Today marks the one-year anniversary of FrontOfficeSports.org. Front Office Sports is a website that focuses on providing informational interviews with professionals of all levels across the sports business industry. A year ago, the website was founded by Adam White, who was a sophomore at the University of Miami at the time.
“Originally it was just my mom and I. I was handling everything on the site side from interviews to running the site and she was editing the articles for me. Without her, I don’t think the site would be where it is today because she really helped me make sure things were of the highest quality,” said White.
The idea for FOS came about after White began thinking about ways he could differentiate himself in the sports business industry. He had constantly heard from his professors and other thought leaders about how helpful websites and blogs can be. Additionally, he was thinking of ways to network with people in the industry and make something that helps other people within the sports industry as well.
“When I started Front Office Sports, I wanted it to be a resource that students could use to learn, but also use to get experience and connect with professionals. To watch that happen before my eyes has been pretty amazing,” continued White.
After a few months of running the site alone, Adam decided to look for some more contributors to help conduct the interviews and generate more content. One of the first to join the team was Russ Wilde, a then senior at the University of Miami.
“I honestly just posted about what I was doing in the UM Sports Administration Facebook group and Russ was one of the few people to get back to me,” said White.
Russ, who has now graduated from UM, is currently the President of Front Office Sports. After graduation, Russ was able to land a job with Thuzio in New York City.
“The site wouldn’t be where it is today without the incredible work of Russ Wilde, Jay Stein and Austin Weaver. Those three guys along with every single other one of our contributors and our outside supporters such as Chris Yandle, Alicia Jessop, Amie Kiehn and Max Strauss have played such an instrumental part in turning FOS into what it is today,” said White.
“The support of the sports industry along with the trust that all the professionals we have interviewed have given us, has allowed us to go from a one man team with at best 3 interviews a week to a 18 person team with content already programmed in everyday through the end of the month,” said White.
Students and young professionals looking to enter the sports industry are always asking for how they can break in or differentiate themselves. Most students would think about something like this, but never follow through with it. The story behind FOS is very similar to how our own Darren Heitner first got started with this very website. The work done by Adam, Russ, and the rest of the team is a great example of the importance in just going for it and being proactive about building your personal brand.
“This first year has been incredible to say the least and we can’t wait for what the next year will bring. We have some great things planned for the next 365 days. From Google Hangouts with professionals, hosting networking events, attending career conferences, a professional site redesign and to even starting a scholarship we want to continue to make FOS an industry leader. If the second year is anything like the first in terms of success, we will be just fine,” said White.
“I haven’t made a single penny off of FOS and frankly I’m okay with that because everything else it has done not only for me but for others is worth more than any financial gain,” said White.
Check out Front Office Sport’s website, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube pages.