Jan. 28, 2009
Written by Laina Balafas, South Carolina Media Relations Student Worker
While most college students spent their summer with their friends, taking trips to the beach, University of South Carolina softball player Jacqueline Wetherbee spent her time interning with one of ESPN’s traveling broadcast units. Instead of visiting friends, Wetherbee traveled the NASCAR circuit, going to almost every race during the summer and went back for some of the final races of the Sprint Cup Chase.
“My brother works for ESPN NASCAR, and someone he works with called me at the beginning of the summer and said they needed someone to work as a runner during the race in Darlington, S.C.” As a runner, Wetherbee spent weekends being a “personal assistant” to the production crew, running errands and doing whatever they needed. One thing that Wetherbee noted as the highlight of her internship was getting to drive around the NASCAR drivers. For someone who was not a fan of NASCAR and didn’t really know anything about it before this summer, most of the time she didn’t realize who she was driving around until afterwards when a member of the crew quizzed her.
“I think having no knowledge of some of the people was better for me in the long run, because I’m sure I would have freaked out and been star-struck had I actually known who I was talking to while driving.”
After really enjoying what she did that weekend, she was hired to travel with the crew to other races throughout the summer. Luckily for Wetherbee, her school schedule allowed her to continue her internship once classes started in August. She had the chance to travel to Charlotte, Atlanta, Fontana, Calif., and Miami during the Chase for the Sprint Cup races.
“I won’t be able to work at the Daytona 500 in February since softball season will have started, but we’re actually playing at UCF that weekend,” said Wetherbee. “So hopefully some of the crew will get a chance to come see me play.”
The crew, “a huge family” as Wetherbee refers to it, consists of a director, producers, on-air talent, pit reporters, a lead runner and several other runners. Working with a new group of people all summer served as good training for coming back to the softball team, which consists of 10 new faces, including nine freshmen.
As one of three seniors, Wetherbee knows she’ll have an important leadership role on the team this season. Since coming together is how teams succeed, Wetherbee can already see a closeness growing within the team. The younger players are looking to the seniors to guide them during the year.
“I’m really excited for the season. I can already tell that talent-wise, our team this year is the best it’s been in the four years that I’ve been here,” said Wetherbee. “I don’t think people will expect that much from us, but I do think we’re going to have a really good year.”
After making it to the Super Regionals two years ago, Wetherbee has high hopes for the team this season. An appearance in the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City would be a perfect way to end her senior season.
“I really want to go out with a bang.”
