{"id":16823,"date":"2022-03-02T19:05:11","date_gmt":"2022-03-02T19:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/?p=16823"},"modified":"2022-03-02T19:05:11","modified_gmt":"2022-03-02T19:05:11","slug":"abigail-zalewski-and-the-gameday-ghosts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/?p=16823","title":{"rendered":"Abigail Zalewski and the gameday ghosts"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the Humber girls\u2019 basketball team triumphed two years ago in a buzzer-beater match against longtime rival Sheridan College, players and fans alike went wild. They weren\u2019t the only ones.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was insane. I forgot that I had to do my job and write down all the scores because I was just so caught up in the moment,\u201d recalls Abigail Zalewski. \u201cI\u2019ll remember it forever. The atmosphere in the gym was unmatched.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abigail \u2013 Abby, to friends and family \u2013 is what her boss at Humber Gameday Operations calls a \u201cghost.\u201d Working behind the scenes, Abigail and her colleagues strive to do their jobs without anyone knowing in order to let athletes and coaches focus. From erecting bleachers to recording stats, the ghosts are a key part of varsity sporting events.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0Abigail (left) and her coworkers in their gym day gear<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s more work that goes into game days and tournaments than you\u2019d think. It truly does take a village,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a while since fans packed the stands shoulder-to-shoulder like at the Sheridan game, but Abigail has continued to support local supporting communities throughout the course of the pandemic. Now in her final semester of the Public Relations stream in Guelph-Humber\u2019s Media and Communications Studies program, Abigail is balancing her work on the Emerge capstone project with her internship at Special Olympics Ontario.<\/p>\n

Her involvement with the organization first began years ago in her hometown of Sarnia through her brother Edward, who is developmentally delayed, when she saw firsthand how Special Olympics Ontario builds confidence and a sense of community among disabled athletes. Both parents are sports buffs who encouraged their kids early on to pursue athletics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey started putting him in activities organized by Special Olympics Ontario, and he just felt a lot more comfortable in that zone. He did house league sports through leagues in Sarnia, but he never really felt fully comfortable or like he fit in. Discovering Special Olympics was really amazing for him to get involved in. It just helped him feel more comfortable and more confident in himself,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

With her passion for writing and visual media, Abigail decided to attend the University of Guelph-Humber in order to explore related career paths. In addition to her work with Gameday Operations, Abigail also played on the Humber girls\u2019 extramural basketball team. Originally interested in pursuing journalism, her focus shifted after a guest lecturer in Prof. Heath Applebaum\u2019s first-year Introduction to Journalism and PR class delivered a talk that was perhaps not as inspirational as intended.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0Abigail playing for the Humber extramural girls’ basketball team<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cHe brought in a woman who was a journalist, and after what hearing what she had to say about the job outside of writing \u2013 the hours, the freelancing, the job security \u2013 I kind of realized \u2018Okay, this isn\u2019t for me,\u2019\u201d she laughs. \u201cThat\u2019s what made me choose PR, because I still get to write and create content which I love, but it\u2019s a bit more money and security.\u201d<\/p>\n

While she\u2019s enjoyed the periods of living in Toronto when classes are in, Sarnia will always be home for Abigail. \u201cI\u2019m a small town kind of girl,\u201d she says. \u201cI love being surrounded by water and nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Abigail\u2019s younger brother, the Sarnia sporting community is the source of many fond memories with his sister. Though not a rabid hockey fan herself, Abigail frequently buys hockey cards for her brother Edward, who is an avid collector.<\/p>\n

Talking about his favourite hockey cards, Edward mentions a valuable Tim Horton holo-card worth a hefty eBay price tag. Also memorable, though, is his collection of signed cards from the local Sarnia Legionnaires junior league hockey team. The players are perhaps not as high-profile as Canada\u2019s beloved corporate icon, but the cards are meaningful to him partly because they represent a fond memory with his sister.<\/p>\n

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Abigail’s brother Edward<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cDuring COVID there were no games on. Abby took me for lunch at Swiss Chalet one day, and there was a player sitting right behind us wearing a Legionnaires jacket. I knew his name was Tristan Conrad, and so Abby and I got to say hi,\u201d he recounts. \u201cIt was a really good memory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though she recognizes that the market for PR jobs in Sarnia is not the biggest, Abigail is optimistic and passionate about working within her community and using her skills to further the causes that are important to her. As with any aspiring media professional in 2022, adaptability is key.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have one specific job in mind. I\u2019m keeping it open: whatever opportunities come to me will come to me,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Abigail will be going back to work for Gameday Operations this semester \u2013 though you probably won\u2019t spot her unless you\u2019re looking closely.<\/p>\n

\u201cCollege sports have started up again so I\u2019m going to be back next week. I love that job. As a person who\u2019s grown up heavily involved in sports, it\u2019s like the ideal job. I get paid to watch sports: what could be better than that?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sarnia native Abigail Zalewski shares her experiences with Humber Gameday Operations, Special Olympics Ontario, and the Guelph-Humber sports community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":16824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[174,47,62],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16823"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}