Going for it; Eastburn's pursuits lead to Padres, Olympic Center practicums

   Harrison Eastburn has learned a number of things while majoring in sports and recreation management at the University of Iowa.

   One of the biggest is that in order to get exciting opportunities, you have to pursue them.

   As a result of these pursuits, Eastburn, 21, spent a summer working with the Burlington Bees independent minor league baseball team in 2021.

   This year, he landed even bigger roles: the chance to market projects for the San Diego Padres Major League Baseball team, and then went to Colorado Springs, Colo. to work and learn at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center.

   Last year’s Burlington internship came about as a result of a contact.

   “One of my advisors sent me a website with a bunch of internships around the area,” Eastburn explained. “I saw it and was interested, so I applied for it. I did an interview, and got it.”

   Eastburn worked with other Iowa students on stadium operations with the Bees.

   “They were the smallest team in the minor leagues, so they got cut down to an independent league,” he said. “I helped set up the stadium for game days, put up signs, did ticket sales and called local businesses.”

   During games, he also worked on field activities such as games of musical chairs or throwing rings on a unicorn.

   His favorite part, he said, was working with the players.

   “Halfway during the season we started doing fun interviews with the players, and then posting them on Instagram and Facebook, trying to build a better connection between the fans and the players,” Eastburn said.

   He pursued more opportunities this summer, after learning of practicums that were being offered through announcements at UI.

   He applied for both the San Diego Padres and U.S. Olympic spots, and wound up getting both.

   He and a group of students – Monticello’s Avery Martensen was among them – traveled to San Diego in early June.

   Not only did they work with the Padres, but they also worked with the San Diego Wave women’s soccer team, and soon-to-be-opened Snapdragon Stadium, which will house the Wave and the San Diego State football team.

   “The first week we were doing research and some assignments just to improve ourselves,” Eastburn said. “We did a lot of presenting, because we had to present our projects to the people that work there.”

   In the second week they broke up into smaller groups. Eastburn’s group, which included Martensen, was tasked with turning two- to four-game ticket buyers into 10-game ticket buyers.

   Eastburn picked up an idea from the Padres’ tradition of having a beer festival on Friday nights in the outfield concourse at the team’s Petco Park.

   “So I recommended selling a ticket package to all those Friday nights when there’s a festival,” he said.

   He said he improved his presentation skills, and spent time researching demographics.

   “That’s what we had to do to see what kind of people were buying tickets,” he said.

   They also got to attend a couple of Padres games while off duty. He was in San Diego for two weeks.

   After a week back in Iowa City, Eastburn and another group flew to Colorado and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center on June 26. There, they lived alongside many of the country’s elite athletes for a week.

   “The first day, we took a tour of the training center, and learned about strength and conditioning, and the medicine and science behind it,” Eastburn said.

   “We toured the archives, including torches of past Olympics, trophies, and miscellaneous stuff.”

   Much of his time was spent listening to speakers, many of whom were representing lesser-known Olympic sports.

   “They’re trying to bring more awareness to their sport, especially since in 2028 the Olympics are going to be in Los Angeles,” he said.

   Among the projects Eastburn worked on was recommending pricing for the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum, as well as how to improve the tours and bring in more revenue.

   They had time for fun as well.

   “Almost every day we had an activity where we played a paralympic sport,” he said. “So the first day we did sitting-down volleyball.”

   They toured the Air Force Academy, hiked in the mountains, and performed small projects.

   Among the things Eastburn said he picked up was “networking, connecting with people. Most of (the people working there) were younger people, so they’ve all been in our position, and they gave great advice on how to network with people.

   “It’s a small world in the sports industry. To get your name out there and leave a good impression is always super helpful.”

   Eastburn will be a senior at UI this fall. During his senior year, he hopes to pursue opportunities with Iowa athletic marketing.

   Of the three opportunities, Eastburn said he enjoyed San Diego the most.

   “It’s a completely different culture there, and I really enjoyed that,” he said. “I also really enjoyed doing the research.

   “But then again I really liked the Burlington one with the stadium operations. (After college) hopefully I’ll be looking for a stadium operations job with a football team, or a basketball team in arena operations.”