Alex Bregman stands surrounded by the blinding lights of flashing cameras and dozens of inquiring reporters.
He tries to discreetly wipe his sweaty palms on his new LSU baseball pants while attempting to field a barrage of questions about his life. Just minutes earlier, LSU coach Paul Mainieri praised the new infielder’s talents and work ethic during his Media Day conference.
“[I’ve] never had to deal with so many [reporters],” Bregman said. “I’m a little nervous. It’s a little different. … I think it’s great, you definitely want the team to be covered in the media.”
It isn’t uncommon for young athletes to feel overwhelmed in their first interactions with the media.
Senior outfielder Raph Rhymes recalled the first time he stepped in front of the cameras as an LSU baseball player after transferring from LSU-Eunice as a sophomore.
“I went to Eunice and maybe did two or three interviews,” Rhymes said. “Then, out here, I don’t remember how many reporters were out here, but it was overwhelming. I learned real quick that I was probably not the best person to interview. I didn’t know how to speak to the media.”
Sophomore gymnast Rheagan Courville said she doesn’t necessarily get nervous, but instead gets tripped up with wanting to say too much — a reaction that’s compounded after an emotional contest.
“Right after you finish a meet you have all this energy and emotion and so much on your mind,” Courville said. “Especially after a big win, you’re just ready to say whatever comes to mind.”
With such a large athletic program comes a considerable amount of attention to the men and women who represent the purple and gold.
The LSU Athletic Department made more than $107 million in 2011, according to USA Today, which ranks it as the seventh largest in the country. The Tigers spent just less than $92 million on its 15 varsity teams – 11th nationally.
Each team is required to provide availability to players and coaches for the media each week, which is organized through the teams’ assigned sports information directors.
SIDs may best be known around the country as the people responsible for filling out many collegiate coaches’ ballots for national polls.
But in reality, program SIDs act as media liaisons for coaches and players.
Bill Franques is the LSU baseball SID, and he is responsible for coordinating player requests, writing news releases, keeping statistics and now handling his modern-day responsibility of managing team social media.
“Essentially, my responsibility is covering all the areas in which LSU baseball receives any kind of exposure or publicity,” Franques said. “If there’s a particular question that I know a player might not be comfortable with, I might just alert him a little bit so that he’ll be prepared for that type of question.”
Senior first baseman Mason Katz said if team members get a question they aren’t comfortable with, they’ve been trained to deflect the question back to Mainieri or a topic they’re comfortable with.
“I was once given advice by the great Tommy Lasorda, ‘Never pick a fight with people who buy their ink by the gallon,’” Mainieri said. “I’ve never made anybody on my team not accessible to the media. What I have done is coach them on what is appropriate and what isn’t appropriate.”
After 30 years of coaching, Mainieri said talking to the media as part of the job.
He said he always aspired to work at a school where the community cared about its program, and that couldn’t happen if the media didn’t cover the team.
“It’s awesome that people care about our program enough to want to interview us and want to talk to us,” said senior softball pitcher Rachele Fico. “You watch all these big players when you’re a little girl, and you want to be like them; they’re your role models. Being in that position now, it’s a really cool thing.”
In 2009, to compete with the growing demand for player interviews, the Academic Center for Student-Athletes and LSU Athletics Sports Information Office created a media training program for student-athletes.
Shirley White is one of the outside professionals — along with Tommy Karam — who holds seminars for teams such as gymnastics, volleyball and men’s and women’s basketball on how to better communicate with the media. Karam works with some of LSU’s other programs doing the same thing.
“The purpose is to create an awareness of how important it is to know the way you interview really impacts your brand,” White said. “If you’re interviewed a lot, nine times out of 10, you know what the reporter is going to ask you. So be prepared to really make a good impression because you may be in a position where millions of people are watching you.”
During the seminars, players are asked practice interview questions while being videotaped. The tape is then reviewed and critiqued by one of the instructors and the team.
“Saying the filler words [is the biggest problem],” White said. “The umms, the uhhs, I think, I mean. … [After watching the tape] one of the golfers said that he had no idea he was rocking back and forth. It’s those little idiosyncrasies when you’re nervous that you have but you aren’t aware of.”
