up to a full-time position as a first impressions specialist.

“I definitely wanted to stick around, and I made a lot of connections and relationships and building with the team,” she said. “When I started it was just this small baseball team that was in the [Coastal Plain] League and now we’re selling out stadiums, and so I definitely wanted to stick with it and see what I could do as the team grew.”

Paulick started working for the company part-time as a gameday teammate. Throughout college, she did a little bit of everything—serving food, reaching out to fans, managing merchandise, and traveling with the team—in between her classes.

In her current role, Paulick said the part of her job she gets most excited about is the interaction with fans.

“We like to say that it’s always someone’s first game, and I think it’s so true. Everyone comes in with a different experience, everyone comes in with a different story, and it’s really cool to see how much it means to people,” Paulick said.

While a student at the University of Georgia, Paulick said one class she took that was most impactful was the sport event management course taught by Becca Leopkey, an associate professor in the Department of Kinesiology. The class looked at specific sporting events at different scales, and Paulick said she could take what she learned and apply it directly to working at Savannah Bananas events.

“It was cool to be able to learn all the ins and outs of other sports, other companies, other events, and then also apply it to what I was doing,” Paulick said. “So I would go to class and learn about how someone might apply, like, risk management at a sporting event, and then I would go that weekend to a sporting event.”

She added that the opportunities for students are endless at UGA, and to always says yes to opportunities when they arise.

“In 2020, when I just needed a job during COVID before I went to school, I was wrapping hot dogs, and now I’m selling out stadiums of 65-80,000 fans,” Paulick said. “So, I would say with how much opportunity there is, in both UGA and just in life in general, always take it.”