Alumna scores dream role with the Savannah Bananas

An impulsive career application made one recent Central Michigan University alumna “go bananas” for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Kristina Fusco, who graduated in May with a degree in integrative public relations, spent the summer as a media relations intern position with the Savannah Bananas baseball team and Fans First Entertainment.

The work she put into earning her degree set her up to get behind-the-scenes experience and work in a game day environment. Some of her duties included connecting with the media, distributing press passes, writing news stories and preparing game-time storylines.

“It’s really exciting because I was the main point of contact for all the media on game day no matter what city we were in, which is a big responsibility,” Fusco said. “There’s also some on-air portions of my job as well including silent reporting and content creation.”

She also worked with the entire Sixteens tournament including The Party Animals, The Firefighters, The Texas Tailgaters, The Loco Beach Coconuts and The Indianapolis Clowns.

Although learning to speak about sports has been a learning curve, Fusco loves learning all the proper terms to improve her sports talk. To challenge her skillset, she found the role through a sports job website called Teamwork Online. Getting the job required her to show that she already had the skills to be successful.

“They gave me a bunch of assignments and tasks such as writing mock email responses, creating videos and content, writing potential storylines and many other assignments to submit,” Fusco said. If the interviewers liked her materials, they told her how to improve, encouraging her to show off her skills.

“I think I was very fortunate because through academics and also my job at CMU I felt really prepared for everything they threw at me during the interview process because I applied around November and it was such a long process,” Fusco said.

Growing up, Fusco played many sports but never planned on going into the sports industry. Her previous CMU Athletics job opportunity fell into her lap coincidentally, realizing she enjoys the fast pace of the work environment and how every single day brings different surprises.

During her freshman year, CMU Athletics hired Fusco to start hosting all men’s and women’s basketball games on the schedule. The office grew during her four years at CMU and when she graduated, three girls were in line waiting for her position.

“If you want something in this office, you have to work for it and prove yourself while always being in someone’s ear about where your goal is,” Fusco said. As she gained experience, she expanded to sideline reporting opportunities  and PA announcing for all of the field sports. Critiques were provided throughout her career to refine her performance and skills.

Junior and senior year, she became the primary sideline reporter including men’s volleyball and basketball and women’s basketball. As graduation approached, she helped train students to take over her responsibilities.

“This was another situation where I was just thrown right into it which I think is the best way to learn to just do it and learn from your mistakes,” Fusco said. “It is a little bit nerve wracking because my first time sidelining was supposed to be job shadowing but I had to jump in and figure it out which wasn’t that bad honestly.”

Her passion for sports broadcasting comes from the excitement of game day and her love of telling athlete’s stories beyond the stats. Fusco loves providing broadcasts about their hometown and family or even what they like for breakfast, the things you wouldn’t know.  Last summer, she further expanded her experience as the team reporter and in-stadium host for a professional baseball team in Montana, the Glacier Range Riders.

“At CMU, it was great having four years of experience but having this additional setting, allowed me to push myself and really improve,” Fusco said. “I felt much more confident coming into my senior year at CMU, providing everything to broadcast that I could.”

Working with the Savannah Bananas gave her the tools to break into the workforce, and to provide an example for other women.

“It’s important to be breaking into male-dominated fields so girls coming after you feel more confident and comfortable doing so,” Fusco said. “It’s starting to be more normalized for women to work in the sports industry but there’s not necessarily a clear path for me to take in order to get there and it’s scary if there’s not someone who’s been.”

Fusco is becoming a pioneer for women coming after her. For her honors capstone, she created a women in sports documentary interviewing six different co-workers employed in different departments whether in creative, photoshop, video, etc.

The traditional CMU Toilet Paper Toss was one of Fusco’s favorite games to work. During one, a last-second buzzer beater prompted everyone to storm the court to celebrate CMU’s win, making it a memorable experience.

“Toilet paper tosses are so magical when everyone throws their roll down into the core of the court and you just see the whole sea of white. There is so much energy in the stadium and it really impacts gameday,” Fusco said. “I was given these opportunities and I didn’t take it for granted like they were really special. There’s only one of me doing this job so I must do good and loved it. I was really happy to have found a purpose so early on in college too, just grateful I found my thing.”

“I really liked the IPR program and thought it was a really great opportunity,” said Fusco, who minored in multimedia design. “I didn’t really know what I wanted to do going into college so the fact it was an integrated program gave me some comfort because I was going to be taking classes from so many different disciplines to help me figure out what I like moving forward in my education.”